Maan varjot

Last updated April 21, 2019

Maan varjot (Earth's Shadows) is a composition for solo organ and orchestra by the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. The work was jointly commissioned by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lyon, Southbank Centre, and the Philharmonia Orchestra. It was first performed in Montreal on May 29, 2014, by the organist Olivier Latry and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under the conductor Kent Nagano.^[1]

In music, the organ is a keyboard instrument of one or more pipe divisions or other means for producing tones, each played with its own keyboard, played either with the hands on a keyboard or with the feet using pedals. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria, who invented the water organ. It was played throughout the Ancient Greek and Ancient Roman world, particularly during races and games. During the early medieval period it spread from the Byzantine Empire, where it continued to be used in secular (non-religious) and imperial court music, to Western Europe, where it gradually assumed a prominent place in the liturgy of the Catholic Church. Subsequently it re-emerged as a secular and recital instrument in the Classical music tradition.

An orchestra is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families, including bowed string instruments such as the violin, viola, cello, and double bass, brass instruments such as the horn, trumpet, trombone and tuba, woodwinds such as the flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon, and percussion instruments such as the timpani, bass drum, triangle, snare drum and cymbals, each grouped in sections. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes appear in a fifth keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for performances of some modern compositions, electronic instruments.

Kaija Anneli Saariaho is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France.

Composition

Maan varjot has a duration of approximately 15 minutes and is composed in three numbered movements. Saariaho described the work in the score program notes, writing:

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession. A movement is a section, "a major structural unit perceived as the result of the coincidence of relatively large numbers of structural phenomena".

A unit of a larger work that may stand by itself as a complete composition. Such divisions are usually self-contained. Most often the sequence of movements is arranged fast-slow-fast or in some other order that provides contrast.

The organ and orchestra are side-by-side as two rich and powerful "instruments" with several common factors which make it easy to create connections between them. But more than the common features, I am interested in the aspects which separate the instruments and give them their own particular identity. For example, the orchestra has a great flexibility which comes from the ability to create micro-tonality, glissandos, rich textures with instrumental noises or delicate multi-layered dynamics. The organ, on the other hand, has the ability to produce rich and very precise textures controlled by only one musician, as well as long sustained notes without the constraints of breathing or the length of a bow.
Unlike some other instruments, the organ doesn't need to fight to rise above the orchestra; it can do it any time, effortlessly. But I didn't want to create a duel of decibels, and I don't consider this piece an organ concerto. Rather, it is a work with a prominent solo organ part, some kind of a fruitful and inspiring companionship, in which two strong but civilised personalities can co-exist without having to fight too much for the place in the sun.^[1]

The title of the piece comes from Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1821 poem Adonaïs (an elegy to John Keats) and was chosen in memory of the composer's father.^[1]

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets, who is regarded by some as among the finest lyric and philosophical poets in the English language, and one of the most influential. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not see fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achievements in poetry grew steadily following his death. Shelley was a key member of a close circle of visionary poets and writers that included Lord Byron, John Keats, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Love Peacock, and his own second wife, Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein.

<i>Adonaïs</i> 1821 poem written by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Adonaïs: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats, Author of Endymion, Hyperion, etc., also spelled Adonaies, is a pastoral elegy written by Percy Bysshe Shelley for John Keats in 1821, and widely regarded as one of Shelley's best and most well-known works. The poem, which is in 495 lines in 55 Spenserian stanzas, was composed in the spring of 1821 immediately after 11 April, when Shelley heard of Keats' death. It is a pastoral elegy, in the English tradition of John Milton's Lycidas. Shelley had studied and translated classical elegies. The title of the poem is modelled on ancient works, such as Achilleïs, an epic poem by the 1st century CE Roman poet, Statius, and refers to the untimely death of the Greek Adonis, a god of fertility. Some critics suggest that Shelley used Virgil's tenth Eclogue, in praise of Cornelius Gallus, as a model.

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. He was one of the main figures of the second generation of Romantic poets, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, despite his works having been in publication for only four years before his death from tuberculosis at the age of 25.

Instrumentation

The work is scored for solo organ and an orchestra comprising piccolo, two flutes (2nd doubling alto flute), two oboes, cor anglais, two clarinets, E-flat clarinet, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, three percussionists, harp, and strings.^[1]

The piccolo is a half-size flute, and a member of the woodwind family of musical instruments. The modern piccolo has most of the same fingerings as its larger sibling, the standard transverse flute, but the sound it produces is an octave higher than written. This gave rise to the name ottavino, which the instrument is called in the scores of Italian composers. It is also called flauto piccolo or flautino.

The Western concert flute is a transverse (side-blown) woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, flute player, or (rarely) fluter.

The alto flute is a type of Western concert flute, a musical instrument in the woodwind family. It is the next extension downward of the C flute after the flûte d'amour. It is characterized by its distinct, mellow tone in the lower portion of its range. It is a transposing instrument in G, and uses the same fingerings as the C flute.

Reception

Maan varjot has received a positive response from music critics. Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "This may not be exactly a return on her part to her organ roots, but the electric energy she brings to the timbre of the organ as well as to the orchestra is a reminder not just of where she came from but also how far she has come." He added, "The central movement held the most earthly colors, the grays and browns of the metallic elements and of the soil. Lush melody found a voice. But radiance again rose in the final section, a mirage of sound effects."^[2] Hannah Nepil of the Financial Times also lauded the piece, writing, "Maan varjot is a sophisticated example of Saariaho's work; its shimmering textures and gliding harmonies seem to come from a galaxy far beyond our own, evoking a reel of cinematic images. For large sections, we could be at the bottom of an ocean, in a world of rippling, mysterious shapes and shadows. Then we come up for air to hear what sounds like parts of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony put through a blender. Only at this point does the organ let out a real roar, a moment savoured by Latry."^[3] Jim Farber of the San Francisco Classical Voice declared it a "superb example" of Saariaho's music, opining, "At times the organ blends into the orchestral fabric as a rumbling, pulsing, growling presence. Then like a magma pool no longer under restraint, it bursts forth in eruptive crescendos of full-voiced magnitude causing tectonic shifts in the orchestral landscape."^[4]

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper which has been published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It has the fourth-largest circulation among United States newspapers, and is the largest U.S. newspaper not headquartered on the East Coast. The paper is known for its coverage of issues particularly salient to the U.S. West Coast, such as immigration trends and natural disasters. It has won more than 40 Pulitzer Prizes for its coverage of these and other issues. As of June 18, 2018, ownership of the paper is controlled by Patrick Soon-Shiong, and the executive editor is Norman Pearlstine.

<i>Financial Times</i> Daily broadsheet business newspaper owned by Nikkei Inc. and based in London

The Financial Times (FT) is an English-language international daily newspaper owned by Nikkei Inc, headquartered in London, with a special emphasis on business and economic news.

Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen was a French composer, organist, and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex; harmonically and melodically he employs a system he called modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from the systems of material generated by his early compositions and improvisations. He wrote music for chamber ensembles and orchestra, vocal music, as well as for solo organ and piano, and also experimented with the use of novel electronic instruments developed in Europe during his lifetime.

Conversely, Andrew Clements of The Guardian called the work "a curious piece" and remarked, "The three movements flit in and out of focus, and the solo writing seems to reference a century's worth of the organ repertoire from Franck, through Reger, to Messiaen and Langlais. Even the Festival Hall's clinical acoustic couldn't really resolve the shifting sonorities of the opening section, and the ambiguities between the microtonal writing for the orchestra and the well-tempered pitches of the organ don't really register as they should."^[5]

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References

1 2 3 4 Saariaho, Kaija (2013). "Maan varjot (Earth's Shadows)". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
↑ Swed, Mark (October 27, 2014). "Review A brilliant start to Esa-Pekka Salonen's L.A. Phil residency". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 15, 2016.
↑ Nepil, Hannah (June 29, 2014). "Philharmonia Orchestra/Salonen, Royal Festival Hall, London – review". Financial Times . Retrieved January 15, 2016.
↑ Farber, Jim (October 25, 2014). "Earth Shadows Pipes Premiere at L.A. Phil". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved January 15, 2016.
↑ Clements, Andrew (27 June 2014). "Philharmonia/Salonen review – curious Saariaho and uninvolving Sibelius". The Guardian . Retrieved January 15, 2016.

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[Score-1] 1 2 3 4 Saariaho, Kaija (2013). "Maan varjot (Earth's Shadows)". G. Schirmer Inc. Retrieved January 15, 2016.

[2] Swed, Mark (October 27, 2014). "Review A brilliant start to Esa-Pekka Salonen's L.A. Phil residency". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved January 15, 2016.

[3] Nepil, Hannah (June 29, 2014). "Philharmonia Orchestra/Salonen, Royal Festival Hall, London – review". Financial Times . Retrieved January 15, 2016.

[4] Farber, Jim (October 25, 2014). "Earth Shadows Pipes Premiere at L.A. Phil". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved January 15, 2016.

[5] Clements, Andrew (27 June 2014). "Philharmonia/Salonen review – curious Saariaho and uninvolving Sibelius". The Guardian . Retrieved January 15, 2016.