choral music

A wall of sound produced by a choir, when done just so, can pierce the heart and reach right up to the tear ducts. Singing familiar songs together fosters a sense of community, linking us to a generational chain of singers of bygone times as the shared joy of raising our voices together generates positive energy. Scientific studies have shown that singing together has measurable health benefits. In the Year of the Coronavirus, however, singing has suddenly been deemed a dangerous activity, and as such has been restricted or banned outright. Nevertheless, singing did and does go on, even under these exceptional circumstances.

"Generally speaking, exploratory modernist choral music is taxing to both perform and listen to, but this disc is an exception. Both Antti Auvinen and Sampo Haapamäki take the listener on a roller-coaster ride."

"Mäntyjärvi makes such full use of the potential of the choral sound and the registers of the human voice in his harmonies that the colours begin to flicker like the Northern lights, superbly enriching the text."

"There are moments, when Kostiainen does things that give the ears a good tweak: one striking passage has minimalist oscillating flutes above a lyrical cello line; at another point a saxophone emerges unexpectedly from the orchestra; and the bells and trumpets that open the Missa Paschalis, and the passage for baritone and chorus that they introduce, recall Kokkonen’s The Last Temptations directly."

"It is delightful that the ambitious concert projects by the Helsinki Chamber Choir so often become available in recorded form."

"For all the sophistication of Rautavaara’s harmonic language, what he is doing here, basically, is weaving a spell – and I defy you not to be hypnotised by the unearthly beauty of this wonderful music."

His music is constantly being performed abroad. In Finland, he is known as a composer of choral music and an active singer. Regular readers of FMQ will recognise him as one of our house translators. Jaakko Mäntyjärvi is something of a musical outlier.

"Haapanen typically deconstructs the text by rearranging its constituents, thus creating mixed feelings of alienation and vulnerable immediacy."

Choral singing has made a vital contribution to Finland’s history and is a crucial building block of Finnish society. Pasi Hyökki is well versed in the challenges and rewards of conducting a male choir institution and a children’s choir institution, each with a strong tradition and reputation. Professional choral singing, however, is pitifully underdeveloped in Finland.

The aesthetic pluralism represented here is remarkable; Bergman pushes the envelope of musical expression. Matti Hyökki, with a group of professional singers, masters even the trickiest passages with aplomb.

There is something timeless about the music of the Orthodox Church – as indeed about the gilded icons, the noble ecclesiastical architecture and the scent of incense. The only instrument allowed in Orthodox churches is the human voice.

"The work that seems to be doing the international diplomacy is Mäntyjärvi's Four Shakespeare Songs of 1984, one of his earliest surviving works (he withdrew several earlier scores), and as soon as one encounters its opening number, 'Come Away, Death', one understands why: it has that rare capacity in a piece of music of making you think you must always have known it."

In his article from 1987 Markku Kilpiö takes a look at Finnish choral singing.