Prof. Tiensuu's Scarlet Thread

Started by snyprrr, April 29, 2011, 10:48:10 PM

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snyprrr

Jukka Tiensuu (b. 1948),... well, you'll have to look him up, ha!,... but, as perfect foil to Lindberg, he might be the Greatest Living Finnish Composer. He is well known from some incredible harpsichord recitals, but he also is a Great Composer, who, I'm starting to think, and this would be in the best possible way, sounds to me like the freedom of Stockhausen. Tiensuu may actually be the... funniest?, most humorous?, wittiest?,... he melds an undeniable Super Technique with some very striking Ideas, and seems able to infuse playfulness and wit, perhaps Stockhausen meets Donatoni? (oh sorry, I just love that game ::)). Now, I'm not trying to egg James on here, but Tiensuu seems to me to have the 'It' factor, perhaps in personality and temperament if not in actual notes.

I think our own CRCulver has written some fair reviews of two newish Orchestral discs on Alba, which I passed over for this new Alba release of 9 (count 'em nine!) chamber works, which now contains one of my new most favorite tracks, Tombeau de Beethoven (1980), for clarinet, cello, piano, and tape. It is awesome! I'm sure Kagel did this, but this piece is stunning,... you can imagine, can't you?

I first ran into Tiensuu through that 'from Scandanavia' cd by the Ardittis (Montaine/ Auvidis), in a piece for microtuned harpsichord and String Quartet called Arsenic and Old Lace (1990), a whacky little number. I then ran into the cello/or viola and electronics piece oddjob (1995), which is on quite a few recitals, and his harpsichord piece Fantango (1984), which is also on several recitals, as are his works for accordian.

Maybe his best known piece is the clarinet concerto Puro, which has three recordings I think, which also is on YouTube I think. Others may have this in their Catalogue: do tell. In all, there are less than twenty recorded works available, but take a look and see if anything strikes your fancy. This new Chamber Music disc on Alba would be the best place to start, for people who like Stockhausen, Crumb, Kagel, Bussotti, and some of the more daring do types: Tiensuu is no slouch, that's for sure, and, I think what saves him, in regard to some of the failings of others, is his humor, which is genuine, and Musical! And, Of Course! some of it's annoying!! 8) Tiensuu knows how to tweak us. But, there is extreme finesse, and delicacy and beauty of motive and texture and so forth. The Big Piece could be awaiting him.

:-*





Kontrapunctus

I'm less enamored with his compositions than I am his performances. This one contains some especially hair-raising playing!


snyprrr

Quote from: Toccata&Fugue on May 01, 2011, 04:30:24 PM
I'm less enamored with his compositions than I am his performances. This one contains some especially hair-raising playing!


Yea, I really like that one, however The Exhuberant Harpsichord and The Frivolous Harpsichord are fun too!

I was just listening to the piece on the Arditti set. It is actually quite a delicate and involved microtonal workout. But yes, it has taken me years to be able to say that, haha!

btw- where's 'petrarch' and 'someguy'?


raduneo

#4
I LOVE Finnish composers for some reason; some of the contemporary music I listen to the most!


I checked out his Piano Concerto on youtube; each movement is about one of the four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire). It is quite interesting!


http://www.youtube.com/v/zH-IncW8ijk

I hear his Clarinet Concerto is worth checking out too!

snyprrr

Quote from: raduneo on May 10, 2012, 05:49:19 AM
I LOVE Finnish composers for some reason; some of the contemporary music I listen to the most!


I checked out his Piano Concerto on youtube; each movement is about one of the four elements (Earth, Water, Air, Fire). It is quite interesting!


http://www.youtube.com/v/zH-IncW8ijk

I hear his Clarinet Concerto is worth checking out too!

Ah, thank you! That's a new one. ;)

CRCulver

#6
While I was writing an Amazon review of an old Finlandia disc with the piece Mxpzkl, I translated from Finnish the piece's programme note, and I might as well share it here with other listeners:

QuoteThe orchestral work Mxpzkl from 1977 deals with, on the basis of what one first notices, heavy blocks of sounds set against different, quiet happenings. Further listening brings forward the fact that the movement between these two extremes occurs differently each time, stretching fully from abrupt shifts to gradual changes. What happens on the margins of these opposing elements is the central drama of the piece.

If we zoom in more closely, we notice that Mxpzkl is built up quite economically from the basic materials: heavy blocks of sound; long extended sounds; slippery slopes (massed glissandi); and uneven melodic themes, which particularly when they appear in strings manifest a traditional early 20th century beauty.

The basic ideas of Mxpzkl are movements of various types on the axis between chaos and order, especially progression from chaos to order. For example, in the beginning a noisy sound mass is born from the synergy of blocks of sound with levels in different rhythms, but towards the end through various struggles a greater coherency arises, until finally the blocks are combined into a single large one, which comprises almost the entire orchestra.

It is a matter of some kind of learning process[...]: a dinosaur is learning to jump and land on two feet. In the beginning the dinosaur stumbles somewhat chaotically, but little by little diligent practice produces the desired results and finally the creature can land on its feet without clumsiness. It would be nice to extend the dinosaur metaphor also to other aspects of the work, but let's nonetheless leave it aside – each listener must be free to come up with his own mental picture.

One important feature has gone unmentioned, namely the unsettling pauses in the initial part of the work – brief glances at silence (= the margins of order?). Their effect is similar to a movie coming to a stop in the middle of the action: the high jumper hangs in the air, the actors are frozen like statues. The gradual shortening of these pauses and finally their coalescence with the other material leads to the crux of the piece.

snyprrr

Quote from: CRCulver on September 08, 2012, 09:16:10 AM
While I was writing an Amazon review of an old Finlandia disc with the piece Mxpzkl, I translated from Finnish the piece's programme note, and I might as well share it here with other listeners:

AAAHHH!! >:D It's STILL $50!! >:D I've been trying to get that disc for yeeears. :'( That's a very Xenakian description. I'm really curious about that one,... ahhh :(,...