Excerpts of Pia Siirala's diary entries from the first of her field trip to Chukotka, in 2009, which continue to this day.

This podcast has been translated into English from Finnish by Pia Siirala and Lygia O’Riordan and narrated in English by Lygia O’Riordan.

Podcast: Field trip to Chukotka I

Excerpts from Pia Siirala's Northern Kamchatkan field trip to collect the music of the indigenous people.

This podcast has been translated into English from Finnish by Pia Siirala and Lygia O’Riordan and narrated in English by Lygia O’Riordan.

Podcast: Field trip to the North of Kamchatka

He wants to scream.
He screams.
Does he?
He helps me.
He is kind.
Is he?
Sometimes.
But he is clever.
Always.
A step ahead.
Where you didn’t expect.
Is he at all?
Or is it just me?

Loco Op.17 for solo viola was composed for the Finnish National Viola Competition 2012 held in Tampere. Loco was one of seven composition of which one had to be performed by each participant. Four participants performed the piece during the competition; Tina Brännkärr, Hanna Pakkala, Mari Viluksela and Iiris Rannikko. This recording is by Tina Bränkärr, who won the competition. It is recorded on the 20th of November 2012 in Pyynikkisali, Tampere.

Loco Op.17

Pièce mixte pour violon et électronique.

Œuvre commandée et réalisée au Studio Césaré CNCM [Centre National de Création Musicale] à Reims.

Violon : Colin Heller

Antanáklasi IV [2021] pour violon et électronique

WMI SOLO ALBUM

Hiltoi (Tapani Rinne, Roope Kinnunen)
Music for the film Hijaa toivotut, 2010
Iro Haarla: Harp
Tapani Rinne: Bass clarinet
Produced by Rrimöykk
Mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen

Tapani Rinne & Rrimöykk: Hiltoi

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, cond. Santtu-Matias Rouvali


Max Savikangas: Whisked Whistle for sypmhony orchestra (2011)

The seeds of my compositions often emerge as a result of improvisation and tentavive experiment: I enjoy improvising on the viola and savouring all kinds of sound events. As a rule, some of the spontaneous ideas and sounds thus found, live on in my mind and begin to lead a life of their own, ending up as the points of departure for written-out compositions.

It is the strings that carry along my ten-minute orchestral piece Whisked Whistle (2011), commissioned ny the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. My instructions for the extended playing technique that lent the work its title read as follows: ‘To be palyed sul pont./quasi flag. Quick, whisking and exaggerated arm vibrato in which the fingering finger slides up and down along the string. The aim is to produce a wailing, pungent and whisking sound, slightly reminiscent of the feedback of an electric quitar’. Other extended string techniques and sounds that feature in the work are sul tasto pan, circular bowing, crackle, whistle staccato, rumble and bursting.

The variation of and tension between contrasting timbres propels the piece along, on equal terms with the six-part harmony developed by me and other more traditional devices (timbre should here be understood broadly as an umbrella term for all the components of the sound event). The hoots, wails, hisses, gushes, whispers, crackles and buzzes heard in the piece are thus by no means effects or seasoning added afterwards; they are an organic part of the musical expression.

Max Savikangas 2012

Whisked Whistle for Symphony Orchestra(2011)

Max Savikangas

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