Movements "Memoria", "Agitato nervosamente", "Nocturno" and "Stream" from Markku Klami's Etudes for guitar (2020)

Live concert recording performed by Patrik Kleemola, guitar
Recorded at Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland on November 11, 2020

Portrait of Patrik Kleemola taken by Vesa Aaltonen.

Etudes for guitar

Göreme was written for guitarist Patrik Kleemola back in 2009. Having collaborated with him since the early 2000’s, we came up with an idea to combine the sound of a classical guitar with electronic soundscapes. While having a background in electronic music since my teenage years in 1990’s, I had for years concentrated in composing for acoustic instruments and ensembles. Bringing together these two sonic worlds felt intriguing so I was delighted to work on this project.
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Since its first performances given by Kleemola in Helsinki and Milan in September and October 2009, I have been delighted to witness Göreme being performed – in addition to several performances by Kleemola – by guitarist including Petrit Çeku and Kimmo Rahunen at various festivals and events around Europe, including Zagreb Music Biennale, REBUS Festival, Festival Muzyki Nowej and Turku Guitar Festival.

During the composition process of Göreme I was strongly affected by the landscapes and history of Göreme region in Cappadocia, Turkey. The region might be first settled back in the Hittite era between 1800 and 1200 BC. The vast underground buildings carved in stone over the course of several centuries have served as an asylum for people of many cultural backgrounds, escaping from turmoil and oppression. The touching history of the region with its countless stories over the course of several thousands of years made a strong impact on me.

The names of the four movements of Göreme, entitled ”The Dark Hallway”, ”The Abyss”, ”The Mirror” and ”Away” represent the thoughts and feelings I went through during the composition process. My aim for the dialogue of guitar and electronics in music was to represent the ever ongoing process between harmony and chaos in the world throughout the times. From the rough and dark beginning, the music gradually ascends away from the turmoil, still reminding of its existence in the aggressive and loud outburst from the electronic part in the third movement ”The Mirror” before slowly fading away in the last movement.

This recording is from a performance of Göreme given by Patrik Kleemola at Brinkhall Summer Concerts Festival in Sign hall of Turku Conservatory of Music, Turku, Finland on May 20, 2010.

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Göreme

This is the fixed electronics part of aava (2015) for amplified guitar and electronics. In addition to live-processed (overdrive/distortion and reverb effects) amplified guitar part, this soundtrack is being performed at the background.

aava was commissioned by Timo Korhonen and is dedicated to him. Korhonen gave the world premiere of the work at Musica nova festival (Helsinki, Finland) on February 9, 2015 at Balck Box hall of Helsinki Music Centre.

aava

aava - fixed electronics part

Göreme Echoes is a sound installation piece based on the material of my earlier work "Göreme" for guitar and electronics. Göreme Echoes may be performed in any suitable concert and/or sound installation event.

Göreme Echoes

Recording of a live performance by Patrik Kleemola in Sigyn hall of Turku Conservatory, Turku, Finland on May 25, 2010.

Göreme (2009) for guitar and electronics is one of the several works I have written for Finnish guitarist Patrik Kleemola, a commissioner and performer of a great deal of my repertoire for guitar.

During the composition process I became strongly affected of the landscapes and history of Göreme region in Cappadocia, Turkey. Over the course of several thousand years, the vast underground buildings in Göreme have served as an asylum for people of many cultural backgrounds escaping from turmoil.

This leads me to think of the concept of truth in a cultural context. Every culture, society and individual have their own truths, and in this respect it could be argued that every culture, society and individual own their own truths. The collisions between these truths keep serving as a springboard to quarrels, political turmoils, oppressions and even wars. Keeping this in mind, I wrote the dialogue of guitar and electronics to represent the ever ongoing process between harmony and chaos, fueled by the truths in our global society.

Göreme – Live performance on May 20, 2010

JÄÄ
for two guitars

JÄÄ was commissioned by the Helsinki Guitar Society and written for the Helsinki Guitar Duo: Mikko Ikäheimo and Rody van Gemert.

The music is a setting to a poem "JÄÄ" by the composer himself.

This live recording is from Musica nova Helsinki Festival 2007, performed by the Helsinki Guitar Duo.

JÄÄ

aura
for alto flute and live electronics

aura was written for Hanna Kinnunen and the work is dedicated to her.

This live recording is from Time of Music Festival 2009, performed by Hanna Kinnunen, alto flute (and singing while playing) and Markku Klami (electronics).

aura

In singleness...
"An elegy with a certain sense of hope"

In singleness... was written for a workshop at Avanti! Summer Sounds 2007 Festival. The music is a setting to Sonnet No. 8 "Music to hear" by William Shakespeare.

This live recording is from Avanti! Summer Sounds Festival 2007, performed by Eija Räisänen, soprano and Avanti! Orchestra, conducted by Magnus Lindberg

In singleness...

FUME is my first concerto work and I wrote it especially for Lauri Sallinen. This marvellous musician (and also a very nice person) was of much help during the writing process of the work. I'm forever grateful for all his comments on my ideas and writings during the composing process. FUME was selected to the Jury's list of recommended works in the tremendously successful 2nd International Uuno Klami Composition Competition in 2009. Today my concerto receives its first performance by a group of fine musicians. FUME is dedicated to Lauri Sallinen.

FUME is a concerto in three movements. The work is performed without breaks between the movements.

I don't find it important or necessary to give a written depiction of my works and this is why you won't get any detailed product description or user's manual of this work, either. For me, the most captivating and impressing experiences in music throughout the years have always been solely on the level of emotions and feelings. In my opinion one cannot find sufficiently satisfying words to depict these strong emotions and feelings. This is why I want to stay out from writing any pompous and allegedly intelligent statements filled with professional jargon (something you might come across in work commentaries).

– Markku Klami, work commentary for the premiere performance, September 2010

Photo of Lauri Sallinen by Katri Naukkarinen

Ung Nordisk Musik Festival 2010

FUME - Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra

This is a live recording of the first performance of Karui at Uuden Musiikin Lokakuu Festival in Oulu, Finland on September 29, 2018. The performance was given by Helmi Malmgren, quarter tone clarinet and Veli Kujala, quarter tone accordion.

Program notes for Karui:

For me, Karui is a leap into a new area, a world of microintervals. In some of my previous works I have occasionally used microintervals to color the twelve-tone equal temparament, but in the past microintervals – in the case of Karui, the equally tempered quarter tones – have not played a significant role in my music.

My growing interest in the power of music to influence the receiver's perceptions and experiences of time and surroundings around themselves has led me to focus on the resonant qualities of the tones. Microintervals bring a lot of new dimensions into the play.

With the melodic and harmonious possibilities offered by the quarter tone clarinet and the quarter tone accordion, I became mostly preoccupied with fragile sound surfaces, and the more or less traditional development of the musical material is deliberately left out. The slowly moving microtonal harmonies and melodic figures invite the listener to come to a halt – to stop and dwell into the fragile sonic world of Karui.

I would like to warmly thank Lauri Sallinen and Veli Kujala for the commission and the Sibelius Fund for their support towards this commission and the Finnish Cultural Foundation for supporting my work during the year 2018.

– Markku Klami, work commentary for the premiere performance, September 2018

Karui

Göreme (Live recording on May 20, 2010)

Göreme: IV. Away (Live performance on May 20, 2010)

Göreme: III. The Mirror (Live performance on May 20, 2010)

Göreme: II. The Abyss (Live performance on May 20, 2010)

Göreme: I. The Dark Hallway (Live performance on May 20, 2010)

Flow for string orchestra was my first work for orchestra ever. I completed Flow in April of 2004, just after having begun my formal composition studies in the autumn of 2003. I sent the ready score of Flow to the National Composition Competition of the Finnish Polytechnic Chamber Orchestra and to my amazement I happened to win the First Prize in the competition.

This led to four performances of Flow in Finland and two more in Slovakia during the season 2004-2005. All these performances were given by the Finnish Polytechnic Chamber orchestra conducted by Atso Almila.

This concert recording is from my graduation exam concert in March 2005 at the Turku Music Academy. This marked my first time as a conductor, as I conducted the Turku Music Academy String Orchestra in the concert.

Flow

Movement "Stream" from Markku Klami's Etudes for guitar (2020)

Live concert recording performed by Patrik Kleemola, guitar
Recorded at Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland on November 11, 2020

Portrait of Patrik Kleemola taken by Vesa Aaltonen.

Etudes for guitar: Stream (Live)

Movement "Nocturno" from Markku Klami's Etudes for guitar (2020)

Live concert recording performed by Patrik Kleemola, guitar
Recorded at Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland on November 11, 2020

Portrait of Patrik Kleemola taken by Vesa Aaltonen.

Etudes for guitar: Nocturno (Live)

Movement "Agitato nervosamente" from Markku Klami's Etudes for guitar (2020)

Live concert recording performed by Patrik Kleemola, guitar
Recorded at Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland on November 11, 2020

Portrait of Patrik Kleemola taken by Vesa Aaltonen.

Etudes for guitar: Agitato nervosamente (Live)

Movement "Memoria" from Markku Klami's Etudes for guitar (2020)

Live concert recording performed by Patrik Kleemola, guitar
Recorded at Sibelius Museum, Turku, Finland on November 11, 2020

Portrait of Patrik Kleemola taken by Vesa Aaltonen.

Etudes for guitar: Memoria (Live)

Markku Klami's music has been described as delicate, elegant and both fragile and powerful with strong emotions. He is fascinated by the magical power music possess in affecting one’s experience of time and surroundings around themselves.

Born in Turku, Finland, Markku spent his early years singing in the boys choir of Turku Cathedral and later on around Europe on the choir’s tours abroad. Markku has composed instrumental works ranging from solos to works for orchestra with soloists and vocal works including two operas. The use of electronics is a recurring feature in his instrumental works. While being a classically trained composer at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Markku has a background in electronic music as well with his projects in the late 1990’s.

Markku has worked with musicians and ensembles including Timo Korhonen, Shin-ichi Fukuda, Thomas Müller-Pering, Patrik Kleemola, Lauri Sallinen, Henrik Sandås, Lucy Abrams, International Contemporary Ensemble, ensemble mise-en, Uusinta Ensemble, Avanti!, Pori Sinfonietta and conductors including Nils Schweckendiek, David Searle and Atso Almila. His music has been heard in cities from New York to Taipei and Buenos Aires to Cape Town in festivals including ISCM World New Music Days, MISE-EN FESTIVAL, Nordic Music Days, Musica nova Helsinki, Zagreb Music Biennale, Taiwan International Guitar Festival and Atlantic Music Festival.

Residing in Helsinki, Markku draws inspiration from both urban areas and nature. The arid sceneries, the vast seashores and forests serve as an important counterweight for him in our fast-paced culture.

Artist portrait of Klami is by Laura Karlin (www.lkarlin.com).

Markku Klami

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