Melartin - Mieskuorolaulut a cappella: Complete Works for a cappella Male Choir | Alba NCD60

Melartin - Mieskuorolaulut a cappella: Complete Works for a cappella Male Choir

£13.25

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Label: Alba

Cat No: NCD60

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Vocal/Choral

Release Date: 18th March 2022

Contents

About

Erkki (Erik Gustaf) Melartin was born in the rural municipality of Käkisalmi on 7 February 1875 and died in the rural municipality of Helsinki on 14 February 1937. Melartin was one of the most significant and versatile composers of his generation, with six symphonies, orchestral and chamber music, 350 piano works, more than 300 songs, the opera Aino, ballet Blue Pearl and children's music strokes under the pseudonym Eero Mela.

Against this background, the limitation of Melartin's male choir production to about twenty songs raises questions. Melartin was strongly influenced already in the first decades of the 20th century, at a time when Finnish music found its own voice and when the golden age of male choir music was being built.

Finding a Finnish melody and recognising the musical mother tongue in the modes of poetry singing or in rhythm did not elicit a particular resonance in Melartin.

The reasons for the low number of male choir songs in Melartin's production can also be found in the language and party political guidelines of the time. The power figures of the era, Heikki Klemetti and later Martti Turunen, favoured Toivo Kuula, Leevi Madetoja or Selim Palmgren rather than Melartin, whose profiling as the new age soul of his time must have aroused suspicion.

Despite this, the male choir songs Ikävä ja Häälaulu (from the play music Nordic Wedding), which Melartin detached from his extensive play music and rewritten a cappella in 1907 and 1908, are indisputably part of our choral literature. In addition, the second and third prizes in the composition competitions of the Muntra Musikanter male choir in 1900, the male choir songs Jungfru Maria i Rosengård, op.57 no.1, and Nu är det helg öfver havet, op.57 no.3, are rare finds.

The soloists on the record are Aarne Pelkonen (baritone), Tuomas Katajala (tenor) and Matti Turunen (bass).

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