Musiikki on maamme pisimpään yhtäjaksoisesti ilmestynyt musiikintutkimuksen alan vertaisarvioitu tieteellinen aikakauslehti. Lehden artikkelit edustavat suomalaista musiikintutkimusta – sen teoriaa, metodologiaa ja tutkimuskohteita – koko laajuudessaan. Musiikki-lehteä julkaisee Suomen musiikkitieteellinen seura.
Lectio praecursoria: Not only rock ‘n’ roll
Tämä lectio praecursoria käsittelee venäjänkieliseltä kulttuurialueelta tulevan rockmusiikin yhdysvaltalaista vastaanottoa tarkastelevan väitöskirjani avain­teemoja. Väitöskirjani osoittaa, kuinka musiikin ja muusikoiden vastaanotto on vuosikymmenten kuluessa usein perustunut musiikin sijaan Neuvostoliittoon ja Venäjään kohdistuviin poliittisiin odotuksiin ja stereotypioihin. Näistä muodostuvaa kokonaisuutta kuvaan kuvitteellisen idän käsitteellä. Tarkoitan termillä näkökulmaa, jossa elämä ”idässä” näyttäytyy jatkuvana taisteluna sortavien eliittien ja länsimielisten toisinajattelijoiden välillä. Kuvitteellinen itä on vaikuttanut siihen, että rockmuusikot on nähty valtiota vastustavina kapinallisina, joiden tehtävä yhdysvaltalaisessa keskustelussa on symboloida Neuvostoliiton ja sittemmin Venäjän toivottua muutosta kohti demokratiaa. Todellisuudessa muusikoiden suhde politiikkaan ja politiikkoihin on moniulotteisempi ja yhdys­valtalainen media onkin tarjonnut varsin rajoitetun kuvan alueen rockkulttuurin poliittisesta merkityksestä. Rockmusiikin ja sen tekijöiden vastaanoton ­analysointi antaa avaimia ymmärtämää laajempaa yhteiskunnallista keskustelua, jossa venäjänkieliseltä kulttuurialueelta tulevaa kulttuuria tekijöineen käsitellään usein poliittisten kehysten kautta. Usein julkisessa keskustelussa huomio on todellisuuden sijaan Venäjää koskevissa toiveissa ja odotuksissa.
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Milloin Yleisradion äänilevystö jää veden alle?
Tuvalu on Tyynellä valtamerellä sijaitseva pieni saarivaltio, jonka ennustetaan jäävän kokonaan veden pinnan alle meren pinnan nousun seurauksena. Tuvalun asukkaista tulee ilmastopakolaisia. Ongelmaan on kuitenkin löydetty ratkaisu. Australia on luvannut antaa tuvalulaisille uuden kodin. Kolmasosa saarten asukkaista on jo hakenut viisumia Australiaan (Knuuti 2025).
”Kukapa uskoisi, että tässä pienessä ja hauraassa naisessa on niin paljon voimaa”
In this article, I examine how gendered and racialized bodies are ­represented in the music press of the Helsinki metropolitan area in 1938. The research material consists of digitized press writings from Helsingin Sanomat, Uusi Suomi, and Hufvudstadsbladet. The selected twenty newspaper articles and concert reviews focus primarily on women musicians. These writings are characterized by a strong emphasis on gendered and racialized representations and descriptions of bodies. I approach the material through the phenomenon of staring (Garland-Thomson 2009), exploring the dynamics of curiosity and the gaze that produces strangeness in situations where the body appears as deviant or difficult to comprehend. Additionally, I analyse the listening experience as part of the meaning-making process in which the meanings attributed to sound emerge at the intersections of social norms and power relations (Eidsheim 2011; 2019; Thurman 2021). The aim of the article is to investigate how gendered and racialized representations constructed in press writings influence the perception of classical music history, in other words, what kinds of bodies and agencies are depicted as part of the musical continuum. I demonstrate how staring and white normativity shape the ways in which the bodies of women musicians are encountered and made meaningful. Sociocultural norms not only guide the representation of bodies but are also closely connected to the affective reactions, such as excitement, pleasure, and confusion, evoked by performances or performers. Depending on sociocultural norms and affective responses, the actions of women musicians were positioned in various ways in relation to the historical narrative of music.
In this article I analyse the relationship between music and text in Carita Holmström’s song cycle Dagen svalnar – fyra sånger till dikter av Edith ­Södergran (1977). The analysis is based on my experiences of performing and rehearsing the song cycle as a pianist together with two singers, Milla Mäkinen and Marika Kivinen, over several years, and it focuses on our interpretations of the songs and the dialogical relationships between us, the music, and the song texts. To delve into these dialogues I use a combination of performer’s analysis, dialogic analysis (Moisala 2001), and descriptive analysis (Guck 1994). With these tools I examine the relationship between music and text in the Dagen svalnar ­cycle from four different perspectives: (1) the music supports the text, (2) the music contradicts the text, (3) the music brings a new viewpoint to the text, and (4) how the order of the texts, changed by the composer, affects the interpretation of the cycle. I argue that descriptive analysis is a useful tool in writing out performers’ experiences, which can be difficult to access through more formal methods of analysis. My article makes the performers’ intuitive knowledge visible and describes the collective interpretative process. The dialogical analysis brings to light how our interpretations and the text-music relationship align: In the songs “Jag såg min herre” and “Dagen svalnar”, where the music supports the text, our interpretations are very similar, whereas in “Du kastade din kärleksröda ros”, where the music seems to contradict the text, also our views differ the most, from flirtation to possible rape. One of my goals in this article was to refer as much as possible to research done by women, which proved most difficult in the fields of Finnish music history and song analysis.
Valitsemillamme sanoilla ja kielellisillä ilmaisuilla on merkittävä toimintaa ja ajattelua ohjaava vaikutus. Valintamme voivat olla tietoisia tai tiedostamattomia, tarkoituksellisia tai ajattelemattomia, huolellisia tai huolimattomia. Kielenkäyttäjinä olemme myös vallankäyttäjiä, koska nämä valinnat rakentavat ymmärrystä meitä ympäröivästä todellisuudesta. Vaikka edellä mainittu saattaakin olla itsestään selvää ja jopa kliseistä, se on hyvä muistutus aikana, jolloin juuri käsitteiden määrittelyllä ja jopa yksittäisten sanojen merkityksillä on ratkaiseva vaikutus esimerkiksi taiteen tutkimuksen ja sitä myöten myös musiikkitieteen ja musiikintutkimuksen tilaan ja tulevaisuuteen.
Lectio praecursoria: Classical music, misconduct, and gender
Tämä lectio praecursoria pohjustaa feministisen musiikkitieteen alaan kuuluvaa artikkelimuotoista väitöstutkimusta, joka käsittelee sukupuolittunutta epätasa-arvoa, valkoisuutta, sukupuolittunutta ja seksuaalista epäasianmukaista käytöstä ja henkistä väkivaltaa klassisen musiikin kulttuurissa Suomessa. Tutkimuksessa osoitan, että sukupuolten epätasa-arvo ja valkoisuus ovat syvällä klassisen musiikin kentässä, ja ne ilmenevät koulutuksessa, työelämässä, verkostoissa, normeissa, representaatioissa, esityskäytäntöjen ihanteissa ja ohjelmistossa sekä materiaalisissa olosuhteissa (mm. soittimet, tilat, keholliset asennot ja äänet). Esitän myös, että klassisen musiikin sosiaaliset normit, vallitsevat mielikuvastot ja genrerajat luovat vahingollisia uskomuksia ja arvoja. Erinomaisuuden ihannoinnilla ja muilla haitallisilla uskomuksilla ei ainoastaan mahdollisteta vaan saatetaan jopa oikeuttaa opettajien henkisesti väkivaltaista käytöstä. Sukupuolittunut ja seksuaalinen epäasianmukainen käytös sekä henkinen väkivalta eivät ole yksittäistapauksia vaan seurausta sosiaalisten mielikuvastojen, normien, arvojen, hierarkioiden ja käytäntöjen muodostamasta verkostosta. Tutkimustuloksiini perustuen esitän väitöskirjassani myös korjaavia toimia sukupuolittuneen ja seksuaalisen epäasianmukaisen käytöksen sekä henkisen väkivallan ehkäisemiseksi. Keskeisin tapa ehkäistä väärinkäytöksiä ja epätasa-arvoa tulevaisuudessa on monipuolistaa klassisen musiikin ihanteita ja normeja ja laajentaa käsitystä siitä, millaista musiikin tekemistä arvostetaan.
Metritön rytmi, rihmastollisuus ja ennustettavuus – esimerkkinä Musen Stockholm Syndrome
Metreless rhythm – rhizomeness and predictability in Muse’s Stockholm Syndrome This article delves into the field of previously little explored questions about metreless rhythm in music. Here metre is defined broadly in contrast to preexisting literature as the predictability of musical patterns of duration, or in other words rhythm, and metrical thought as the process of creating predictive models about rhythm. Metreless rhythm is further defined by applying the rhizomatic theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to the concept, as well as surveying it through the lenses of Deleuzes virtuality and the Predictive Processing framework. Metreless rhythm is found to be possible if the virtuality of the question “how does this instant and the one after it relate to the collected sensory data” is actualized instead of the virtual question “what kind of durational pattern does music have in the future based on the evidence provided by sensory information?”. Metreless rhythm perception can be understood as following the rules of a simplified version of predictive coding, but not the whole of Predictive Processing framework, crucially not implementing the Bayesian theorem. Based on this theoretical study the article suggests a model for analyzing metreless rhythm in music, which condenses temporal relation to a simple ratio value. A note is given a value of “*” if its the first in a rhythmic group, “+” if its longer than the previous note and “-” if its shorter. If the notes are of equal lenght, the ratio value is “=”. The ratio can also be expressed as the amount of percentual change of duration, and these changes within a rhythmic group can be presented graphically. This model is shown in practise through the metreless analysis of the alternative rock group Muse’s song Stockholm Syndrome. The analysis shows a non-metrical layer that excists simultaneously to the dominant metrical grid that at first seems prevalent.
Jean Sibeliuksen Har du mod? -teoksen sävellys- ja julkaisuprosessi lähteitten valossa
Jean Sibelius’s work ”Har du mod?” (Op. 31 No. 2) has survived in several versions. In previous literature, there have been multiple differing interpretations regarding the number of versions, their dating, and their chronological order. The purpose of this article is to (1) date the versions based on surviving biographical material (especially correspondence and diary) and (2) analyze the unspoken assumptions underlying the earlier datings. A systematic review of the biographical and musical sources has succeeded in clarifying several ambiguities and contradictions found in earlier literature. The most significant finding is the identification of a previously unknown and currently lost third version.
Opinnäytteet osoittavat, että musiikki ja musiikin tutkimus kiinnostavat laajasti
Suomen musiikkitieteellinen seura koosti ja julkaisi maaliskuun lopulla listauksen vuoden 2024 suomalaisten yliopistojen musiikkia käsittelevistä opinnäytetöistä. Listaus maalaa kiinnostavan kokonaiskuvan siitä, mikä vastavalmistuneita maistereita ja tohtoreita kiinnostaa. Silmiinpistävää on, miten ilmiselvän houkutteleva tutkimuskohde musiikki on myös musiikkitieteen ulkopuolella. Esimerkiksi listan kaikkiaan 134 maisterintutkielmasta noin 40 prosenttia on tehty muualla kuin musiikkitieteessä, musiikkikasvatuksessa tai Sibelius-Akatemian koulutusohjelmissa.
Lectio praecursoria: Captivating Film Sounds
Aika-ajoin mediassa ja yleisessä keskustelussa nousee esille lasten lukutaidon heikkeneminen ja se, kuinka he viettävät liikaa aikaa päätteiden ja kuvaruutujen ääressä. Mutta sanoisin, että mitä aikuiset tekevät edellä, sitä lapset perässä. Suhteemme tekstiin on muuttunut vuosisatojen aikana ja varsinkin viimeisen sadan vuoden aikana. Siinä missä lukutaito ja kirjat olivat harvojen saavutettavissa ennen kirjapainon keksimistä, ovat kaikenlaiset tekstit nykyään yleisesti ulottuvilla ja saavutettavissa joka puolella – jopa puhelimen lukusovelluksilla ilman itse lukutaitoa. Samalla pinsettiotteemme kynästä on höllentynyt, ja harva enää jaksaa kirjoittaa käsin kuin ehkä kauppalapun, jos sitäkään. Kun fyysisistä kirjoista vielä muutama vuosikymmen sitten odotettiin elokuvaversiota, nykyään ne ilmestyvät erilaisissa muodoissa sähköisistä kirjoista äänikirjoihin. Ja kuinka ollakaan tähän yhtälöön on tulossa mukaan uusi sisällöntuottaja: tekoäly.
”Rauhanomainen, aina täysin epäpoliittinen työmme.”
”Our peaceful, always completely apolitical work.” Strategies of self-denazification in the correspondence between composer Yrjö Kilpinen and baritone Gerhard Hüsch in 1946–1959 This article examines the relationship of composer Yrjö Kilpinen to National Socialist politics and ideology in the years after the Second World War. The issue has not been studied before. Kilpinen was active musician in Hitler’s Germany, and his most important collaborator was baritone Gerhard Hüsch. The research material consists of correspondence between Kilpinen and Hüsch from 1946 to 1959, and the analyses are supported by newspaper and magazine material and previous literature. This article 1) identifies seven discursive strategies of self-denazification common to musicians, and 2) explores the discursive strategies Kilpinen and Hüsch used to deal with their relationship with National Socialism after the war. Emphasizing the inherent apolitical nature of music, distorting facts, avoidance of responsibility, and emphasis on one’s own good deeds are examples of strategies of selfdenatzification contained in the correspondence. For both musicians, the post-war correspondence was an integral part of personal post-war identity construction as well as controlling of the past. Kilpinen was appointed Academic, and Hüsch continued to perform KIlpinen’s songs. Neither dealt with the past with regret.
Buddhalaisuus Juha T. Koskisen teoksessa Dream Transmission (2019)
Buddhism in Juha T. Koskinen’s Dream Transmission (2019): performer and audience perceptions in Finnish and Japanese contexts Composer Juha T. Koskinen’s (b. 1972) composition Dream Transmission for solo clarinet and electronics was premiered at the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in 2019 by clarinetist Lauri Sallinen, who commissioned the work. The composition, representing Western and Finnish classical concert music tradition, draws a strong influence from Japanese Buddhism, like the shōmyō (Buddhist chanting) and includes reciting mantras as well as physical gestures, such as sitting in a kneeling position (seiza) and hand signs (mudra). Besides the Japanese influence, it also uses other culturally and geographically marked source material, such as a German lullaby and sounds of the Finnish sauna. In this article, I combine cultural music analysis, close reading, and performance studies to examine the piece from the perspective of a performing musician, critical music analyst, and researcher of East Asian cultures, in order to draw attention to cultural sensitivity in music. The main research question is: How are the cultural traits of Japanese Buddhism represented in Dream Transmission, and what kinds of problems do these cross-cultural representations create from the perspective of cultural sensitivity and the social responsibility of the performer? I performed Dream Transmission in five concerts during 2023 and 2024 in Finland and Japan. In connection with these performances, the audiences’ reactions were investigated using a semi-structured questionnaire. I examined how Finnish and Japanese audiences received the performances, how they perceived the cultural connotations of the work, and how the composer’s aims were transmitted to the listeners. The composer’s perspective and background of the work were explored through interviews. I reflect on how much a non-Buddhist performer should familiarize themselves with the Buddhist content before performing the work, how much information of cultural contextualization should be given to the audience, and in which way, in a concert situation. By analyzing the complexity of the cultural layers of all the elements used in the work, as well as the audience reception, I argue that culturally connected materials should be communicated more openly to the audience. Source references in the score with cultural contextualization could benefit the performer to produce a more culturally informed performance, as Western classical music tradition often draws inspiration from non-European cultures.
Yksi päätoimittajistamme, Inka, osallistui talven aikana Tiedekustantajien liiton järjestämälle Tiedekustantamisen perusteet -kurssille. Kolmen viikonlopun mittaisen kurssin aikana pohdittiin muun muassa toimittamisen työprosessia ja aikataulua, taloudellisia ja tiedepolitiikan asettamia ehtoja tiedekustantamiselle, tekijänoikeuksia, tieteen etiikkaa, sekä vertaisarvioinnin roolia laadunvarmistuksessa. Yksi kurssilla saatuja oivalluksia oli, että tiedelehdet laadunvarmistavat ja pitävät osaltaan julkaisutoiminnalla tiedemaailmaa pystyssä. Ilman tiedelehtiä tutkijat eivät pätevöidy ja meritoidu, eivätkä artikkelimuotoiset väitöskirjat valmistu, tai ainakin tieteellisen tiedon julkaisu hidastuisi merkittävästi, jos julkaiseminen tapahtuisi ainoastaan kokoomateoksissa.
Väitöstilaisuuden aluksi kuunneltiin Christina Rosenvingen ”Canción del eco” -kappaletta. Äskeinen kuunneltu laulunalku on espanjalaisen laulaja-lauluntekijä Christina Rosenvingen vuonna 2011 julkaisema ”Canción del eco” -kappale, joka suomeksi kääntyy ekhon lauluksi tai oikeastaan, kaiun lauluksi. Sen tarina pohjautuu roomalaisen runoilija Ovidiuksen Muodonmuutoksia -teoksesta löytyvään kertomukseen nimeltä ”Narkissos ja Ekho”. Tarinassa kaunis Narkissos ei välitä muista ja rakastuu veden pinnasta heijastuvaan omaan peilikuvaansa siinä määrin, että lopulta nääntyy ja kuolee sitä katsellessaan. Hänen ruumiinsa maatuu ja tilalle versoaa narsissikukka. Narkissos hahmona ja hänen hahmostaan juontuva käsite narsismi ovat varsin tunnettuja aiheita länsimaisessa kulttuurissa, mutta kuka olikaan Ekho, ja mikä hänen merkityksensä on kulttuurisissa kertomuksissa ja muistissa?
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In the recent neoliberal politico-theoretical discourses, listening has become a buzzword alongside “relational,” “care,” and “togetherness.” Simultaneously, critical day-to-day practicing of these notions remains in urgent demand, specifically directed at those social groups that live in structural privilege which entitles them to shield themselves from all the intersectionally vulnerable, screaming, perpetually and violently silenced voices. In this context, (non-aural) listening principles might (still) need to be attended to. Relatedly, the following offering is a found poem that looks for some of these principles in the feminist new materialist and musicological work of Taru Leppänen, who has been striving to listen better, to listen well.
Musiikissa vastakarva on yllättävä dissonanssi, ei jätä rauhaan Uudistaa Samalla herättävä, kuulee syvemmälle Ilahduttaa Ihastuttaa Kekseliäisyydellään löytää Itsestäänselvyyksien tuolle puolen Näkyihin, jotka eivät miellytä kaikkia
Keinuntaa – tasapainoilua tekemisen ja kritiikin välillä
Kaksi ruskeaa tyttöä ystävystyy kirkon tanssikurssilla, mutta vain toisella heistä on lahjoja. Toinen lapsista taas on merkillisen viehtynyt vanhojen elokuvien musiikkiin ja steppauskohtauksiin, joita valkoihoiset filmitähdet usein tähdittävät.
Peikkous, erilaisuus ja tavallisuus – Käärijä sukupuolen uudelleenkuvittelijana
Being a Goblin, Different and Ordinary – Käärijä Re-imagining Gender and Sexuality The Finnish artist Käärijä (Jere Pöyhönen) achieved remarkable national and international success through the Eurovision Song Contest in 2023. The official Eurovision Jury placed Käärijä right after the winner, Sweden’s Loreen, and he won the popular vote. His performance Cha Cha Cha was also awarded with the prestigious MTV Music Europe Award, but most interestingly his discernable outfit and choreography were emulated countless times in schools and workplaces, and versions of the tune were performed both by amateurs and professional artists, in Finland and abroad. This essay scrutinizes the Käärijä phenomenon, or movement, in the context of queer theory, critical masculinity studies, and even posthumanities. The interpretation of the Eurovision performance and its media reception presents Käärijä as a goblin-like figure, who manages to embody masculinity and femininity, clumsy ordinariness and queer weirdness in a cartoonish way. It is maintained that Käärijä’s transgressive representation of gender also challenges the heteronormative, monolithic understanding of what it means to be a Finnish man. In their performance, Käärijä and his Eurovision team also momentarily morphed into another, fantastic species, or slipped in between species, in a way that can be described post human.
Kohti ihmisenjälkeistä musiikintutkimusta
Towards posthuman music scholarship: Reflections inspired by Inughuit music of Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) This article argues, in the spirit of pluriversalism, for parallel statuses of Indigenous onto-epistemology and western humanistic research in the academy. Posthumanist theorization has often drawn on indigenous knowledge without proper reference to it. We consider this to be knowledge colonization. The reciprocal relationship between Earth, human, nature and the nonhuman has lived in Indigenous ways of life and thought for millennia. To inform solutions to the intensifying ecological crisis, posthumanism now seeks to develop a resonant “posthuman” epistemology. We demonstrate the discrepancy between western human-centred and Indigenous musical ways of thinking and being by juxtaposing approaches to Inughuit music by Danish eskimologist and music researcher Michael Hauser, and Inughuit drumsinger Hivshu. Hivshu’s conceptualization of music is closer to a posthumanism that takes distance from representational theory. The discussion is contextualized in Indigeneity, the Inughuit philosophical tradition and in disciplinary developments of music research.
New Materialisms and the Study of the Arts: Toward a Map of Co-Emergence In this article, we propose that the very formation of new materialisms as a concept and range of research practices has partly occurred with(in) the study of arts. In some significant ways, then, which warrant further attention, studies of art and new materialisms have taken shape and acquired particular directions through their mutually constitutive, intra-active, relationship ever since the late 1990s and early 2000s. Our main aim is to offer new insights into these intra-active relations by analyzing examples from the work of several scholars across music and sound studies, art history, visual culture studies, and artistic research. Thus, we explore how understandings of human and more-than-human matter as active, productive, and thereby mattering, have emerged in specific ways in the practices and study of the arts. Based on a qualitative mapping of research topics and concepts that were addressed and developed in a working group consisting of artists and researchers of the EU-funded networking action New Materialism (2014–2018), we focus on three themes which encapsulate some key aspects of the intra-actions of new materialisms and (the study of) art. These themes are “work of art”, “co-creations”, and “aesthetic activisms”.
Äänellisen toiminnan sosioteknisyydestä 2020-luvun arjessa
Sociotechnical nature of sonic activity in everyday life in the 2020s The study of human beings and their music has been the starting point of ethnomusicological research. The current study, too, is based on an ethnographic approach, which provides a rich framework for analysis. However, in the age of streaming, talking and listening technologies and artificial intelligence in the 2020s, sound culture has gained an even greater importance which exceeds the conventional ways of understanding the production and consumption of music. Consequently, the key question is what kind of concepts and approaches could contribute to the examination of sonic culture today. In this article, I explore how the ontology of sound can be examined anew by applying the concept of assemblage, drawing from the new materialist approaches. I emphasize research perspectives used in the field of media theory, particularly in visual studies. These approaches partly overlap with the new materialist research in music studies, while also stressing the societal aspects characteristic of ethnomusicology. I propose that the concept of socio-technical systems could serve as a bridge between music studies and the examination of contemporary sonic infrastructure. I argue that this kind of research is essential during times marked by societal, social, and ecological brokenness.
Background Music, Urban Soundscapes, and Small Listening This article examines the experiences of background music in urban spaces from the perspective of aural diversity. We study the experiences of individuals whose temporal or permanent auditory capacities, sensory experiences, or interpretations of soundscapes differ from prevailing socio-cultural norms of listening. Our approach draws on Marja-Liisa Honkasalo’s concept of small agency, which, in our study, highlights the small listening strategies individuals employ to navigate challenging sound environments. The data consists of sound diaries and interviews, analyzed through a transactional lens. The findings reveal that listeners’ agency is dynamic and situational, and that unmanaged elements of background music can either constrain their agency or foster creative responses. We argue that these aurally diverse experiences and their small listening strategies provide valuable insights into our listening cultures and challenge the auditory design of urban spaces to better accommodate aural diversity.
Förändrade medialiseringar av barnmusik och etnicitet
In the article, the role of children’s music in a changing cultural and media environment is studied by focusing on Arne Alligator & Djungeltrumman (Arnie Alligator and The Jungle Drum). The band (or project) started with very popular children’s live shows and CD releases among the Swedish-speaking minority of Finland (the so-called “Finland-Swedes”) but moved gradually into video production for also Finnish and international audiences. Today, its videos have had altogether more than 300 million views. Children’s music holds a special place in upholding an ethnicity. It plays a role as part of the culture that is expected to be transmitted to the next generation for the whole ethnicity to live on. For minorities that are primarily constructed around a linguistic belonging, as the Swedish-speaking population of Finland, it is also a central, concrete upholder of a language. However, for the children’s music to survive, be meaningful, and live on in a changing world, it must renew itself and adapt new transmission techniques and norms to reach out to the next generation. This involves the challenge of negotiating ideas of tradition, education, ethnicity, and creativity. Based on the case study, it is possible to say that the technological changes have offered new possibilities for both producers and consumers of children’s music in a minority framework. However, the realization of this potential and the evaluation of the outcome depends on many contextual factors.
Eroja purkamassa ja muutosta rakentamassa
Musiikin erikoisnumero 4/2024 juhlistaa tänä vuonna 60 vuotta täyttäneen Taru Leppäsen laaja-alaista ja tärkeää työtä musiikintutkimuksessa sekä sitä leikkaavilla aloilla sukupuolentutkimuksesta kulttuurintutkimukseen, jälkikoloniaalisesta teoriasta uusmaterialismeihin. Numeron teema “Musiikki, erot ja muutos” pyrkii tiivistämään jotain olennaista niistä painotuksista ja pyrinnöistä, jotka luonnehtivat Tarun nyt 30-vuotista toimintaa tutkijana, opettajana ja esimerkiksi Musiikki-lehden päätoimittajana 2000-luvulla, huolimatta hänen tutkimusaiheidensa ja harjoittamiensa lähestymistapojen monipuolisuudesta. Seuraavaksi avaamme sitä, mihin Tarun työn piirteisiin erikoisnumeron otsikko viittaa.
Conrad Baden och hans polyfoniska kammarmusik
Från sitt första opus 1930, en passacaglia för orgel, till sina sista kompositioner i slutet av 1980-talet var den klassiska fyrstämmiga polyfonikonst­en grundstenen för den norske tonsättaren Conrad Baden (1908–1989). Hans orkesterverk, kyrkomusik och kammarmusik, totalt 146 opus, bygger på tematisk bearbetning och var, enligt Baden själv, ”väsensskilda från den experimentella avantgardismen”. Neoklassiska verk står i centrum för hans opuslista, men han började som romantiker och slutade som expressionist. På så sätt är han representativ för de skiftande strömningarna i musiklivet under en stor del av 1900-talet.
I Kalevi Ahos kammarmusikaliska produktion står kvintetten och blåsarna i centrum
Kalevi Aho är en orkesterns man. Av hans till dags dato 206 verk – smärre tillfällighetsstycken av privat natur, orkestreringar, färdigställanden av ofullbordade kompositioner samt solokadenser icke medräknade – är inte mindre än 82 skrivna för orkester, på en skala från fullstor symfoniorkester till kammar- och stråkorkester (18 symfonier, tre kammarsymfonier, 41 konserter samt 20 övriga orkesterverk). Härtill kommer fem operor samt tre vokalverk med orkesterbeledsagning.
Nordic Influences in Violin Sonatas by Edvard Grieg, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Jean Sibelius, and Christian Sinding
Denna artikel utforskar hur musikaliska element som associerats med Norden framträder i violinsonater av Edvard Grieg, Wilhelm Stenhammar, Jean Sibelius och Christian Sinding. Nordisk musik under det långa 1800-talet präglades av en balansgång mellan två historiska trender. Å ena sidan var den nordiska klassiska musiken starkt bunden till en centraleuropeisk tradition, men å andra sidan var det de lokala, regionala, folkloristiska eller de från en centraleuropeisk förebild avvikande inslagen som kraftigast kom att förknippas med just det nordiska. Artikeln visar hur dessa element framträder i de analyserade violinsonaterna. Samtidigt argumenterar jag för värdet av ett nordiskt perspektiv, till skillnad från ett rent nationellt eller internationellt. Artikeln kombinerar traditionell musikvetenskaplig forskning med praktikbaserade metoder och utgår från mitt eget konstnärliga arbete, som har styrt mina forskningsfrågor.
Klassisia muotoja persoonallisin kääntein: Erik Tulindbergin jousikvartetot op. 1 ja op. 2
This article concerns the String Quartets of Erik Tulindberg (1761–1814), who was the first known Finnish composer. Tulindberg was musically active primarily in the late 1770s and early 1780s, when he was studying at the Royal Academy of Turku (Kunglika Akademien i Åbo). He was respected as a skilful violinist and a chamber musician, playing in the Academy’s orchestra on ceremonial occasions and giving public concerts. Tulindberg’s compositional oeuvre comprises two Violin Concertos, six String Quartets and a few works for solo violin. The corpus of Tulindberg’s String Quartets is approached from two perspectives, namely conventional strategies of the Classical style on one hand, and Tulindberg’s recurrent choices as attributes of his personal musical language on the other. Widely used analytical tools are applied in studying the corpus, and the Quartets are compared with certain works that originate in the same period and reside in Tulindberg’s archive. The theoretical framework includes writings that focus specifically on describing the compositional strategies used in Classical and Pre-Classical music, the authors including James Hepokoski and Warren Darcy, Graham Hunt, William Caplin, Poundie Burstein and Danuta Mirka, among others. The discussion covers 1) the overall structure, the key design and cadences in the opening movements, all of which are in sonata form; 2) the essential harmonic traits; and 3) surface characteristics and expressive means such as topics, melodic figuration and instrumental writing. The analysis reveals that Tulindberg adopted the commonly used strategies and main expressive means of the Classical style. The attributes of his musical language include traits such as the constant use of extended modal mixture, enthusiasm for a varied rondo-form and frequent violoncello solos in the upper register. Although the String Quartets are conventional in structure, each one is individual in its construction. The stylistic correspondence between the works and those of composers such as Joseph Haydn, Luigi Boccherini and Ignace Pleyel, shows his thorough understanding of the music written by his contemporaries.
”Un compositeur d’un grand mêrite” i Paris – Laura Netzel och hennes kammarmusik vid ingången till kvinnornas århundrade
An interest in women in Nordic music history and a fascination with Laura Netzel's (1839–1927) chamber music characterises this article. In addition to focusing on works, reception, and context, the article examines the question of what role did gender play in the reception of Netzel's and her women colleagues' chamber music? How is the reviewers' understandings of gender and originality intertwined into their texts in daily newspapers and music magazines? And finally: Do possibilities for a transformation towards a more equal chamber music repertoire and more equal music history books exist? Despite Anna Rogstad's (1854–1938) predictions that the 20th century would become "the women's century," the concert scene, and the chamber music environment in particular, was characterized by gender-related prejudices. Still, Laura Netzel received recognition for her great originality and captivating musicality when she stayed in Paris at the turn of the century. In contrast to her male Nordic colleagues, she received glowing reviews where the works are described as bold and permeated with a Nordic tone. The article focuses on two chamber music works from one of her stays in Paris: Cello Sonata, opus 66 and Piano Trio in D minor, opus 78. In the Sonata for Cello and Piano, we encounter a very expressive and mature, but also bold, forward rushing and adventurous Netzel. The style is late Romantic, but also clearly influenced by contemporary French music and in constant development. The harmonics are exploratory, but never proved too demanding for the audience and critics of the time. The Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in D minor was premiered in 1903 at La société Musique Nouvelle with Netzel herself at the piano. Enthusiastic Scandinavians in the audience were seated together with several famous music authorities of the French capital. Le Monde musical praised it for being written with such great confidence.
Johan Halvorsens engagemang i Helsingfors 1889–92 som katalysator för hans arbete som kompositör
The first part of the article examines the Norwegian composer Johan Halvorsen’s activities in Helsinki during the years 1889-92. The flourishing musical life of the Finnish capital, which actually inspired Halvorsen to begin composing, as well as Halvorsen’s musical agency, are examined from a variety of perspectives, both socio-cultural and biographical. The research is based on extensive historical archival material. The aim of the article is twofold: first, to map the musical and personal impulses that inspired Halvorsen’s emergence as a creative artist, and second, to highlight his contribution to Helsinki’s musical life during this period. The second part of the article presents Halvorsen’s String Quartet in E minor (1892). This is his most important work from this period in terms of its scope and the prestige of the genre. The public response to the work’s first performance was positive, but the composer himself was not satisfied: a few years later he destroyed most of the material, but transcribed the slow movement for orchestra. Since Halvorsen was a self-taught composer, it is natural to ask why: was the destruction of the work the result of a lack of quality, the composer’s excessive self-criticism, or simply the conviction that the work did not represent his stylistic idiom as a composer? These questions will be explored through a transcription of the surviving orchestral score, an analysis of musical structures such as form (macro and micro), melody and harmony in the one surviving movement, the contemporary reception of the work, and finally a comparison of the work with Halvorsen’s oeuvre as a whole.