nature

Finnish-French composer-musician Sarah Palu touches a deep chord in the soul with her début album Ikivirta [Everflow]. It is a journey through soundscapes featuring a multitude of musical influences, but always connected by a scarlet thread. Palu plays the kantele and the harp, and what she finds fascinating in music are the connection to her inner self on the one hand and connections between people on the other.

“Nature exposes the artifice of art, the craftedness of it, the smallness and egotism of it before the vastness of creation. To invoke nature is to admit the wild, the unplanned, into art,” writes composer Matthew Whittall. This column is part of the series, where composers and other music makers write about their music.

Radiopuhelimet has been performing “rural rock music” in Finnish for three decades. The visions embraced by the band are realistic, sometimes repellently so. Vocalist J.A. Mäki remarks that, even though humankind deserves it, nature does not take revenge. Nature merely is.

Ten Finnish songs about or inspired by nature selected by Matti Nives.

“Music’s close relationship to nature can be seen precisely in the ways it alters and affects our relationship to the diversity of our surrounding world – and not only to itself or myself.”

In Finland, dozens of music events with strong connections to nature are organised each summer. Nature itself seems to form an integral part of a successful festival experience at these events. We discussed with music researchers Merja Hottinen and Juha Torvinen the relationships between nature, the environment, music and listening experiences.

Only love and death can compete with nature as the most common topic in music. In the aftermath of environmental crises, the relationship between music and nature has changed radically. How can music influence our environmental consciousness and conscience? The music of contemporary composer Kalevi Aho and psychedelic rock band Hexvessel show in two distinct ways.

The north is a regular theme in Finnish music. But it is also more. It is the main myth of the region’s inhabitants, an undertone that determines their thoughts and way of life. That is why the north can be heard in Finnish music even when it is not explicitly the theme.