New Voices in Research

NNewew VVoicesoices iinn ResearchResearch Magen Solomon, editor [email protected] Modernism and Byzantine Infl uence in Rautavaara’s Vigilia, Part One by Charles W. Kamm Introduction texts. Larger forms include cycles, cantatas, the Helsinki Festival in 1971 to compose Einojuhani Rautavaara, born October and choral operas. Among his best known Vigilia, he faced a number of compositional 9, 1928, is considered the dean of living choral works problems. Chief among these was deciding Finnish composers. His Vigilia is his most are the popu- what musical language to use. While on the extensive choral work, and one of his most lar Lorca Suite surface, Vigilia’s musical language is modern- important. Stylistically, Vigilia well represents (1973); a Mag- ist, the work also owes a debt to the tradi- Rautavaara’s eclectic modernist approach nifi cat (1979); a tions of Byzantine chant. to style. In addition, the work shows the setting of Rilke’s One reason selection of musical language infl uence of Rautavaara’s encounters with fi rst Duino El- in Vigilia was challenging for Rautavaara is his Byzantine chant. egy, Die Erste El- eclectic style. Rautavaara has been described This two-part article will begin by outlin- egie (1993); and as a pluralist and is a self-acknowledged sty- ing Rautavaara’s career. Part One will also Vigilia (1971/72, listic wanderer.2 His earliest works—from include an overview of Vigilia, a brief history revised 1988 Einojuhani Rautavaara the late 1940s and early 1950s—could and stylistic account of the traditional Rus- and 1996). He Photo Maarit Kytöharju/FIMIC best be classifi ed as neo-classical. Works sian Orthodox Vigil Service, a description of is also credited from this time include “Three Symmetrical form in Vigilia, and will explore the modern- with eight symphonies, ten concertos, ten Preludes” for piano in 1949; A Requiem for ist musical language of Vigilia. Part Two will operas, and many works for orchestra, Our Time for brass (a primitavistic work after focus on Byzantine infl uence in the context solo voice, solo instruments, and chamber Stravinsky’s Les Noces) in 1954; and the fi rst of modernism, continuing the discussion of ensembles.1 symphony (stylistically similar to Prokofi ev musical language. It will offer conclusions Although Finland is primarily and offi cially and some Shostakovich) in 1956.3 Follow- about why Rautavaara incorporated Byz- a Lutheran country, Vigilia is a setting of the ing studies in Finland with Aarre Merikanto, antine elements into this modernist work. Eastern Orthodox All-Night Vigil in Finnish. Rautavaara studied with Persichetti, Copland Following the tradition of Eastern Orthodox and Sessions in New York and at Tanglewood church music, it is unaccompanied, scored in 1955 and 1956. The second symphony, Einojuhani Rautavaara for mixed choir and fi ve soloists (soprano, Sinfonia intima, from 1957, is decidedly mod- Rautavaara has written many choral alto, tenor, bass, and basso profondo). It ernist, Stravinsky-like in fast movements, and works throughout his career, with over consists of two main parts with multiple chromatic to the point of atonality. In 1957, sixty choral pieces for treble voices, men’s internal movements. In its published form, Rautavaara traveled to Ascona, Switzerland, voices and mixed choir. These works range “Vespers” contains fourteen numbers while to study dodecaphony with Wladimir Vogel. from short settings of folk texts to longer “Matins” has twenty movements. The thirty- Finnish musicologist Kimmo Korhonen claims settings of poetry, biblical texts, or liturgical four movements set a variety, but not all, that Rautavaara’s modernist fourth sympho- of the prayer, Psalm, and hymn texts of the ny, Arabescata, from 1962 “remains the only Orthodox All-Night Vigil, retaining the Greek Serial symphony to be written in Finland.” names of each (katisma, sticheron, ekteniya, In the second half of the 1960s, Rau- Charles W. Kamm is assistant troparion, irmos). tavaara abandoned serialism and began professor of music at Scripps College to compose in a free-tonal style, often and director of choirs for the Joint neo-romantic. This style is seen in the cello Music Program at the Claremont Rautavaara’s Musical Style concerto from 1968 and also in Vigilia. Later Colleges. When Rautavaara accepted the commis- works incorporate post-modernist features sion by the Finnish Orthodox Church and such as collage (in True and False Unicorn Choral Journal • October 2009 47 NNewew VVoicesoices inin ResearchResearch for reciters, chorus, orchestra and tape in referencing angels, including his double bass of John the Baptist, and thus the proper ele- 1971), taped elements (birdsong in Cantus concerto, Angel of Dusk (1980), and the sev- ments in Vigilia are those for that feast. The Arcticus, 1972—a concerto for birds and enth symphony, Angel of Light (1994). premiere of “Matins” occurred on the Feast orchestra), synthesized sounds (in the 1982 of the Nativity of the Virgin, September 9, concert opera for male choir, soloists, and 1972, still, however, incorporating the prop- tape, Runo 42—the Theft of the Sampo), and Vigilia ers from the Feast of the Beheading of John aleatory (again seen in Cantus Arcticus as The setting of the All-Night Vigil was the Baptist. The premieres were sung by the well as in Symphony 5 from 1986). Works commissioned by the Helsinki Festival and Klemetti Institute Chamber Choir, conducted from throughout the 1970s, 80s, 90s and the by the Orthodox Church of Finland for use by Harald Andersén. new century incorporate a variety of com- at the Uspenski Cathedral in Helsinki during In 1988, Rautavaara revised the complete positional techniques and idioms (including the late-summer Helsinki Festival. Although settings of both “Vespers” and “Matins,” par- a return to serial elements), and frequently numbered by the composer as the single ing down the works, which originally lasted successive works differ greatly in style. An Opus 57, it was composed in two parts, over two hours, to create a 45-minute con- important trend in his later works is a pre- “Vespers” and “Matins,” and premiered in cert version titled Vigilia. A later revision in occupation with the mystic and the mythic. two different years, 1971 and 1972.4 The 1996 entailed mainly alterations of tessitura, This is seen in his many works based on the date of the 1971 premiere of “Vespers” including the resetting of many movements mythic Kalevala, the national epic of Finland was August 28, the Feast of the Beheading a tone lower, in preparation for publication, (such as Runo 42) and in a number of works and the recording by the Finnish Radio 48 Choral Journal • October 2009 Chamber Choir. The 1996 version, lasting 65 larly personal creation due to its juxtaposi- Maxim Berezhovsky in Italy. minutes, was debuted by the Finnish Radio tion of musical modernism and Byzantine In the early nineteenth century, the sway Chamber Choir, conducted by Timo Nuor- infl uences. of Italian music gave way to German roman- anne, in Helsinki on October 14, 1997, and tic infl uence, with chorale-like harmonization released on compact disc by Ondine in 1998. I have had access to the score of the Structure and Musical Language 1996 version published by Warner/Chappell of the Traditional Finnish Vigil Service Finland and to two differing photocopies The structure of the Finnish Orthodox of the 1988 revised manuscript, one held Vigil service closely resembles the Russian by the Finnish Music Information Centre Vigil, which has changed little over the past and the other by the Helsinki University three centuries. In both, Vespers and Matins Library. No copy of the unaltered original include a variety of Psalms, hymns, prayers, 1971/72 version has been located. While litanies, Biblical odes, and responsorial ele- Rautavaara has taken care that the original ments.7 Some of these elements are chant- cannot be reconstructed, it is clear from a ed by the priest or by the deacon, some are study of the existing manuscripts that in his sung chorally. Rautavaara’s 1971/72 service 1971/72 version, Rautavaara set nearly every music was a setting of most of the contem- item of Vespers and Matins to music. In the porary text of both Vespers and Matins. later concert versions, revisions focused on Byzantine chant, introduced into Russia cutting many chant-based elements, and by Greek missionaries in the ninth or tenth lowering, by a whole tone, a number of century, was the original musical language of movements that were particularly high in the Orthodox Vigil service. As the Eastern the soprano voices. Church has always required the use of the Rautavaara writes that Vigilia has its ori- vernacular in its liturgy, the Greek chants gins in a childhood visit. were translated into Old Slavonic, the root of modern Slavonic languages. From [A]t the age of ten or so, my parents the eleventh to the sixteenth century, the had taken me to the Orthodox repertoire grew, and Russian chant generally monastery island of Valamo, now on became more intricate, although in times the other side of the Russian border of reform, less so. By the sixteenth century, in Karelia. The exotic world of the Russian chant featured extended ranges, monastery had been a shocking larger melodic leaps (including successive experience for me, simply through the very existence of such a different leaps of sixths, sevenths, and octaves), world—I believe that it created the and more extended melismas. Polyphony foundation for my later conviction in church music was resisted by the Rus- of the existence of different worlds, sian church as a non-orthodox, “Roman” different realities and modes of tradition until the seventeenth century. consciousness. If nothing else, that The earliest examples of polyphony in the experience remained powerfully in Russian church date from the sixteenth the subconscious: the colours, rituals, century, and show the infl uence of a folk icons, bells, the choirs singing, the song tradition of polyphonic singing.

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