A new work for soprano and Pierrot ensemble, titled Elegia (Elegy) by Markku Klami will be premiered by soprano Tuiki Järvensivu and TampereRaw, a Tampere-based ensemble of contemporary music, at Tampere Biennale Festival on April 7, 2022.
The texts sung in Elegia's three movements are poems written by Katja Klami. The subjects of the poems focus on human destinies, especially resignation and loss. The three poems, Minä kuvittelin sinulle elämän (I imagined life for you), Hiipuen (Fading) and Palava maa (Burning earth), focus on unwanted infertility, the caregiver experiences of memory-impaired patients, and climate change and global conflicts. The titles of the poems are echoed in the titles of Elegia's three movements.
The commissioner, Tampere Biennale Festival, proposed a wish that the texts in Elegia would focus on human destinies. During the composition work, Katja Klami's poems turned out to be not only timeless, but also very topical. Elegia was completed in late February 2022, just a day after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The short and captivating words of the last poem, Palava maa, reflect on the effects of human actions on the environment and nature as well as on other people.
Teosto, the music copyright association in Finland, recently released a blog article by Markku Klami about the composition process of Elegia and how the poems by Katja Klami affected the process.
Elegia is written for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano and was commissioned by Tampere Biennale Festival. The commission was supported by the Sibelius Fund.