Description
Release Date: 01/20/23
Alba publishes Erkki Melartin's entire male choir production.
Alba publishes Erkki Melartin's entire male choir production. The choir is Laulu-Miehet, conducted by Matti Hyökki. The soloists on the record are Aarne Pelkonen, baritone, Tuomas Katajala, tenor and Matti Turunen, bass. Erkki (Erik Gustaf) Melartin was born in the rural municipality of Käkisalmi on February 7, 1875 and died in the rural municipality of Helsinki on February 14, 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, opera Aino, ballet's 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 recognizing 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 laterMartti Turunen, favored Toivo Kuula, Leevi Madetoja or Selim Palmgren rather than Melartin, whose profiling as the new age soul of his time must have aroused suspicion.
| Label: Alba Records |
| Genre: Classical |
| Run Time: 71:04 mins |
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