Eriikka Maalismaa, violin

Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival 2018, Porvoo (Finland, EU)
30 June 2018
world premiere
commissioned by Eriikka Maalismaa, the work's dedicatee, with funds provided by TEOSTO Commissioning Grant
recorded by Matti Heinonen, post-editing by Libero Mureddu
photo of Eriikka Maalismaa at the premiere by Heikki Tuuli

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EMBODIED: Violin Solo (2018)

Although EMBODIED: Violin Solo (2018) is through-composed and fully-notated, it is also simultaneously a communal halting by the sound produced in front of our ears by the observant, empathetic and touching coexistence and presence of a violinist and (t)he(i)r violin, who share a life together. Compositionally (in)formed meeting of two resonant material bodies. A loving squeeze.

The score, written in four days (the act of composing had, for the most part, happened by then), is both compositionally documenting the sounds produced at the meeting of the composer and the performer — both armed with violins under their chins — as well as serving as a starting point for the violinist Eriikka Maalismaa's (the work's commissioner and premierer) astounding capabilities to find immeasurable sonic nuances from her instrument. The violin's wooden-metallic corporeality is gently tickled, stroked and excited in musically embodied compassion.

The composition process began with a month-long meditative 'deep-sea sounding' on a borrowed violin in Trastevere, Rome. The EMBODIED family of works will be completed by works for solo tuba and solo percussion of identical lengths; these three works can be also played together in all possible formations—all the way up to the trio EMBODIED: Triple Solo— where the overall form will be perceived differently in each version.

IX/2018 Jarkko Hartikainen


EMBODIED: Violin Solo (2018)

Vaikka EMBODIED: Violin Solo (2018) on läpisävelletty, läpinotatoitu, on se samalla yhtälaisesti korviemme edessaäsoittaja–soitin-yhteiselosta syntyvä äänen äärelle pysähtyminen; havainnoiva, empaattinen ja koskettava läsnäolon hetki. Sävellyksellisesti muovattu värähtelyherkkien materiaalisten olentojen kohtaaminen. Rutistus.

Neljässä päivässä kirjoitettu partituuri (sävellystyö oli pääpiirteissään jo tuohon mennessä tehty) on samalla sekä transkriptio säveltäjän ja esiintyjän kohtaamisen äänistä– molemmilla viulut leuan alla – että lähtöalusta Eriikka Maalismaan hämmästyttäville kyvyille löytää lukemattomia erilaisia sävyjä soittimestaan, jonka puisen-metallista ruumiillisuutta teoksessani hellästi kutitetaan, silitellään ja ärsytetään kehollis-musiikillisesti myötäeläen.

Teoksen sävellysprosessi käynnistyi kuukauden mittaisella syväluotauksella lainaviuluun Trasteveressa, Roomassa. Teosperhe täydentyy vastaavanmittaisilla sooloteoksilla tuuballe sekä lyömäsoittimille; nämä kolme teosta voidaan soittaa myös yhtä aikaa eri yhdistelminä – aina trioon EMBODIED: Triple Solo asti –, jolloin teoksen kokonaismuoto hahmottuu aina eri tavoin.

IX/2018 Jarkko Hartikainen

EMBODIED: Violin Solo (2018)

www.jarkkohartikainen.net
sheet music: core.musicfinland.fi/composers/jarkko-hartikainen

Jarkko Hartikainen is a composer striving to create works that explore what music is and could still be, researching the possibilities in sound through rigorous performer-collaboration as well as studying findings in a plethora of disciplines. Stimulating acoustic phenomena, exciting sonorities and concrete, bodily impulses through rhythm, resonance and empathy fuel his often extremely instrument-specific, concentrated writing. Currently Hartikainen is working as a commission-based freelance composer, as well as pursuing his D.Mus degree at the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki. Eriikka Maalismaa, defunensemble, Tapiola Sinfonietta, Ensemble Adapter and other such distinguished performers have recently promoted his work.