Markku Klami | Composer
Elegia
Soprano and ensemble
Composed:
2022
Watch / listen
Tuiki Järvensivu, soprano, TampereRaw Ensemble
Live recording from Tampere Biennale Festival, April 7, 2022
Recording by the Finnish Broadcasting Company. Released with permission from the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
Score / parts
Instrumentation and duration
Soprano and ensemble: flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
Duration: 13 minutes
Movements
I. Minä kuvittelin sinulle elämän (I imagined a life for you)
II. Hiipuen (Fading)
III. Palava maa (The burning earth)
Text
Poems by Katja Klami
Commission / dedications
Commissioned by Tampere Biennale Festival 2022 with support from Sibelius Fund
First performance
Tuiki Järvensivu, soprano, TampereRAW Ensemble: Anna Angervo, violin, Maija Juuti, cello, Seppo Planman, flute, Janne Pesonen, clarinet, Ville Hautakangas, piano, visualization by Arttu Nieminen, Tampere Biennale Festival, Tampere Old Church, Tampere, Finland, April 7, 2022
Reflections
Concert review, published on Kulttuuritoimitus by Kikka Holmberg
April 8, 2022
The first premiere of the evening was Elegia (2022), a commission by Tampere Biennale, composed by Markku Klami to poems by Katja Klami. Scored for soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, the piece formed a beautiful union of music and text.
Markku Klami does not lean on overtly modernist means of expression, which leaves generous space for the poetry to resonate. The musical textures unfold harmoniously and richly. Tuiki Järvensivu’s soprano shimmered with colour, and the highest notes, in particular, blossomed beautifully in the acoustics of the Old Church. Katja Klami’s understated yet powerfully expressive poems emerged as both timeless and timely—deeply affecting in their simplicity.
Concert review, published on Hufvudstadsbladet by Mats Liljeroos
September 5, 2022
Elegia for soprano and instrumental quintet, composed by Markku Klami and premiered earlier this year, leans somewhat closer to a traditional modernist idiom. Set to poems by his wife, Katja Klami, the work’s expressive and at times breathtakingly beautiful musical language left a thoroughly personal impression.
Tuiki Järvensivu’s wonderfully supple and resonant soprano soared effortlessly on its elegiac wings.
Concert review, published on Jälkikaikuja Korvakäytävillä by Jari Hoffrén
April 22, 2022
The compactness of the Old Church as a performance space seemed to be echoed in the profile of the evening’s program. Markku Klami’s Elegia received its world premiere—a work that listeners could prepare for in advance through the composer’s own program notes available online. This leads us to an essential question about the origins of music and the elements—bodily experience included—that, in line with the festival’s theme, shape the landscapes emerging in a composer’s mind. In this work, written to texts by Katja Klami (the composer’s spouse), various forms of loss are explored.
The first movement, Minä kuvittelin sinulle elämän (“I imagined a life for you”), begins from above—only to let go and descend. Amid this stripped-back atmosphere comes a brief moment of bubbling, sparkling energy. A dramatic shift follows, painting a vision of imagined love, exuding bittersweet brightness: “the first love, piercing and enchanting.”
In the second movement, Hiipuen ("Fading"), the disintegration of identity and mind is examined, slowly unraveling—“your self is being stripped from you.” It feels as though the fate-knocking piano asks whether it might be time to surrender. The movement ends with a beautiful solo passage. “I clench the soil in my hand. How can mercy hurt so much?” asks soprano Tuiki Järvensivu, touchingly.
The third movement, Palava maa (“The burning earth”), drifts into a kind of cosmic mood—perhaps because there’s nothing else left. The musical language here leans toward stylized resignation, steering clear of bombastic dramatization or destructive roaring. A central message is repeated: “there are only great fiery winds / and the fading flight of life.” The glimmer fades, and the astral piano brings this premiere to a resonant close. The music, emotionally charged and true to its own voice, serves these songs well.
— The composer later shared his delight with the performance and specifically mentioned how deeply moved he was by the vocal delivery.
Composer's Notes
Translation by Susan Sinisalo
Elegia (Elegy) was commissioned by the Tampere Biennale festival. The commissioner's wish was that the texts in my work would focus on human destinies. Inspired by this desire, my interest focused on human destinies at both personal and global levels.
The first movement, I imagined a life for you, concentrates on the thoughts and feelings aroused by involuntary childlessness. Longing, grief, hope and sadness merge from time to time with emotional turmoil: Why us? Could our dream still come true? Might we take part in the miracle of a new life, and follow the growth and development of that life? These and many other thoughts must surely face anyone suffering from involuntary childlessness.
In the second movement, Fading, the music solidifies into slow, lingering and at times crumbling timbres. The words focus on the experiences and conflicting emotions engendered in the sole caregiver by the decline of a dear one ravaged by senile decay. The gradual decline of another's personality causes great anguish. Impending death may therefore also appear to be a liberating end to that person's demise.
The short, laconic text of the last movement, The burning earth, strikes to the very heart of the inexorable advance of climate change and global conflicts. What makes individuals and even large communities act in ways that erode the prerequisites for a safe and peaceful life and a sustainable future? Faced with these huge questions, we often feel helpless, and in our own personal lives the chances of influencing seem small, even negligible. We are obliged to observe the great change as mere bystanders, as it were.
Elegia was composed with a grant from the Sibelius Fund of The Society of Finnish Composers. I warmly thank my wife, Katja Klami, for her moving poems, the Tampere Biennale for its commission, the Sibelius Fund for its support, and the musicians who premiered my work for their magnificent collaboration.