1 Maija Einfelde: Her Life and Music Riga: Latvian Music Information Centre, 2019, 112 pp. ISBN: 978-9934-19-926-4 Baiba Jaunslaviete Translated by Amanda Zaeska Cover design: Gundega Kalendra Music engraving: Līga Pētersone Supported by the American Latvian Association Cultural Foundation / Amerikas Latviešu apvienības Kultūras fonds Riga: Latvian Music Information Centre, 2019 2 CONTENTS PREFACE 4 1. FAMILY HISTORY 7 2. 1939–1951. CHILDHOOD HOME 9 3. 1952–1966. FROM PIANO PLAYING TO COMPOSITION 13 4. 1966–1985 18 SEARCHING FOR HER OWN PLACE 18 COMPOSITIONS 24 First vocal works 24 Sonatas and other compositions for strings and piano 26 5. 1986–1995 33 A TIME OF CHANGE: HOPES AND LOSSES 33 COMPOSITIONS 36 Organ and piano works 36 Music for strings 39 Music for wind instruments 43 Trio ensembles 45 Orchestral compositions 47 Vocal works 49 6. 1996–2005 52 SUCCESS 52 COMPOSITIONS 55 Choir and vocal ensemble 55 Instrumental music 67 7. 2001–2018 68 WORK AND VARIOUS IMPRESSIONS FROM LIFE 68 COMPOSITIONS 73 Choir and vocal ensemble 73 Symphony and Concerto 79 Chamber music 82 8. AN ATTEMPT AT A PERIODISATION 84 INSTEAD OF A CONCLUSION. MAIJA EINFELDE IN AN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT: INFLUENCES AND PARALLELS 87 REFERENCES 96 SELECTIVE LIST OF COMPOSITIONS 102 3 PREFACE For already half a century, since she graduated from the Latvian State Conservatory in 1966, Maija Einfelde has been actively composing. She has witnessed many different processes in Latvian music, but at the same time, she has pursued her own path, never affiliating herself with any group of like-minded artists. This is true of the chamber music that dominated her early work as well as of her organ compositions, symphonies and, particularly, her choral music, the genre that has brought her international recognition since the latter half of the 1990s (the win at the prestigious Barlow Endowment for Music Composition competition in the United States in 1997 with the chamber oratorio Pie zemes tālās... (At the Edge of the Earth); her subsequent collaboration with world-renowned musicians). The goal of this e-book is to outline the interaction between the composer and her era and the refined balance between the overall and the individual in this interaction. Before beginning this discussion, it is important to highlight several aspects of Einfelde‟s music that have already attracted the attention of researchers. The earliest publication to offer an overview of Einfelde‟s musical style is the article by Latvian-American composer Dace Aperāne in the magazine Jaunā Gaita (Aperāne 2000) which contains a number of valuable conclusions. Without going into detail, some of the significant features of Einfelde‟s music first addressed in this article include a synthesis of impressionistic and expressionistic stylistic elements, especially individualised harmony ('shimmering', 'mirage'-like chords), the influence of instrumental themes on vocal lines, a particular expressivity of the high register and rhapsodic (fantasy-like) freedom even in the sonata genre. Many aspects of Einfelde‟s musical style are also examined in Latviešu komponistu instrumentālā kamermūzika 1975–1985 (Instrumental Chamber Music by Latvian Composers 1975–1985) by Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music (JVLMA) professor Gunta Sproģe (now Rasa) as well as in several theses by students at the academy, which are available in the JVLMA library. The most comprehensive of these is the bachelor‟s thesis by Mārīte Dombrovska, Dažas raksturīgās iezīmes Maijas Einfeldes daiļradē (Some Characteristic Traits of the Creative Work of Maija Einfelde) (Dombrovska 2001). Its three chapters discuss three main topics: the stylistics of the choral music (for the purposes of characterisation, the chamber oratorio Pie zemes tālās… / At the Edge of the Earth… and Maija balāde / May Ballad are comparatively analysed), the problem of the cyclical unity in the sonatas for violin 4 and the piano, and the interaction between the horizontal and vertical parameters in the compositions for string orchestra. Besides the conclusions regarding various means of musical expression and musical forms, Dombrovska describes Einfelde‟s stylistics from the aesthetical point of view. She deals with various well-grounded observations on the succession from Gustav Mahler to Einfelde. It is manifested, for example, in her efforts to not distance herself from the “suffering of those who have not succeeded in this life” (Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano, Kora simfonija / Choral Symphony) (Dombrovska 2001: 40). Like Aperāne, Dombrovska also finds an impressionistic coloristic in several works, for example, in the trio Pirms saules rieta (Before the Sunset) (Dombrovska 2001: 40). Of the newer studies, two texts in English deserve particular attention. The dissertation by Jānis Porietis (2013) includes a laconic overview about Einfelde‟s Maza balāde (Kleine Ballade) for trumpet and piano – a composition introduced to an international audience by American trumpet player Edward H. Tarr. In addition to the analysis of the work, Porietis, based on an interview with the composer, explains the subtext of the folksong Div’ dūjiņas gaisā skrēja (Two Doves Bolted Into the Blue) which is used in this composition and symbolises the fates of Latvian soldiers who fought under alien flags. This dissertation is, until now, the only research which discusses any work for wind instruments by Einfelde.1 The article by American conductor and associate professor Todd J. Harper (2013) should also be mentioned here; it selectively describes female composers in northern Europe, and Latvia is represented by Einfelde and her choral work Lux aeterna.2 Maija Einfelde dzīvē un mūzikā (Maija Einfelde in Life and Music), a special issue of Mūzikas akadēmijas raksti (Music Academy Papers) published in 2016, includes studies by a variety of authors. In this collection, Gundega Šmite highlights one of the most interesting features of Einfelde‟s choral music, which can be heard in Pie zemes tālās... as well as other works, namely, the instrumental dimension Einfelde gives to choral texture (Šmite 2016). Zane Prēdele provides an in-depth analysis of Kora simfonija (Choral Symphony), a composition that synthesises features from two differing genres – symphony and mass 1 https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/12353/Porietis_ku_0099D_12817_DATA_1.pdf?sequen ce=1 (retrieved: January 19, 2019). 2 http://icb.ifcm.net/en_US/beneficencia-perfeccionada/?print=print (retrieved: January 19, 2019). 5 (Prēdele (2016). Jūlija Jonāne characterises Einfelde‟s sacred works, including parallels with several other 20th-century composers, such as Olivier Messiaen and György Ligeti (Jonāne 2016). Two of the articles in the Music Academy collection are dedicated to works featuring the viola, an instrument that carries special meaning in Einfelde‟s music. Professor Jeļena Ļebedeva analyses Einfelde‟s Viola Concerto (2011). She concludes that composer‟s unusual approach to the concerto genre is manifested in several aspects of this work, among them the relatively slow tempo and meditative mood. Dzintra Erliha, for her part, examines one of the most frequently performed of Einfelde‟s sonatas, the Sonāte meditācija (Sonata-Meditation) for viola and piano. She provides not only a detailed description of the composition but also a comparative overview of several different performances, including that of internationally recognised violist Andra Darzins. The collection Mūzikas akadēmijas raksti concludes with Professor Ilma Grauzdiņa‟s article dedicated to one of the most important programmatic motifs of Einfelde‟s music, namely, the sea, which the composer has developed from time to time throughout her career. Additional value comes from Grauzdiņa‟s study of the semantic interpretations of the sea in the context of both European and Latvian cultural traditions. The Music Academy collection, which contains comprehensive summaries in English of each paper, is available online.3 The above-mentioned special issue of Mūzikas akadēmijas raksti also includes Baiba Jaunslaviete‟s biographical study of Einfelde and an exhaustive review of her style.4 This e- book in English is based on an updated version of Jaunslaviete‟s text. It provides a review of Einfelde‟s life story as well as selected compositions and references to publications the reader can turn to for more information. 3 http://www.music.lv/upload/pages/30/ZPC/JVLMA_Raksti_Einfelde_skat.pdf (retrieved: January 19, 2019). See English summaries on pp. 228 (Šmite), 246 (Prēdele), 268 (Jonāne), 287 (Ļebedeva), 304 (Erliha), and 236 (Grauzdiņa). 4 See English summaries on pp. 136, 166, 198. 6 1. FAMILY HISTORY Peši village in Rucava civil parish, Latvia. Still today, an old-fashioned wooden house called “Mežsētas” can be found among the pines, some distance from the highway. This is the family home of Maija Einfelde‟s father, Jānis Dūrējs. In the winter it is quiet and lonely, but from spring until autumn both the house and garden are full of life; Einfelde‟s cousins, Dr. chem. Alma Edžiņa and poet Nora Kalna (the daughters of Jānis‟ brother, Sīmanis), often visit there. The house was built in 1856 for the Pese-Dūrējs (later Dūrējs) family. Einfelde‟s grandparents, Katrīna and Miķelis Dūrējs, lived here at the end of the 19th century. Figure 1. At the family home of Einfelde‟s father, Jānis Dūrējs, in Peši in 1911. The children are Jānis‟ brother Sīmanis and sister Margrieta. Photo from the personal archive of Einfelde‟s niece, Inese Nelsone (the original photo is the property of Nora Kalna). Katrīna and Miķelis Dūrējs had eight children: four daughters and four sons, one of whom was Jānis, Maija‟s father. His interest in music and instrument-making became apparent quite early; as a youth he made a violin using horsehair, but this angered his father. Although Miķelis liked to sing, he did not hold musicians in high regard (Kalna 2006). As a prisoner of the German army during the First World War, Jānis Dūrējs had the opportunity to participate in an organ-building course; he was interested in this work and mastered it well.