choir

Finland’s choral scene is vibrant, and its professional side has further solidified in recent years. It is important for amateur and professional choirs alike to move with the times by creating new choral repertoire and providing opportunities for composers to make discoveries with the choral instrument. Recent developments have brought the choral scene to a turning point.

A wall of sound produced by a choir, when done just so, can pierce the heart and reach right up to the tear ducts. Singing familiar songs together fosters a sense of community, linking us to a generational chain of singers of bygone times as the shared joy of raising our voices together generates positive energy. Scientific studies have shown that singing together has measurable health benefits. In the Year of the Coronavirus, however, singing has suddenly been deemed a dangerous activity, and as such has been restricted or banned outright. Nevertheless, singing did and does go on, even under these exceptional circumstances.

"It is delightful that the ambitious concert projects by the Helsinki Chamber Choir so often become available in recorded form."

"For all the sophistication of Rautavaara’s harmonic language, what he is doing here, basically, is weaving a spell – and I defy you not to be hypnotised by the unearthly beauty of this wonderful music."

Choral singing has made a vital contribution to Finland’s history and is a crucial building block of Finnish society. Pasi Hyökki is well versed in the challenges and rewards of conducting a male choir institution and a children’s choir institution, each with a strong tradition and reputation. Professional choral singing, however, is pitifully underdeveloped in Finland.

There is something timeless about the music of the Orthodox Church – as indeed about the gilded icons, the noble ecclesiastical architecture and the scent of incense. The only instrument allowed in Orthodox churches is the human voice.

There has been little research in Finland into Karelian culture on the Russian side of the border during the Soviet era. From the 1920s to the 1950s we get a fragmented picture on the whole of cultural policy in the Soviet Union. Ever the victim of ideological change, Karelian culture was sometimes something that enriched a multicultural state, sometimes something to be denounced as unorthodox.

The Estonian song festival is a concept whose history and significance cannot be assessed with conventional artistic criteria. Since the last century, the song festivals organized in Tallinn have been a demonstration of Estonian culture and national spirit whose power has been strongest at crucial turning points in the nations history. On the other hand, they have also served as a showcase for a rich and original culture of singing and as a demonstration of a rare and heartfelt musical togetherness.

In his article from 1987 Markku Kilpiö takes a look at Finnish choral singing.