User:Silence of Järvenpää/Work (u)

Klami c. 1930

~ Silence of Järvenpää 00:34, 12 August 2022 (UTC) Uuno Kalervo Klami (20 September 1900, Virolahti – 29 May 1961, Virolahti) was a Finnish composer of the modern period. He is widely recognized as one of the most significant Finnish composers to emerge from the generation that followed Jean Sibelius.

Klami premires

• Bearer of the Golden Staff — Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tauno Hannikainen, cond. Promotion ceremony of the Helsinki School of Economics, September 29, 1961, Helsinki. Commissioned by Helsinki School of Economics. [1]

• Song of Lake Kuujärvi — III prize in the composition competition of the Finnish Cultural Foundation in 1956. Matti Lehtinen, voc, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tauno Hannikainen, cond. Februay 27, 1957, Helsinki. [2]

• In the Belly of Vipunen — Award in the Song-Men's Composition Competition 19381938. Premiere Laulu-Miehet, April 8, 1941

--- Accolades ---

• "The works of Uuno Klami form one of the most glorious chapters in the post-Sibelius history of Finnish orchestral music".
• "Uuno Klami is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of Finnish music".
• "Uuno Klami... was one of the most significant Finnish composers to emerge in the generation after Jean Sibelius, and a remarkable creative artist"
• "... the early 1920s. This was the time when the international attention afforded the majestic figure of Jean Sibelius—who was then still active but soon to fall silent—cast long shadows over Finland's musical life. Many of the country's composers remained attached to the traditional, national romantic artistic concept".

--- Musical style ---

• "The invasion of atonality and twelve-tone technique in Finnish music in the 1950s also made work more difficult for him, and his music became less fashionable. In the 1980s, however, there was a considerable rebirth of interest in his work".
• "Klami can be said to have brought neoclassicism to Finnish music... he introduced to Finnish music a breath of fresh air—a step away from the somewhat gloomy and stereotyped national romanticism".
• "A French tone can be discerned even in his earliest compositions from the 1920s, and for this reason it was natural for him to choose Paris as the venue for his first foreign study visit in 1924–25. In Paris Klami took inspiration primarily from Florent Schmitt and Maurice Ravel".
• "Klami had a reserved yet bohemian personality—his taciturnity was quite legendary at the time. His music, however, is totally at odds with his own outward appearance: it is sparkling, richly scored, tinted by an often ambiguous, half-concealed humor, and its basic style could be characterized as Neo-classical, tinged with impressionistic or folkloristic features. In Klami's style there are no points of contact with the style of other Finnish composers".
• "The fact that Klami did not advocate atonality, however, guaranteed his status as one of Finland's most popular modernists. His music, especially, the Kalevala Suite, was frequently played both in Finland and abroad, for instance in England, Spain, Italy and the USA".
• "Klami can be said to be the first true representative of Neo-classicism in Finland"
• "Apparently Klami was also introduced to Maurice Ravel, whose refined orchestral mastery he admired throughout his life. Stravinsky, jazz, and exoticism—particularly Spanish—also gave the young man much to think about in the French capital, and a certain Gallic stance left its mark on his relationship towards Finnishness and Finnish folk music".
• "The modernists, in this republic which was still living through its first decade of independence, were vocal in their demand: 'Open the windows towards Europe!' Uuno Klami never came to adopt any of the stylistic trends which were available 'ready-made' to him. They way of the symphonist or national romantic composer was not for him, neither was that of the mould-breaking radical. Thought his career, however, Klami introduced fresh European ideas to the musical life of his country".

--- Compositional activity ---

• "Klami was principally an orchestral composers—most of his modest chamber music output dates from his student years, whilst his vocal music is limited in quantity and of secondary importance".
• "Klami's lack of interest in choral music, solo songs and piano miniatures—genres normally greatly favoured by Finnish composers—is immediately obvious".
• "Paradoxically, Klami was also a composer of incidental music who never quite managed to create an entire stage work. A sizable part of his professional career was spent in developing plans for ballet productions"

He was born in Virolahti. Many of his works are related to the Kalevala. He was influenced by French and Spanish music, and especially by Maurice Ravel, for whom he had a particular esteem.

The core of Klami's oeuvre consists of an assortment of works related to the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, among the most notable being: the five-movement Kalevala sarja (Kalevala Suite; 1933, r. 1943), inspired by Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring; the symphonic poem, Lemminkäisen seikkailut saaressa (Lemminkäinen’s Island Adventures; 1934); and, the unfinished ballet, Pyörteitä (Whirls), which survives as two suites. As central to Klami's legacy is the six-movement orchestral suite, Merikuvia (Sea Pictures; 1932); the Karelian Rhapsody (1927); and, Psalmus (1936), an oratorio for soloists, mixed, chorus and orchestra. He also wrote two numbered symphonies, in 1938 and 1945, respectively, as well as two piano concerti (1925, 1950), a Violin Concerto (1943), and the Cheremissian Fantasy for cello and orchestra (1931).

Klami was also a chronic volunteer soldier, having participated in five armed conflicts: the Finnish Civil War (1918), the Estonian War of Independence (1918–19), the Aunus expedition (1919), the Winter War (1939–40), and the Continuation War (1941–44).

Klami was also an influential (but part-time) music critic, primarily with the newspaper Helsingin sanomat (1932–59), having replaced Leevi Madetoja.

In 1932, he married the Toini Eeva Nykänen, whom he had met a decade earlier; their marriage was remained childless.

In 1959, Klami was appointed to the Academy of Finland as representative of the music branch, the "highest chair of his profession".

Klami died unexpectedly from a heart attack on 29 May 1961 in while summering in Virolahti.

Life and career

Early years (1900–1930)

Klami was born on 20 September 1900 in Virolahti, Kymenlaakso, a village on the Gulf of Finland at the southern tip of the Grand Duchy's board with Russia.

Even as a young man (c. 1910s), Klami (who was orphaned at age 15 upon his mother's death) had his sights set on becoming a composer.

Childhood

Klami was born in Virolahti, Finland, on 20 September 1900, the son of Anton Klami (????–1904) and Amalia, née Korpela (????–1916). The father, a seaman by profession, died in 1904 of tuberculosis when Klami was four-years old; months earlier, the family had suffered the death of Klami's younger sister, Vieno, who had been lost to tuberculosis.

• 1908–1909: Schooling at the Virolahti Parish ambulatory school.
• 1911–1915: Schooling at the Koukki Elementary School in Klamila. In the third grade, he tells classmates that he intends to be a composer.
• 1915: Moves to
• 1916: Mother dies in June of tuberculosis; Klami works at a café and cinema pianist in the 1920s.
• 1918: Suspends his studies to fight as a member of the Civil Guard.

Student years and first military service

A postage stamp from 1919 that commemorates the Aunus expedition, a heimosodat-based conflict in which Klami participated as a 19-year old.

In the spring of 1915, Klami's cousin, Hilja, mailed to the Helsinki Music Institute some of Klami's compositions, initiating a chain of events that resulted in his acceptance and, thus, relocation to Helsinki. His mother's death (tuberculosis) in June 1916 left Klami an orphan, dependent on the support of relatives from whom he received little encouragement. A resulting "feeling of rootlessness", coupled with the "turbulent early years Finnish independence", led Klami to suspend his studies to participate in various military campaigns as a teenager. Starting in 1918, Klami joined with the White Guard in the Finnish Civil War; in particular, he defended his home region, Kymenlaakso, by fighting at Ahvenkoski in Pyhtää. Next, from 1918 to 1919, he fought in the Estonian War of Independence with the Finnish volunteers on the side of the Estonian Army. During these hostilities, he led an artillery platoon in the liberation of Alūksne (Marienburg). Finally, in the spring of 1919 during the Russian Civil War, Klami took part in the Aunus expedition, a heimosodat-based conflict in which Finnish volunteers sought—unsuccessfully—to liberate East Karelia from Soviet control. Upon returning to civilian life, Klami worked as a pianist at a café-cinema.

The Finnish composer Erkki Melartin, under whom Klami studied at the Helsinki Music Institute in 1920.

In the fall of 1920, Klami re-enrolled at the Music Institute. He "now studied in earnest" under the previous generation of Finnish composers: composition with Erkki Melartin, the history of music with Leevi Madetoja, and piano with Ilmari Hannikainen; each man was well-acquainted with contemporary trends, especially the French music that had already become Klami's inspiration. During his time at the Institute, Klami composed a number of works for chamber ensemble, many of which received premieres at student concerts: the Viola Sonata in B minor (1920, based on material from the abandoned Violin Sonata in C minor from the same year) was first performed on 17 May 1921); the Piano Quartet in D major (1922) on 24 May 1922, a Piano Quintet (1922, lost) on 25 May 1923; and Nain tragédie (Toy Tragedy), a four-movement suite for string quartet (1923), on 30 March 1924.

= Final masterworks and the Finnish Academy

Death

Klami in 1959, the year he was appointed to the Academy of Finland; he would die unexpectedly two years later.

On the morning of 29 May 1961, during his usual summer holiday at his cottage retreat on Kujaholmi (60°29′44.66″N 027°29′25.84″E), Klami "unexpectedly" suffered a heart attack while rowing to shore to retrieve milk; he later died at the Virolahti hospital. Klami (joined by his wife Toini in 1976; d. 15 September) is buried at Hietaniemi cemetery (Hietaniemen hautausmaa) in Helsinki, a national landmark and frequent tourist attraction that features the graves of famous Finnish military figures, politicians, and artists. The couple's gravestone is located on block V7 in the Old Area (Vanha alue), near the cemetery wall (circle marker 53 on the following map; approx. 60°10′1.635″N 024°54′59.99″E).

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Other

Uuno Klami outside

Uuno Klami staring

Uuno Klami with wife

Uuno Klami

The Finnish conductor Toivo Haapanen conducted the second (1931), third (1943), and fourth (1946) of Klami's composition concerts.

The Finnish conductor Georg Schnéevoigt premiered many of Klami's works, including his most famous: the initial four-movement version of the Kalevala Suite.

Klami's idiom is most associated with the French composer Maurice Ravel. His 3 Bf (1930), for example, recalls Ravel's famous Boléro.

Klami drew inspiration from the Russian composer Igor Stavinsky's early period, in particular The Rite of Spring (1913) and other ballets.

Uuno Klami with Arvi Kivimaa (cropped)

Russian Modernists such as Prokofiev and Stravinsky, and new Spanish music, shook me up from top to toe. That is where the Karelian Rhapsody came from. It was around that time that I went to the Sorbonne to borrow a copy of the Kalevala.

— Uuno Klami, recalling his trip to Paris

Conscious of the dangers involved in exploring territory where Sibelius reigned supreme, and realizing that many previous efforts in that area had resulted in grey and uninteresting music, I took a wholly different approach".

— Uuno Klami, recalling his compositional process