Paavo Heininen

The cultural cold war between the superpowers that began after the Second World War played a major role in shaping the international arts and culture scene as we know it today. This series of articles discusses the impacts of cultural diplomacy, particularly that of the USA, on Finnish music from the days of the Cold War to the present. This third part examines how American avant-garde came to Finland in the 1960s and what impacts it had.

"Four CDs full of a Modernist composer’s organ music is a heavy package indeed. In the hands of the organist Jan Lehtola et al. we manage to get a full picture of Heininen’s style viewed through a single instrument. And Heininen does not let us down...

A Sixth Symphony, orchestral solo songs, an organ concerto, sonatas for most wind instruments, six new string quartets… not to speak of a world-embracing opera plan and ideas about making a computer clone of oneself.

The title would appear to be hooked up to the concept of “music and language”, or even “music as language”. As it happens, this summer I have got into several lengthy debates on this particular issue, so let’s continue in the same vein.

Paavo Heininen got down to a serious composing career, geared from the outset towards large works, at a relatively early age. This beginning came in the late 1950s, when both dodecaphony and its historical offspring serialism were making their entry into the Finnish musical arena. The newcomers encountered stern resistance: the fact that a couple of composers had determined to use the new method in no sense meant that musical life in general was ready to welcome the fresh ideas with open arms.

In 1994 FMQ addressed this question to two very significant, and oh so very different Finnish composer personalities, Paavo Heininen and Einojuhani Rautavaara. Tapani Länsiö, himself a composer, pulled the two maestros to one side for a few moments and dug out the answers.