Special Issues

There is something profoundly human about the act of singing together. When voices—each with its own texture and timbre—unite, they create something greater than the sum of their parts: a powerful expression of collective purpose. This special issue offers a unique overview of recent choral music in Finland.

Explore the dynamic world of the accordion in Finnish music culture, where this versatile instrument bridges the gap between folk traditions and modern expressions. This collection of articles from our Special Issue delves into the accordion's unique role in Finland’s musical landscape, showcasing its evolution and timeless charm across genres and generations.

This special issue illustrates the dynamic, transformative nature of early music and invites us not only to listen to the past but to imagine new futures....

This special issue of FMQ highlights improvisation, exploring this multifaceted phenomenon through various genres and approaches.

This special issue of FMQ allows the vibrancy and joy of children’s music to shine through verbally, visually, and aurally. We delve into several fascinating topics, ranging from educational activities and concerts to the intersections of children’s opera and literature. These topics underscore the engaging nature of music for, with, and by children. It is dynamic, multifaceted, and fun – thereby possessing an exceptional potential to negotiate and cross different boundaries.

This special issue of FMQ addresses the implications that artificial intelligence carries for music both today and in the future. The writings in this issue demonstrate the complexity of this topic – a complexity where critical thinking becomes crucial for practitioners, audiences, and facilitators alike.

The third FMQ Special Feature of 2023 explores the intricate relationship between music and grief. The expression – or experience – of grief through music can follow highly normative and ritualized paths, but it can also take freer forms, seeking to push the boundaries that society imposes on how we should experience it. We find ourselves traversing a realm where emotions and sounds converge, offering a space to encounter grief in its versatility. This space can comprise feelings of solace, understanding, and connection – but it can also amplify the experience by bringing difficult emotions closer to us.

Video game music has become increasingly prominent in musical life in Finland. Live performances of game music attract sold-out audiences in prominent concert halls, such as Finlandia Hall, and a number of Finnish professional musicians have recalled that their serious interest in music was sparked by music in games. And yet, the status of game music in public discourse remains somewhat ambivalent. How does one create game music, and how does one become so intrigued by it? This special issue introduces some of the fascinating and diverse aspects of game music in Finland.

The fact that the musical exchange between Japan and Finland is so strong is entirely thanks to the countless individuals, groups and institutions – musicians, composers, music-lovers, critics, societies, cultural organisations and scholars – who have endeavoured to build up, strengthen and maintain musical relations between the two countries (and peoples) for generations. The Special Feature 1/2023 will focus on these collaborations, with a focus on Finnish music in Japan.

Our last Special Feature in 2022 addresses competitions and competitiveness in Finnish musical life. Music competitions obviously have an indispensable role when it comes to spotting and highlighting rising talent, but competing with one’s peers is inseparably intertwined with a musician’s life in many other ways. What role do competitions play in music today, and in what ways is competition integrated into a musician’s career?

FMQ Special Feature 3/2022 joins the celebration of Kaija Saariaho’s extraordinary career and creative output by addressing the various facets of her work and the impact it has had on musicians, musicologists, composers, and audiences. Saariaho – or Kaija, as many of the writers of this Special Feature refer to her – represents an inspiration and a trailblazer: a composer of extraordinary music and a creator of new aural worlds; but also a teacher, a colleague, a friend, an incisive thinker, and a mother.

Some years ago, debate emerged once again about equality, diversity and oppressive structures in Finnish music. This time, the debate became more than just debate, leading to shifts in attitudes and thinking – and to concrete measures. The second FMQ Special Feature of 2022 takes a look at debates, projects and phenomena in the context of equality and diversity in Finnish music.

There is and has always been a tantalising mismatch between the non-conceptual entity that we know as music and scientific thinking. Musicology sits at the rich seam to be mined at the nexus between these two, and in Finland musicology has been instrumental in both building and explaining our strong national musical identity. FMQ Special Feature 1/2022 showcases examples of how Finnish music studies have evolved in close contact with music, musicians, audiences and society at large.

In FMQ Special Feature 4/2021, we take a look at the potential futures of music. Ecological reconstruction is an urgent priority, technology is everywhere, the economic system is in flux, and populations are ageing and diversifying. What are the impacts of these trends on the music industry? How can we reconcile touring and the climate crisis? How can we make vinyl record manufacturing ecologically more sustainable? And will we soon all be a vast family of avatars immersed in interactive musical experiences?

The economy of the music industry has been hit by a number of adverse phenomena in recent years, most spectacularly by the collapse of live performances with the advent of the coronavirus pandemic. What are the post-pandemic funding prospects for the musical arts? How is Finland’s internationally acclaimed system of financial support for art music doing these days? What does a musician’s income structure look like, and how will it evolve in the future? These issues and many more are discussed in the FMQ Special Feature 3/2021.

Special Feature 2/2021 takes a look at the physical and virtual spaces in which concerts are being produced and listened to in the 2020s. What are...

FMQ Special Feature 1/2021 focuses on the multiple relations between music, politics and social activism. What is the role of music in political campaigns? Should or...

FMQ Special Feature 4/2020 takes a look back at the year now ending and raises issues which have grown increasingly important during the present exceptional circumstances and which we should keep in mind once the crisis has passed. What does music year 2020 look like in pictures? How does the Finnish grants system appear in the light of the coronavirus pandemic? And why has singing together suddenly become a dangerous undertaking, and what are the consequences? Amidst all the doom and gloom, we can still find some bright spots: the rise of women in Finnish jazz, and some very special anniversaries!

FMQ Special Feature 3/2020 is all about recent developments in Finnish music education. Finland’s music institutes have largely discontinued their level performance examinations, a long-standing system; what are they doing instead? How did music institutes cope with the sudden, forced transition to remote teaching? In this package, you will also learn of a new material databank geared towards lowering the threshold for composition and of the first-ever conservatory-level qualifications in Sámi music completed at the Sámi Music Academy.

In this Special Feature, we consider the roles that music may play in exceptional circumstances. We asked musicians and music makers to tell us about music that is important to them and what music has meant to them in difficult times. We also explore the importance of music at transition points in life from the perspective of music psychology and examine what statistics on music listening look like in these troubled times.

Shared authorship, dialogue, positive questioning and new kinds of cooperation. Our Special Feature 1/2020 addresses manifestations of collective creativity and authorship in music at a time when humanity perhaps more than ever needs to be able to work together and to adapt to new and unknown.

In this Special Feature, we explore future trends in instrument making. We meet adventurous instrument makers and see imaginative instruments and how they are used. We also discuss the philosophy of instrument development and address current ecological topics with reference to instrument making.

In October 2019, folk music and world music professionals from around the globe come together in Tampere, Finland, for the WOMEX World Music Expo. Inspired by the event, FMQ dedicates its Special Feature 3/2019 to folk music: What is happening in contemporary folk music in Finland today, how did we arrive here and why?

FMQ Special Feature 2/2019 focuses on major changes emblematic of our times: in the climate, in our operating environments, in global politics and in individual attitudes. How are these changes reflected in the work of musicians? What do musicians themselves expect of the future? And how do musicians and music authors respond in the content of their work to the challenges created by change?

In this Special Feature, we explore the mysteries of sound quality. Our guides are high-end audio firms, internationally acclaimed recording producers and recording engineers, a Professor of Acoustics and a composer-researcher. We believe that this feature will be of interest to both hi-fi enthusiasts and hi-fi avoiders.

In this Special Feature, FMQ launches a new series of columns where composers and other music makers write about their music. We also re-publish some treasures from our archives, and present highlights from a 13-part documentary series produced by the Society of Finnish Composers.

In the Special Feature 3/2018, FMQ takes a look at the fascinating network of relationships between music, community and identity. We discuss the role of music in building communities on the one hand and specialised, music-based communities on the other.

The second special feature in FMQ in 2018 focuses on Finland’s only university-level music institution, the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki, through which we also take a look at university-level music teaching today in general. The topics of the articles are composition teaching, doctoral programs, the classical accordion class, the Orchestra Academy, and the principal goals and key figures at the Sibelius Academy in 2018.

One hundred years ago Finland went through the trauma of Civil War. This FMQ Special Feature explores how the eternal theme of war and various forms of violence are reflected in music and on the music scene. How does war manifest itself in Finnish classical music? How does violence appear in our music industry and culture? Can we even recognise it for what it is?

The socio-cultural, economic and political changes fostered by globalisation and technology bring new challenges to all fields, music education not excepted. FMQ presents the most exciting and inspiring aspects of Finnish music education today in a Special Feature.

A composer residency in Amsterdam, an opera premiere in Helsinki, commissions all over the world. An exploration of the work and music of Sebastian Fagerlund paints a portrait of a composer in Europe 2017: aiming high, probing deep, with a bold and open mind.