Elegia

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.

Elegy was composed with a grant from the Sibelius Fund of The Society of Finnish Composers. I warmly thank my wife, Katja, 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.

– Markku Klami (translation by Susan Sinisalo)