Kohti Kalevala-sarjaa : Identiteetti, eklektisyys ja Ranskan jälki Uuno Klamin musiikissa

Uuno Klami (1900-61) was the most successful of all those Finnish composers who made their debuts between the two World Wars. The interest stimulated in Helsinki by his student works, together with his sensational debut concert in 1928, launched a meteoric career that culminated in his recognition as one of the most esteemed figures in the musical life of his country through his election to the Academy of Finland. Yet Klami was also a controversial figure. His music was felt to be fragmentary, derivative, and oddly detached in tone, and his contemporaries found it notably difficult to find adequate terms in which to conceptualize it. This study is historical-critical, evidence-based and contextualising in orientation. Its two inseparable aims are to describe and conceptualize the evolution and distinctive character of Klami s musical style, and to spotlight the two cities, Helsinki and Paris, that shaped him as a composer. It is taken as given that there are multiple subjective factors at work in leading a creative individual towards some choices rather than others. I ask what are the memorable features of Klami s music, whether we can distinguish in them specific choices that lend themselves to conceptual interpretation, and what sorts of subject position they might reflect. French and Russian music formed a part of Klami s Finnish education, but it was only during his Paris year (1924-25) that a notably eclectic attitude to pre-existing repertories began to emerge in his music. A cosmopolitan identity was manifest in his obvious affiliations to the music of la belle époque, with its distinctive Franco-Russian orchestral idioms, and to the anti-romanticism characteristic of the time (and place). An indifference to the values associated with a German Romantic aesthetic (notably its ethos of individualism and its ideal of musical progress) values that seemed outmoded to many European contemporaries was thereby revealed. Despite this cosmopolitanism, Klami s return to his home country was marked by his successful integration to the network of actors prominent within a Finnish national culture. His best-known work, the Kalevala Suite (Kalevala-sarja) on the topic of the Finnish national epic, emerged in this context over a fourteen-year period (1929-43). It is true that towards the end of this project his antiromantic attitude and his cosmopolitan subject position began to make room for a rather different aesthetic. But at the same time Klami held onto, and continued to refine, his colourful, Franco-Russian virtuoso orchestral style. His success in inter-war Finland does not primarily speak of the conservatism of Finnish culture, but rather of its receptiveness to novelty and in particular the novelty of a virtuoso orchestral style.

Grantor dc:publisher

Suomen musiikkitieteellinen seura

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Tyrväinen, Helena

• musiikkitiede

Statement dc:rights

• Julkaisu on tekijänoikeussäännösten alainen. Teosta voi lukea ja tulostaa henkilökohtaista käyttöä varten. Käyttö kaupallisiin tarkoituksiin on kielletty.
• This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
• Publikationen är skyddad av upphovsrätten. Den får läsas och skrivas ut för personligt bruk. Användning i kommersiellt syfte är förbjuden.

Language dc:language.iso

fin

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10138/42145

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:helda.helsinki.fi:10138/42145