| A Requiem in Our Time | |
|---|---|
| Composition for brass band by Einojuhani Rautavaara | |
 The composer in the 1950s | |
| Opus | 3 |
| Year | 1953 |
| Dedication | "to the memory of my mother" |
| Movements | 4 |
| Scoring |
|
A Requiem in Our Time, Op. 3, is a composition for brass band and percussion by Einojuhani Rautavaara, written in 1953. It won him international attention while still a student.
Rautavaara composed the work in 1953, after his studies at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki from 1948 to 1952 with Aarre Merikanto. [1] His style during that period was neoclassical, with close ties to tradition. [2]
The composition brought him international attention: it won him the Thor Johnson Brass Composition competition of 1954, [3] and it prompted Jean Sibelius in 1955 to recommend him for a scholarship at the Juilliard School in New York City. [1]
Rautavaara structured the work in four movements: [3]
Two of the four Latin titles correspond to movements of the Requiem mass, to parts of the sequence Dies irae (Day of Wrath), its verses "Dies irae" and "Lacrymosa dies illa" (Tearful will be that day). [3] Rautavaara scored the work for 13 brass parts, timpani and percussion, and wrote the dedication "to the memory of my mother". [3]
The first movement opens with a trombone fanfare accompanied by trumpets. The meter changes often. The second movement, Credo et dubito (Belief and doubt), begins with muted trumpet and muted horn, which play with a staccato motif of sixteenth. At times horns and low brass interrupt by playing a grave chorale. The third movement is sharply articulated. The last movement is the only slow movement with gentle music associated with Requiem (Rest). [3] The conductor Osmo Vänskä says: "It's a piece I've conducted many times. It has this kind of drama, but it's always speaking to the audience.". [4] A reviewer of the Australian premiere on 8 April 2011 at Sydney's Opera House noted that the work combines "conciseness and economy of utterance with an opulent and romantic sense of expression". [5]
A Requiem in Our Time is the title of a 2000 recording of Rautavaara's complete works for brass, performed by the Finnish Brass Symphony conducted by Hannu Lintu. [6] A Requiem in Our Time is part of a 2003 recording of Rautavaara's works, performed by members of the Helsinki Philharmonic orchestra conducted by Jorma Panula. A reviewer noted that "virtuoso playing is required to achieve speed and pianissimo layering". [7]
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a national identity during its struggle for independence from Russia.
Einojuhani Rautavaara was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include eight symphonies, nine operas and twelve concertos, as well as numerous vocal and chamber works. Having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as neo-romantic and mystical. His major works include his first piano concerto (1969), Cantus Arcticus (1972) and his seventh symphony, Angel of Light (1994).
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Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20, for orchestra is a symphony written by Benjamin Britten in 1940 at the age of 26. It was one of several works commissioned from different composers by the Japanese government to mark Emperor Jimmu's 2600th anniversary of the founding of the Japanese Empire. The Japanese government rejected the Sinfonia for its use of Latin titles from the Catholic Requiem for its three movements and for its somber overall character, but it was received positively at its world premiere in New York on 29 March 1941 under John Barbirolli. A performance in Boston under Serge Koussevitzky led to the commission of the opera Peter Grimes from the Koussevitzky Music Foundations.
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Incantations for Percussion and Orchestra is a concerto for percussion and orchestra in three movements by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. The work was composed for the percussionist Colin Currie on a joint commission from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra. The first performance was given in Royal Festival Hall, London by Currie and the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin on October 24, 2009.
My Own Land, Op. 92, is a single-movement cantata for mixed choir and orchestra written in 1918 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which is a setting of Kallio's Finnish language poem of the same name, is the first in a series of four "little known but beautiful", patriotic cantatas from the composer's mature period—including Song of the Earth ; Hymn of the Earth ; and Väinämöinen’s Song. My Own Land premiered on 25 October 1918 in Helsinki with Armas Maasalo conducting the Helsinki Youth League —the commissioning ensemble and dedicatee—and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Symphony No. 1 in F major, Op. 29, is a three-movement orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja, who wrote the piece from 1914–16 at the dawn of his professional career. Although late-Romantic in style, the symphony carefully eschews the extravagance and overindulgence typical of debut efforts, placing it among the most "mature" and restrained of first symphonies. Accordingly, the First is the shortest and most concentrated of Madetoja's three essays in the form and is the only one of his symphonies not to adhere to the traditional four-movement symphonic template.
Towards the Horizon is the second cello concerto by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. The work was commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra under the direction of Osmo Vänskä. It was first performed by the cellist Arek Tesarczyk and the Minnesota Orchestra conducted by Osmo Vänskä in Orchestra Hall, Minneapolis, on September 30, 2010. The piece is dedicated to the cellist Truls Mørk, who was originally scheduled to perform the world premiere, but had to drop due to health concerns.
Einojuhani Rautavaara wrote his Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 45, in 1969.
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