Path of a Composer – Composer Waehnen

Path of a Composer: Waehnen — Symphony

Welcome on a journey! I call it the Path of a Composer. The idea is to post key pieces of my music from along the years and hopefully put some light on how I have developed aesthetically, in my craftsmanship and of course also artistically — resulting in these days where I am finally ready to proudly launch myself as a composer of modern art music. It is time for the conclusive chapter.

Waehnen: Symphony (Radiophonic version)
(Available on iTunes, Apple Music, Spotify etc. CD version can be ordered from Waehnen by email.)

I Meteorite and the First Ocean
II Surfacing
III Life Emerges
IV Cathedral of Existence
V The Unspeakable

It was before the holidays and the summer that I posted the previous chapter (VII), concentrating on Überture, the symphonic prog piece that living up to its name was kinda over the top. Indeed it really was a crucial part in freeing myself from the supposedly constricting aesthetics of rock and even prog. In Überture everything was possible — from the symphonic to choral sections, from techno to heavy. I even surpassed my own limits of personal taste in the bold techno sections.

After “Wideplay I” there was a moment where I was truly searching for some serious truths about myself as a composer and artist. I had some discussions with a mentor and step by step became aware of some deeply rooted thought processes of my own doing which were limiting my perspective, vision and consequent actions.

One of those deeply rooted elements was the need to be “a nice guy”. Subconsciously I somehow found myself thinking that I was selfish if I didn´t create music together with other people. Democracy had been a core value (and a strong subconscious motive) but eventually it was in a conflict with the music living inside me. The “democratic nice guy” resulted in me constantly communicating my plans everywhere, creating unnecessary attachments and burdens and maybe even searching for approval. In a way much of my activity in the field of progressive rock was affected by this.

Many things came together at the same time. Firstly, I truly understood that I needed to take a huge jump to the unknown, throw the “democratic nice guy” over the board and really go after the fascinating newborn idea of mine, The Complete Artistic Freedom. Secondly, I had developed technically as a composer and musician and all of a sudden had the confidence in that I could pull off almost anything I wanted. Thirdly, I had composed a lot of material in the style of western modern art music despite having published or performed little of it. I knew my stuff and the potential of it all had piled up over the years. So it was a moment of truth. Eventually I told myself: “It is time to throw away all the excuses. Quit the bullshit. It is time for you to write your Symphony.”

So in the spring of 2023 I began creating the score of my symphony. At the same time I for example quit playing computer games and decided that the symphony would also be my entertainment and a form of escapism. I would compose in the evenings and on the weekends — while at the same time also living normal life, of course. I gave myself and the work all the time it needed. I couldn´t tell beforehand the duration for the process, not at all.

The first decision was natural and easy to make. As an homage to the 7th Symphony by Sibelius, my work would be in one continuous movement. In the end 5 contrasting movements found their way into the work but the music is constructed so that there are no pauses and the transitions are smooth. In music I always aim at cohesion in diversity and diversity in cohesion. I want to make sections as contrasting as possible while at the same time making sure the work has a unique character and profile as a whole. Very Sibelian thinking? Yes.

A few years ago I had already composed a symphonic poem which was called “Meteorite and the First Ocean”. It was obviously inspired by the Oceanides by Sibelius. There was something musically inspiring for me about a meteorite apparently slowly approaching the Earth, then tumultuously soaring through the atmosphere and finally hitting the ocean, causing a huge tsunami. I had ended the tone poem with a scene of the lonely moon sorrowfully shining over the first ocean, anticipating all that was to come… If life was ever to emerge.

The second decision fas also easy: it was very inspiring to use the sheer primeval force of the Meteorite and the First Ocean as the beginning of the symphony. It was a way for me to clear the set so to speak, to remove all other music from the minds of the listeners, to set the stage. After the grand opening I would be free to go to whatever direction I wanted. What a suiting beginning for a grand scale symphony, I thought.

Well of course a thematic and musical seed was planted in the meteorite. 😉 I had read the theories that there might have been some primitive bacteria in some meteorites hitting the earth in the early ages. I had included the potential of life in the meteorite also musically: there is a section where the music kind of zooms inside the smoky cloud and spots some… molecules of complexity, maybe. It also happened that the melody I used to depict the molecules was borrowed from a small piano piece of mine, “Surfacing”, which was about the cognition of a person rising from the subconsciousness to the surface of consciousness. All of a sudden I put those two ideas together: of course my symphony would be about life on the planet earth and a heavily modified version of the “Surfacing” would be the logical second movement.

So “Surfacing” used to be a brief piano piece. I took the melody and basic idea of it and expanded it multiple times. Of course I also orchestrated it. I didn´t have a look at the score of the piano piece but instead composed it all over again to be the 2nd movement of my symphony. While composing the 2nd movement, I already realised that after surfacing there had to be “Life Emerges”. It was wonderful to realise that I already had a a first movement of a piano sonata working with precisely that theme. With this in mind I composed the Surfacing so that it musically and technically anticipates the 3rd movement, “The Life Emerges”. I even omitted the note C# for quite a few minutes so that when the 3rd movement hits with the C# minor 3-note primeval ostinatos, it truly makes an impact.

So, the 3rd Movement of my Symphony, “Life Emerges”, originally started as a piano sonata. This time I used the ideas straight from the piano score and orchestrated it. Of course I had to rethink many aspects and do some serious arrangement. But even the powerful brass section of the movement (using only metallic instruments), depicting the brutal elements of life, was first composed for the piano. That´s where the sketch of the sonata ended, actually; there wasn´t more “Life Emerges” material ready but it was easy for me to pick up from there. The following “Huge Strings” section for example was amongst the core ideas for the symphony from the very beginning. It was wonderful to get to compose it all. That was meant to be yet another homage to Sibelius: I wanted to create something that would nod in acknowledgement towards the immense rhythmic drive of the 3rd Symphony.

After the dramatic recapitulation of the primeval “Life Emerges” C# minor 3-note repetition theme the music sinks into the more or less choral middle movement. The choral and vocal section wasn´t sketched before. Yet I also knew I would have to build the music up to the grand and powerful appearance of chords on top of a very long pedal point, a theme group I ended up calling “Cathedral of Existence”. Eventually I gave that name to the whole movement. The “Cathedral of Existence” theme (or chords) on top of the pedal point were actually first conceived by me while I played mellotron at a band rehearsal with the prog band Discordia. At that time the idea was called “Asylum”. Yet another sketch that got itself heavily modified and implemented into the symphony, eventually finding its perfect place in my music.

The grand theme of “Cathedral of Existence” needed to be prepared, though. Although in text it may sound that I just put previous sketches one after another, that wasn´t the case. It took a long time to mould it all into place into a functioning whole. It required creating new motifs and tweaking the themes, changing the rhythms, rearranging, adding contrapuntal lines from other sections etc. Only through imagination and hard work was I able to get my Symphony “to accept” all this contrasting material into itself.

Another thing that was very carefully prepared was the appearance of the nightmarish 5th movement, “The Unspeakable”. For example, most of the microtonally haunting intervals along the way acted as a way to prepare for the inevitable that was to be “The Unspeakable”. I also placed “The Microtonal Existential Chord” in quite a few places to act as a premonition. Only one section in the 5th movement was sketched before: that section is “Tears by the First Ocean” in C# minor. The music used the main theme and the chords of my piano piece “Jälki” which I composed for and played in my father´s funeral in 2020. I knew I was expressing deep sorrow there.

“The Unspeakable” has in fact many sections: 3 waves of nightmares, followed by “Tears by the First Ocean”, then the mournful storm of the first ocean, a section where the waters of the earth start to boil while at the same time the humanity is forced to leave the ruined planet in huge arcships… And eventually “The Last March of the Earthens” which dissipates into a slowly fading microtonal chord, almost as if only leaving indifferent radiation behind. The Unspeakable operates as a recapitulation to many of the themes that have been used along the symphonic ride. Especially it capitulates the “Rhythm of the First Ocean” in 7/4 which is first introduced in the first movement and which appears as a more or less hidden rhythmic structure throughout the symphony. Quite often the rhythm is played by strings in perfect fifths. I should also emphasise the importance of the note C# and the key C# minor. Whenever something highly important takes place in the dramaturgy, they appear.

Looking back at it, it is actually surprising but also very natural that I have used material from different sketches as elements in a symphony to such an extent. I think that enabled me to create so much contrasts into the 43 minute work: not all the material and ideas were conceived in one year from 2023 to 2024. No, I summed up in one work a lot sketched material from the past. It should also be pointed out that I do sketch a lot and I only chose ideas that suited this particular work perfectly. It is also interesting to note that some ideas I had first planned for art music were used in progressive rock and some ideas I had planned for progressive rock I ended up using in art music. So my transition from one genre to another is not all that abrupt after all, right?

Also, maybe because the material is so very contrasting there were some moments when I didn´t know what to do! That is very rare for me when it comes to composition. I knew the starting points and I knew where I would have to get to — smoothly enough — but at times I didn´t know how to get there. One of the hardest transitions for me was to get from the quiet choral section to the grand “Cathedral of Existence” theme. The music needed to be alive and convincing all the way. In the end I consciously decided to try Wagnerian and Brucknerian tremolos on the strings. Just by trying it out I did eventually sort it out to my satisfaction. Very Wagnerian and Brucknerian the build-up is!

The first version was finished in May 2024. During our summer holiday in the Austrian Alps we took some photos for the promo and artwork for the Symphony. I also thought about the music a lot while walking in the alps and I wrote 19 corrections into my diary. I don´t think I have ever been so systematic but after I went through with all the 19 corrections with the score, the work was indeed finished. As a composer I felt I had done my absolute best and surpassed myself multiple times. Those who have listened to my other works on this “Path of a Composer” blog journey might agree that this symphony is indeed by far the most complex thing I have created. Also, never before has a work required so much from me. Never before have I glimpsed my own limits as a composer, but this symphony truly put me into places where I sometimes had to ponder for days if not weeks how I should continue.

Sometimes I have been asked what is the style of the symphony. I think it is safe to say that this symphony is eclectic in its style. It is not a collage, though. All the contrasting material used is assimilated into the organism, organically. Like I wrote before, I worked a lot to achieve that. I also worked a lot to get to a place where I felt there was a clear meaning or an intention behind every second of the music. On a profound aesthetic level my technique is to compose whatever I want with my hard-earned complete artistic freedom — but at the same time to convince the work itself, myself and the audience that there is a coherent point to it all. I do not myself like music that just throws stuff around, so I always try not to do that myself.

When it comes to compositional techniques, I would rather not analyse it too much. I choose the technique that suits the occasion and the given moment. Musical ideas and expression comes first, technique follows — and so it is in fact a bit silly to talk about technique as if it was somehow an independent dimension. Anyway: of the pitch organisation on a general level it can be said that the music flows freely between atonal, microtonal, chromatic, modal and tonal situations. I have a tendency to prefer polyphony and holistically Ligeti-like acoustic situations (sound fields) over other basic textures. When it comes to harmonies: notes, intervals and some chords have symbolic or synesthetic significance to me so there are central keys of kind at use because of that. When it comes to rhythms, in this work I have mostly build around the metre of 7/4, which is one beat more than the common 6/8 and one beat less than the common 4/4. This has helped in my fight against falling into the trap of dancy neoclassicism which is always a threat for those not careful and awake. 😉

Does the work belong to some compositional school? Well, I certainly hope not! It does not use postmodern techniques such as the collage, pastiche or sarcasm or irony. Neither is it modernistic in the sense that it would accept the idea of denying the past as a core principle. It is not traditionalist music either because the music lives in the here and now, addressing the musical situation of 2020´s — and I think nothing quite like it has been composed before. So maybe I leave the isms for other people to ponder over. For me the the symphony is a genuine picture of my musical world with all kinds of isms and techniques and styles I have experienced. Put on top of that my experience that the work itself had a life of its own like an organism and it grew the way it grew, following also its own laws.

So we had a finished score! Did the work end there, with a completed score? Of course not! It is not in me to wait for an eternity for a symphony orchestra to get interested. Marketing is not my forte! So after the score was finished, I started to plan the recording and programming sessions for the radiophonic version. With “radiophonic” I mean music where the studio technics can be heard and are welcomed. Radiophonic for me is the opposite of studio live which aims at recording one particular unique performance. For me the radiophonic version was always about not just trying to mimic the symphony orchestra but to express my complete artistic freedom also when it comes to the arrangement, sounds and mix. Just to make sure you understand: the score I have at the moment is a detailed score but it is for the radiophonic version. A normal symphony orchestra cannot play everything in it the way it is. Should a symphony orchestra be interested some day, I would carefully adapt and arrange the work for the ensemble.

It needs to be admitted that after all the work of composing the symphony, the process of creating the radiophonic version sure was exhausting. Even just finding the right sounds took a long time. Luckily I had great musicians alongside: Henri Haapakoski for the woodwinds and Riikka Hänninen for the female vocals. I am very grateful for their effort and insight. I played many instruments myself and sang, too.

One of the most important things I learned by completing the radiophonic version: during the production I needed to operate as though I was the conductor of the orchestra. One of the most important things was to find my “inner Klemperer” — which means that I had to find the right tempos for the sounds and articulations. Many tempos changed from those in the score. The reality of the score is different from the reality of the audio version. The radiophonic version even added some layers and touches to the orchestration. For example, I added the recurring echoed glissandos on the violins which can be heard three times along the way. Another example: in the “Last March of the Earthens” I just sang the low E´s because I felt the music needed such an emphasis. Things like that.

Eventually, with all the recording, programming, editing, mixing and mastering it took about 6 months to create the radiophonic version of the symphony. Luckily I had the sound engineer Seppo Santala to help me with the mixing and the mastering. He had all the skills needed to make a great finishing touch. One of the most important things I had learned from “Strive or Warp”: never trust your ears when you are tired. Never be in more hurry than the stable quality of the production requires. I am so very happy that despite all the work, I was able to stay calm and not rush the process at any stages. Seppo had absolutely admirable patience with me. A true professional with tons of knowledge and insight. Thank you, Seppo!

Even today I am still completely satisfied with my symphony, both the composition and the production of the album. As I am a very critical person when it comes to my own music, I haven´t gotten to say something like that about my own music before. Usually there are some compromises that have been made. Usually there are some details that I have let pass, maybe due to exhaustion or the “nice guy syndrome”. Usually there were many stones left unturned, places where I hadn´t lived up to my whole potential… But not this time. I didn´t give up my ambition or my vision at any stage. I worked on the composition and the production until the work itself convinced me. Or was it me convincing the work that it was finally completed? I don´t know. But eventually we were both convinced, and we remain so.

The feeling of finally living fully up to my potential, doing my absolute best and exceeding everything I have done before is truly great. Whether other people like my symphony or not, that is out of my hands. I welcome all kind of opinions and reactions! Having done ones absolute best gives a lovely air of confidence, too. What if someone finds flaws in the work? So be it, so what! I have never claimed to be perfect! What if someone hates the work? Then it is not a work for them! There is a lot of great music on earth that is not for me. No problem!

The symphony and the video I created for it was played at a concert in Helsinki in Autumn 2024. Before the actual show on a big screen I was interviewed by a Doctor of Music, Laura Miettinen. I got lovely and enthusiastic feedback from people of all ages — even if there were places that not everyone “got” with just one listen. It was one of the happiest days in my life. It solidified my conviction that this is the path I need to follow.

So here we are, at the end of this particular blog series! Is this blog entry the end, should it be called Chapter VIII, or is this the first entry of another story? I concluded it must be the ground zero and a suiting new beginning for my adventures to come as a composer of modern art music. With this symphony I convinced myself that I am a composer of modern art music. Progressive rock truly is behind me yet I remain grateful for the genre and all the listeners. It was both crucial and fun. There will always be a rocker inside of me although it is very unlikely that I would myself create rock music any more. I hope to have advanced the situation where musical genres are in the end seen as secondary aspects, mere vague titles for the different forms of expression. I am sure we can agree it is the expression that counts.

I hope you have enjoyed getting to know some of the path of this one particular composer! Thank you.

Path of a Composer Chapter VII: Wideplay – Überture

Wideplay: Überture (taken from the album “Wideplay I”, 2021)

Chapter VI was about me joining Discordia again and completing what I consider my greatest piece of rock music, Grip!. Despite the great experience and artistically satisfying results, the process once again also made it clear to me that I would probably no longer create music in such a big group of people. The more people involved, the more there is also extra-musical elements to buzz around — that´s the law of music making, like it or not.

Nevertheless my second go with Discordia left me with a lot of musical material that had not been used. After various phases, Riikka and Sande from the band were willing to create an album with me around those songs and so Wideplay was formed. Sande and I also wrote a bunch of new songs together many of which were recorded as demos as we tried out different arrangements.

In hindsight something about the subconscious exhaustion I started to feel towards rock music and progressive rock can probably be seen in the fact that despite many great songs Wideplay created, in the end I didn´t feel motivated enough to properly start producing more than an EP (30 minutes) of Wideplay music. There was starting to be the element of certain repetition, doing rock for the sake of doing rock.

Anyway, I started to compose Überture only once Wideplay was formed. I also remember that the very beginning of the piece was an idea I toyed with thinking that if I ever wanted to create a traditional romantic piano concerto, my grand opening would be something like that, dramatic and pompous. It is a rather funny thought as I have never ever planned on composing a piano concerto. Anyway, from the very beginning the point of Überture was to be profoundly eclectic and free-spirited music that would not acknowledge the boundaries of genres at all. What better way to start such a piece than with an idea I had for a grand piano concerto? 😉

It just so happened that straight after starting to compose Überture all of a sudden one of my very best friends I had known for around 25 years passed away due to heavy substance use. It was a great shock to me. Of course I knew things were far from well but I had not realised just how bad things had gotten. Consequently Überture shifted it´s focus immediately and it became my way of dealing with the horror of such a fate, the loss and the grief.

As the title suggests, from the very beginning Überture was meant to be over the top. The title also suited the personality of my friend perfectly. He was over the top. I was ready to go wherever the music and the narrative took me — and indeed I was taken to places I had never been before. The most obvious examples are the two techno sections in the middle of the piece. I had never done techno before it and I haven´t done ever since. I don´t even listen to such music. But both the material and the narrative pushed me towards it and the whole point of the piece was to expand the aesthetic boundaries anyway. Once again I needed to free myself musically (indeed it seems that such a musical liberation process is something I regularly have to go through) and free myself I did.

When it comes to my path as a composer, Überture is important in many ways. Firstly it further solidified my skills in creating longer works in a smooth manner and being free with my material. Technically Überture was the best I had achieved so far: diverse yet coherent, all the material closely related and developed constantly. Secondly my skills in musical production took a significant leap forwards. Thirdly I faced my own boundaries of “good taste” which I think is something I had to do sooner or later. And I have to be honest: every time the techno sections kick in, it is kind of hard for me to accept. Then again that kind of cringy awkwardness was the goal as it is obvious when it comes to the narrative and lyrics we are not dealing with a healthy little party here but something compulsive, something over the top, something unhealthy, something scary.

I created a detailed score for the the piece. Überture is scored for flute, piccolo, 3 horns, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, 1 tuba, timpani, drum set, percussion, electric drum set, piano, 4 electric guitars, bass guitar, synth bass, male and female vocals, a choir, 1st and 2nd violins, violas, cellos and double basses. The idea was that vocals would replace the sound of woodwinds, otherwise it would be a symphony orchestra combined with a rock band. Despite the eclectic solutions and the bold crossing of genre boundaries, I regard the work as a symphonic poem more than anything else.

I bought electric drums and played them on Überture although on Wideplay I there are acoustic drums elsewhere. I also played the electric bass and keyboards. Sande played many tracks of electric guitars. Riikka did marvellous job as the other vocalist, once again! I am especially proud of our choir sound. It also needs to be mentioned that although it took a long time to mix Überture, the sound engineer Seppo Santala did an amazing job. After being able to pull off something like the Überture mix, it was later obvious I could trust him even with something like my symphony.

For the record: In the youtube video I created for Überture there is a clown as the main character. Although my friend was one of the funniest people I have ever known (and the most social person I have ever known) and he was famous for his pranks, he was no fool, and neither was he “ridiculous”. But when it comes to artistic expression, bright colours, special emphasis and highlighting are often needed. With the clown character it is easier for the listener to grasp the narrative, I think.

Looking back at it all, completing Überture both as a composition and as a recording was crucial for my musical development. It resulted in giving me enough of the confidence needed to one day start believing I could pull of a symphony of my own. It is now also obvious that it is indeed Überture that finally pushed me over the cliff and forced me to accept that I would gain total artistic freedom and get to express myself to the fullest only in art music from them on. I wasn´t ready to accept it just yet but indeed it was inevitable.

Even after the Wideplay EP I recorded songs with people but something was missing. I found myself talking to people about music more than actually creating it. I was making things complicated out of subconscious frustration. Finally I realised that I had to leave progressive rock behind me and that a symphony of art music would be my way to finally achieve complete and uncompromising artistic freedom, something I had always craved. Something clicked, mental continents shifted and immense forces of nature started to flow. I freed myself also from the self-created (or society-implemented) social boundaries of music making and fully accepted that it does not make me a bad person if I want to be artistically uncompromising. That is the subject of the next chapter, my first symphony.

Path of a Composer Chapter VI: Discordia – Grip!

Discordia: Grip! (Taken from the album Season Changes, 2014)

Chapter V was about me getting symphonic for the first time with the Strive or Warp album. The exhausting task of doing so much of the work all by myself left me valuing collaboration and seeing it in a new light.

I cannot remember how I joined Discordia again. At least I cannot remember whether they asked me or I asked them. All I know is that whoever suggested it, we all thought very fast it was a good idea. Discordia had gone through some changes and they had a second guitarist Timo “Sande” Sandholm; Liisa the keyboard player had also left the band — so it was a turning point anyway when I rejoined.

We all wanted to create another album. Everyone agreed that I would be the musical leader of the band and produce the new album. In return I would make sure the musical interests of every member would be taken into account. In addition to lead vocals, I also started to play the keyboards which I think was a role that suited me. After some time also Riikka joined the band to share the lead vocals and sing some choirs with me.

Compared to the Utopia Perfection lineup, this new Discordia was different. With the new guitarist Sande the new material had gotten much heavier with sound. The rock playing of the band was tight and excellent. I got great kicks from the playing right away. With Sande there were all of a sudden 3 composing members in the band. Like before, it was fascinating to collaborate on the compositions. Most often I took the riffs of the guitarists, put them into some structure and created the vocal melodies and rhythms, along with new textures and polyphonic lines. The album Season Changes ended up having 7 songs: I collaborated on 3 songs with Antti Tolkki and 3 songs with Sande and 1 song was purely mine: Grip!

I remember starting to compose Grip! — which ended up being arguably my longest and greatest progressive rock piece. Yes, I was very thrilled with playing of the band and the idea of having two excellent guitarists was very inspiring. I already knew the playing of Petri and Otto (and the singing of Riikka and myself) so Grip! was all about creating something challenging, rewarding and awe-inspiring specifically for this very band.

So my starting point for the song was the dialogue of the two heavy guitars, separated in the stereo picture. I perceived them kind of the same way as two antiphonal string sections of the symphony orchestra. Add to the picture the melodic bass playing and my keyboards which included rock organ, strings and piano, and the vocal harmonies, and Otto´s versatile and high energy drum playing, there we had the basic ingredients. I felt that here was a band that could execute my wildest rock and roll and progressive rock dreams. So I went for it!

For Strive or Warp my focus and ambition was strongly related and attached to classical music. Season Changes album was my return to rock. So is the 13 minutes long Grip!. It was all about the pure enjoyment of rock playing, energy and sound. Think about the repeated build-up chord progression of the finale part: E minor, G major, B major and C major. No classical note leading, oh no! Just the pure enjoyment of lifting the chords up and up like blocks with raw distorted guitar arpeggios. And to have choirs on top of it eventually, mixed with trills… I love it!

Then again it is also obvious that the long form was heavily influenced by classical music. The work is set in a kind of mixture of the sonata and variation form — plus also the Sibelian “rotation form” introduced by James Hepokoski comes to mind. I perceive traits of all the 3 forms in the work. There are multiple elements I rotate into focus time and time again in a different light along the 13 minutes of the work. For example the main theme is first introduced on the guitars and later reintroduced as a choral canon for the middle section and in the end sung by the lead vocalists.

Another important element of Grip! is the lyrics. When I started to compose and write the piece, I had some health issues. At first it was not clear for me or the doctors what caused these strange sensations of the nervous system but it felt like I was loosing physical control of my body. It felt like sinking into sometimes total physical insecurity where I doubted the functioning of my body. The lyrics are about me trying to get a grip and also for the first time having to face my own mortality and trying to deal with it.

In the end a benign tumour was found and operated. I haven´t had a single panic attack or strange sensation since the operation. But the experience of the sensations in my nervous system was absolutely awful and I cannot really explain what it felt like. Something about the panic and the experience can indeed be heard in Grip!. I think these lyrics are amongst my best. I feel like I have expressed something existential both musically and lyrically.

Like in many of my works there are strongly contrasting elements and ambitions juxtaposed in Grip!. The pure joy and energy of rock is set against the anxiety and expression of the lyrics. It is a strange combination. It is creates a picture of an individual doing his absolute best in trying to figure out what is happening and to regain a control of his life.

Musically Season Changes is completely different from Utopia Perfection, I think. Utopia Perfection was more ironic and tongue in cheek 70´s glam prog rock. There was no glam in Season Changes, it was much heavier and it was way more serious. It is no wonder that some people highly prefer the first album and some people highly prefer the later album. I for one cannot decide and neither do I have to. But Grip! sure is my best rock song of all time. I am immensely proud of it. Also the band has always been proud of pulling it off and learning all the 107 pages of the complicated partiture — and they should be! It was a wonderful thing to achieve together and everybody´s work, skill and insight was needed and put to use.

Pretty much like the previous time, after finishing Season Changes I already had plans and material for the next album and I started to push for it. Musically I just couldn´t stop… Not everyone are hardwired that way. So inevitably after Season Changes the band rather soon disbanded all together. The recording was a great achievement and it was great fun but it was too much for people who eventually wanted more the fun and social part of it all (the others) than the musically immensely ambitious part of it (me). Nevertheless I continued the collaboration with Sande and Riikka for one more progressive rock album during which I already started to sense that maybe my times with progressive rock were about to be over. That is the subject of chapter VII.

Path of a Composer Chapter V: Polyblock – Strive or Warp

Polyblock: Strive or Warp (2010-2011, selection of three movements)

Chapter IV was the story of my first solo album. It was a thrill to feel independent as an artist and to be musically completely genuine, honest and free. I got such encouraging feedback on pathétique that there was no need to get timid. Pathétique was composed very quickly yet I knew I had not lived up to my full potential, not even close. I was in an artistically very ambitious stage.

Sometime around pathétique Discordia and I parted ways. Yet there were quite a few progressive rock songs yet to be recorded which I had composed for the band. I thought I had put too much effort in to trash them. So I started to plan my most ambitious work so far: Strive or Warp. I asked Riikka (from Discordia) and Henri (from pathétique) to cooperate with me on the album and they agreed. At the same time I had bought my first studio system with Protools and I started to teach myself how to record and program — in a way I also wanted to see how far I could technically go just by myself.

The trilogy of songs I chose and that were left over from Discordia were lyrically and musically science fiction. I knew from the beginning I would end the recording with the trilogy. Early on the structure of the music started to form in my head. There would be two parts: the first part would ask the question “Strive or Warp“, there would be a Warp in the end of the section — and the rest would happen in the science fiction universe I had created earlier. In the end there were seven movements. The first 4 movements were new material, the last 3 were the epic trilogy from Discordia.

It sounds like a cliche but I cannot (or will not) create music without being seriously inspired. So I always need to ask myself what is it that I would myself want to hear or express at the given time. So in addition to the Scifi Trilogy which was a given, I needed to find the inspired me here and now for this album. Well, this time I got seriously inspired by John Coltrane´s Stellar Regions which Henri once played me. The saxophone playing was down to fundamental principles, immensely serious and impactful. I was immediately very inspired indeed.

At the same time the image of Beethoven as a Janus Statue — facing both classicism and romanticism — resonated in me to such an extent that I thought about it quite often. I felt that I was facing rock & prog and at the same time facing the other world of serious art music. One of my faces also wanted to create music that people would be touched by and would understand (tonality based) — and at the same time I wanted to create music that would boldly explore the possibilities of expression through being honest primarily to myself (the boundaries of tonality would be bent and at places broken, if needed).

Thirdly, after the typical “suite structure” of pathétique, I definitely wanted to go symphonic this time. Being inspired by John Coltrane, wanting to express the Janus Statue Situation and striving to go symphonic eventually resulted in the opening movement of the work: Ianus Statue.

Ianus Statue is definitely my first take on symphonic music. After the introduction the two saxophones take the main role and talk with the two mouths of Janus. I perceive the movement as kind of sonata form: there is an introduction, exposition, development, recapitulation and coda. The music is not evolved around singable melodies. Ianus Statue is not a song in any way. It is not rock. Is it progressive rock? I am not sure about that either. If pressed, I would say that at least compositionally it is one third progressive rock, two thirds art music.

When it comes to my own compositions, Ianus Statue is amongst my favourites. I feel that in this piece I for the first time showed the elevated version of myself as a composer and musician. It was like having a look high up a mountain and deciding to climb up there. Henri´s saxophones are perfect in my opinion — this is what saxophones are all about to me, and it couldn´t have been any other instruments. Flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet — absolutely not. This is saxophone music. Also I am very proud of the vocal choir work by Riikka and myself in the recapitulation. This is symphonic and it is in G minor — the key of Mozart´s 40th. The key just always felt the right for this work.

I must say that due to my strong need for musical renewal with every recording I have created I have lost some of my previous listeners and gained new listeners — but Ianus Statue is one of the very few pieces by me that has so far been liked by basically everybody. So maybe like a true Janus it manages to look to both directions and find the balance between being approachable and seriously artistic!

Also: the other face is maybe striving, the other one is looking for some warping? I could go on forever with the dualisms, of course!

Stimmung is the 3rd movement. The name is kind of an homage to Karlheinz Stockhausen and his electronic music. I needed a movement that would without words express the dichotomy between modern hectic futility — and on the other hand the longing for peace of mind. I decided to achieve this in an experimental way by juxtaposing different musics against each other in the stereo picture. In the end there is only one “Peace of Mind music” and “3 Hectic Futilities”.

The Peace of Mind music is played on church organ with a lot of cathedral reverb. The Hectic Futilities are musics that have logic to them but they just go on and on without pausing or having any true contrasts anywhere. Some people might be aware of my dislike for “neoclassical, grotesque or ironic dance-like staccato hopping”. Well, if you have wondered what I mean by that, the Three Hectic Futilities of the Stimmung movement might help you understand!

In the end we needed to advance all the way up to The Warp. Phase Shift is the last movement before the other universe. This work is a combination of me wanting to provide space for Henri Haapakoski to improvise on his saxophone and also me wanting to fully express my hate and dislike for the constant STRIVING of modern human life. So I decided Henri would be directing the Phase Shift on top the tribal atmosphere created by me and drive the listener towards the Warp while I would express the awfulness of not warping…

Phase Shift is the craziest music I have created. It remains my most disliked piece of music! Then again composer Osmo Tapio Räihälä decided to play it on YLE (Finnish national broadcasting company) radio channel as an example of Finnish progressive rock. There are friends of Phase Shift, too. I am one of them, for various reasons.

First of all in Phase Shift I managed to let go of controlling all the music. For me that was something new. The piece is almost as much Henri´s as it is mine. His playing and improvisation and the textures he creates are absolutely gorgeous! Secondly, I could not have expressed in a more extreme way what I think about the bloody constant STRIVE of the modern society. The repetitive STRIVE chords were even painful to sing! It was very difficult to breathe in between the barking. I have never been as exhausted or as out of breath or in as deep disbelief after singing than I was after recording my vocals for this one. Riikka and I always laugh warmly after we have revisited this crazy piece of music!

I think the first half of Strive or Warp was musically successful. It was symphonic and people familiar with my later Symphony proper will hear that it is from the same person. Then again it is obvious that being new with the studio technics, I did bite more than I could chew. It resulted in that I was too exhausted to produce the scifi trilogy part properly. The sounds are plain and simple so bad that I cannot listen to them. The compositions are fine but the sounds are unbearable. A very complex 50 minutes album was a bit too much for my technical skills and longevity at the time. That is the reason why I have withdrawn Strive or Warp.

It is a bit peculiar that so far with every Chapter of this blog series I have presented you a different artist name. Shistavich, Waehnen, Discordia, fäänä, Polyblock. The reason for that is that I have never enjoyed the focus being on me as a person. I rather hide behind band names or acronyms and let the music speak. I also have a huge inner need for renewal. So I tend to reject the past and really go for the new. Like I said before, with every point of renewal I have lost some “fans” and gained new ones. Still it is the only way for me.

Sometimes it is hard for me to believe, but even Strive or Warp — where I was most ambitious musically inside progressive rock and went over the top — had some true friends. Some people still say that it is their favourite album from me. It felt immensely good that there were reviews where my hard work was being acknowledged. I have read reviews where the whole drama of the album has been understood without me explaining any of it. With the album technical weaknesses were more exposed than ever but still some people did not care but valued the musical ambition. People forgave my technical errors. That felt very good and it still does.

Creating Strive or Warp left me and my ears musically and most of all technically exhausted. I learnt the hard way that I cannot do it all by myself and that realistic limits must be set around the scope of the work in advance in order to maintain the constant quality. Inevitably I also started to value cooperation once again. The Chapter VI will tell how Riikka and I eventually returned to Discordia and how I got to compose my longest and greatest progressive rock song and record it with great musicians.

Path of a Composer Chapter IV: fäänä pathétique

fäänä: pathétique (EP from 2008)

Chapter III was all about me finding progressive rock. It was wonderful to be the lead singer of a band and truly get to create the kind of rock I had always wanted to. It was a thrill! Nevertheless, like I wrote, great intensity tends to come with a price. In my case it meant that I got tired of the heavy democracy and constant negotiating and communication that surrounded the music making. Great rock intensity also resulted in me wanting a musical contrast.

No, I didn´t want to stop, I wanted to move forward and create more music to put out there but Discordia wasn´t ready to start creating another recording right after Utopia Perfection. That´s completely understandable — and so I quickly understood that I needed to create a solo EP.

My starting point for the EP was for the sound to be something completely different than the Discordia sound. First decisions: no electric guitars, no synthesizers, all vocals by myself and acoustic grand piano into every track! The second decision: I would do exactly what I wanted and not think for one second what other people wanted from the album!

I was very aware of the musical duality within me — the seemingly strong contrast between western (classical) art music and rock music. When I started to compose pathétique it was a given that the work would balance between the two worlds in a way that would be completely honest to myself. I thought it would even be likely that some if not most people would be surprised about at least some aspects of the music. Yet great contrasts within the musical material and expression while remaining coherent was a core value then and it remains a core value even to this day. I want to surprise even myself.

I Prelude is classical piano music in one of my favourite keys: C# minor. It sets the mood of the pathétique suite. In the very ending there are quotes of all the other 4 movements on top of the C# minor arpeggios — which of course indicates that the pieces are very closely related.

II Mist is a somewhat crazy piece! It has multiple dimensions to it. First of all I created my own samples. I recorded drum hits played by Otto from Discordia yet together with the sound engineer Harri Kentala we isolated the samples and put them where we wanted. I also sang samples for the repetitive type of sung gestures without words, inspired by “Leave it” by Yes. The saxophones were played by Henri Haapakoski without sampling and so were of course my lines that have lyrics to them, also longer melodic lines. There is no bass guitar or electric guitar but we put a grand piano through distortion and an amplifier. There is a lot of repetition in Mist which results in creating a rather impactful and majestic whole. I am particularly proud of my a cappella vocal polyphony in the middle section.

III Balloon is a classical influenced pop song with me playing the piano and singing on top of it, without vocal harmonies. Henri plays the flute. The middle section has him doing improvisation. Balloon obviously operates as the slow movement in the middle of the suite.

IV Pathos again features the grand piano put through distortion. I also sang glissandos and we created samples of those tracks and placed them around according to my score. The lyrics were so personal (I thought at the time) in this one that I decided not to print them out and have them whispered and obscured by reverb and delay instead. Well, it suits the movement well and people will get the anxiety even without any words.

V Via Delle Quattro Fontane has a funny story. We were in Rome in 2007. There were ambulances driving around and they had this crazy siren. I took the melody and rhythm of the siren sound and created a piece based on it! After all it was part of the soundtrack of Rome for us. The finale of pathétique is a peculiar piece in many ways: there is a 5 part rock canon in the middle, for example. 😉 It is a combination of classical music and progressive rock. It is indeed the only movement that actually features a drummer, a bass player and an acoustic guitar player (all from Discordia). Yet by discarding the piano distortion I aimed at getting rid of the “mist” that was put on top of everything earlier on. Henri plays the Bass Clarinet he bought from me after I decided I didn´t have enough time or energy to play it myself. The combination of acoustic guitar, bass clarinet and vocal harmonies is radiant just like the Roman sun.

I have composed only 2 love songs in my life — as far as I remember. Via Delle Quattro Fontane is the first one! It was our first trip abroad together. The lyrics of pathétique are more personal than those on my other albums and the finale, Via Delle Quattro Fontane, still manages to fill me with cathartic joy when the mist (echoed or distorted piano) finally vanishes and the sun begins to shine. Yes, we are still together — next year it will be 20 years! I let the lyrics and the music speak for themselves.

To be honest, despite the fact that I tend to be very critical of my own music, I was positively surprised when visiting pathétique again. There is something very honest and genuine about the 20+ minutes. Also, if I may say so, my vocals have never sounded better, as I did not have the pressure of doing it ROCK in this one. When I started this blog series I thought all of it would kind of lead to the symphony where I would be at my most authentic and finally freed myself. But I must say I seem to be artistically just as free in pathétique as I am in the symphony.

The questions I am asking now: why couldn´t a composer of art music be a singer-songwriter? Pathétique reminded me that I should not forget about my own musicianship. It is also pushing me to the direction of preferring acoustic instruments in the studio in the future.

My first solo album was liked by most who got to know it yet I do remember that it alienated many friends of Discordia music. I have considered myself an underground indie art musician ever since. Due to fäänä: pathétique many people in Finland still call me “fäänä”!

The next chapter (V) will feature a piece that was my first step into truly symphonic music — a piece I am still immensely proud of, one of my best ever. Yet it will also tell a story of a failure — biting more than I could chew while producing my next solo album, all 50+ minutes (too much!) of it. It is my only recording I have withdrawn and refuse to sell. Luckily a few tracks are amongst the best I have ever created.

Path of a Composer Chapter III: Discordia

Discordia: Foreseen — Interlude — Slave Planet II

Three songs from the progressive rock album Utopia Perfection (2007)

Like I wrote in Chapter II, eventually I dropped out of Sibelius Academy and changed to The University of Helsinki. That was also the time when I decided I do not want to be a professional musician. The idea of constantly trying to sell my work to everyone or applying for scholarships or stipends was just something that did not suit my temperament. Very crucial was also to realise that indeed I wanted to be a composer more than anything — not a pianist, not a singer, not a teacher… But a composer. And not just whatever composer but a truly independent and uncompromising composer who would be able to do what ever he wanted without the compulsive need to please other people. So I was on that road I had chosen for myself (I still am).

After Kilpilaulu I managed to in a small scale launch myself as a composer of western art music. In addition to student works, I had a few commissions and my works were performed in Finland. For example I composed a cantata for the 90th Year Celebration of The Library of Kallio (2002) to the also commissioned text by the Finnish poet Ilpo Tiihonen. I will also mention the song “Näin unta kesästä kerran” (2004) for soprano and alto which two famous Finnish singers Piia and Anu Komsi performed a couple of times in their concerts. (While I write this it is still possible that a recording of one of those performances could be found in the archives of Piia or Anu.)

Anyway, it just so happened that on the musicology mail list a progressive rock band announced they were looking for a new lead singer. I got interested and listened to the demos of the band and liked what I heard. The idea of getting to really hang out with musicians and create music together with other people appealed to me at the time. Also, I had been told before that some of my music was progressive rock. So I decided to audition for the band. I craved for powerful rock music as a contrast to the art music I was studying.

I got in Discordia. It was peculiar for me at first not the play the bass or the piano. I would have to be the lead singer. It certainly was a challenge. First I learned the old songs of Discordia and after a while I started to introduce my own ideas for the band. They seemed to like my music so they welcomed that I would be one of the new main composers of the ensemble. I also took my Bass Clarinet with a microphone to the studio a few times.

We did a 3 piece EP in 2005 where one of my songs were included. The EP got great feedback. It was a strange experience to really read reviews of my music. Encouraged, the band rather quickly started to plan a long play album. I contacted my friend and former fellow student from Sibelius academy, Riikka Hänninen, and asked her to become the other singer for the album, as vocal harmonies have always been very important to me. She came to a few rehearsals and finally agreed. There were also a couple of other changes in the band but eventually the core group was formed.

When it comes to the composition process, for the first time since my teenage grunge band, I took some riffs from the other members and forged them into complete songs. It has always been inspirational for me to do something like that. It was a great feeling to see and hear how the other members liked how I helped them forwards with their music. (Not that they always needed my help.) Anyway, the song Foreseen is the first song I co-wrote like that. The first two guitar riffs were by the guitarist Antti Tolkki and I created a song around them. With Foreseen I also for the first time abandoned chord sheets but put everything into the score. That has been my method ever since, allowing for more imaginative arrangements. Although some in the band didn´t read notes well, they had to learn — and learn they did!

The band was democratic. Every decision was made together. Nevertheless I practically became the executive branch — who lead the way and introduced the key points for the decision making. I was very serious about putting the 11 piece long play album together in a cohesive way. I wanted it to form a symphonic whole and have a logical and convincing arc to it. I think we succeeded in that. The three songs I selected for this chapter were part of the main dramatic narrative: Foreseen was the high energy first track, Interlude in the middle referred to both to the beginning and to the ending and Slave Planet II was the emotionally cathartic and story-wise high point of the album.

The sound of the Discordia band was very epic even before me. When Riikka joined, the music started to take the form of even operatic dimensions. The band never did love songs but their former lyrics were full of science fiction and philosophy instead. I have always read a lot of science fiction so as a lyricist I chose that path for the album. It is all high fantasy and science fiction, epic in character, out of this world. Just listen to Slave Planet II and hear for yourself just how intensively Riikka interprets her role as a psychic Queen.

As a visually impaired singer, Riikka´s perfect pitch and immensely powerful and present, here-and-now way of interpretation and stage presence became a crucial element of the Discordia experience. We called Riikka the Shaman. I was called The Visionary. Liisa (keyboards) who was a very eclectic educated musician was called The Sound Wizard. Otto (drums) with all his Rush influences was The Energy Generator. Petri (bass) in all his 70´s attitude was the Backbone of the Army. Antti (guitars) with his Marillion delays was The Hip. 😉

It was very interesting to have a look back at these songs musically. The influence of classical music can be heard everywhere, especially in my songs of course. For example the form of Foreseen is kind of like a huge development section, without clear verses or choruses. I have typically classical harmonies there. Also poly-rhythmics, some untypical scales and intervals. Interlude with all its repetition is obviously minimalist music, the middle section also highly polyphonic. Slave Planet II is in fact my first take on a longer progressive rock epos; it also has some harmonies, scales and intervals that some reviewers thought were out of tune! For example there is a minor 9th interval in the middle section. G# sharp on top of G major chord. Anyway, the influence of classical music is most obvious in the last section where I composed a somewhat baroque polyphonic section for the band. This recording is also the only testament to me playing the Bass Clarinet (Interlude and Slave Planet II). I also played some vibraphone for the first and last time in the beginning of Slave Planet II.

The album turned out to be a relatively great success in Finland — not so much commercially but critically as part of the progressive rock and rock scene. For some reason we also sold hundreds of copies to Japan! For me it was intoxicating to read reviews and get exciting feedback of our music. What is still mind-boggling to me is that in a major music magazine even I was said to be one of the best rock vocalists in Finland. I think that was an overstatement but I do agree that the vocals of Riikka and myself were a good match. Still it is a mystery to me why I wrote the higher part for myself in Interlude! That note is the absolute highest pitch I have ever reached, I think.

From my personal point of view, now that I am looking back, it is no wonder I got involved in progressive rock for many years. The feeling of performing such intensive, high energy and also sufficiently complicated music on stage was intoxicating. Also, the eclectic rock sound of Discordia still appeals to me. I really got to do in rock music what I had always wanted. Also, I really liked to get direct feedback. I liked the unformal contact with people. There is something about the formalities about classical music culture that has never appealed to me — but being in a progressive rock band had none of that.

It was so much fun to be in the band. We got along very well as people. But it needs to be admitted that I was a very ambitious band member. I was pushing forward all the time and I didn´t want to stop. In hindsight it´s clear it was too much for the band. I also found the democracy a very slow method. It took me years to understand and accept that if I want to execute my artistic vision to the maximum it needs to be stated out loud in the very beginning. The uncompromising attitude in itself is OK if made clear and it does not mean that I would be selfish as a person. For years I tried to balance between being a considerate fellow musician and at the same time uncompromising in my visions — and it didn´t work eventually through democracy at least. Yes, I cannot deny that I was a very strong-willed member of the band and it created quite a few clashes.

After Utopia Perfection and all the gigs we decided to take a break and I went to record my first solo EP ever. It balances between art music and rock music and is a great testament to the duality in me. Three Discordia members played on a few tracks, in fact. That will be the subject of Chapter IV.

Path of a Composer Chapter II: Kilpilaulu

Waehnen: Kilpilaulu (demo from year 2002)
For alto, flute, clarinet, bassoon, viola and piano

“Who are we?” presented on the previous chapter was an example of my art rock which first of all was significant in guiding me to the fascinating idea of trying to become a composer of art music and later encouraging me to spread my wings. I cannot remember the whole thought process with all it´s phases but we do have a document of my first composition of Western art music and I am proud to share it with you on this blogpost.

Kilpilaulu was composed on the poem by the author Eeva Kilpi. I called her on the phone and asked for a permission which she gave me. The first idea was to compose three of these songs on her poems but I ended up composing only one. When I told Eeva I was to compose “Kuolema, ota minut käsivarsillesi” (Death, lift me in your arms), she said something like: “Oh, that is a very sad one”. Indeed. Nowadays “Kilpilaulu” is the name of the song because I have always referred to it by that name rather than with the longer title of the poem.

I had listened to a lot of classical and modern art music until then but never had I dared to try myself before this song. Yet, having studied in Musiikkiopisto (a Finnish music school system) ever since 1986, I of course knew how to read and write music. I had done a lot of exercises during my general musical studies. Also, I had tens and tens of poprock songs behind me already — and that has to count for something. So technical matters weren´t really an obstacle, I remember that. Now that I think of it, it truly must have been inevitable that I took up the task of the art music in the end.

I remember it was musically an immensely gorgeous and liberating experience to compose Kilpilaulu! It felt just great to create this kind of music of my own, to deal with something so essential. The feeling of being completely free was also so satisfying. That´s what art music still is for me, foremost: a medium where you don´t have to care about the limits of a genre. Now that I have a look at the song, it seems that the instrumentation and expression through it came to me very naturally. Listening to the demo, it feels as though I was at home with this kind of music from the start, despite certain technical aspects that I would do differently now that I have all the experience.

What were the starting points for the composition? Well there are many of them in fact. One of them was of course the extremely impactful poem before which there was none of the music. The second starting point is strongly linked to the first: I was going through a rather serious burnout while composing this song and it in fact resulted in me dropping out of Sibelius Academy and changing to Helsinki Yliopisto. It was the turning point in my life: until those years I had been an artistically oriented young fellow who subconsciously tried to please everyone and spread his focus all over, even musically. It was in those very same days that I decided to drop everything unnecessary from my life and focus on the essential. And I am still happily on that path! The powerful poem and composing it to music in fact helped me express the anxiety I was going through and as such get over my burnout. I emerged from that crisis much stronger, eventually really knowing who I am. So this song is a significant personal document to me — it still reminds me of paths not to take, it reminds me that I have to respect myself and live the kind of life that foremost suits me before anyone else. Only that way can I be of help and joy to others.

The 3rd starting point for Kilpilaulu must of course be musical. The influence of the expressive and intimate 4th Symphony by Sibelius is obvious. The flute high up against the slow note of the bassoon starts off the whole song. Very Sibelian gesture, right? Il Tempo Largo. Another influence is Tchaikovsky´s 6th Symphony, Symphonie Pathétique, in B minor. Yes, when I was going through the hard times the 4th by Sibelius and Tchaikovsky´s Pathétique were crucial. I remember thinking that there isn´t such a pain in the world that music could not express. As a kind of homage, the main melody sang by the soloist starts in augmented B minor — the key of the Pathétique. It couldn´t have been any other key.

When it comes to the technical aspects of composition, I decided to trust my heart, intuition, experience and ears. It seems that even on this first song I found something essential to myself: I like to slide seamlessly from tonality to modality to chromaticism to microtonality — expression showing the way and being the primary goal. The first three categories are present in this song, the 4th only as a kind of acoustic play where the piano doubles on the 5th of the bassoon (octave and a fifth higher, referring to a powerful overtone). Anyway, even to this day I refuse to limit my musical means in order to please some aesthetic school. I can be very tonal and traditional and very modern, new-searching and dissonant if I choose so. This has stayed the same throughout the years.

Also the strong aim at coherence is still present in my compositions and it is obvious in Kilpilaulu as well. There are a few musical motives which are developed along the way. That´s what I have always admired in Sibelius: organic growth of the music. I aimed at the same in this song. That results in that the music seems to make sense. Then again it is not something that I would have to meticulously work at — I think for me it is a basic quality of music to build on what has been before. That I am strongly Sibelian and Beethovenian is at the core of my musical being. The balance between cohesion, diversity, expression and strong contrasts is still at the core of my composing.

What about the aesthetics from the viewpoint of today? Well, if I were to compose the piece today, I would fix certain things, and a few places would be different. There is some naivety to be spotted, at least for me. Then again I value the genuine atmosphere of the piece — there is none of the technical showing off that is something composers need to consciously work against, me included. In the end if the music communicates, is genuine and makes an impact, that is all you can ask of a composition.

The demo was recorded at Sibelius Academy and performed by my fellow students. I did nothing but produced and guided the rehearsing and recording process. It was a studio live with some overdubs. I remember that for some of my fellows recording the piece was kind of hard because the poem and the music is so full of anxiety. We were young but all of a sudden there was something very serious indeed to be performed. Anyway, I think everyone did a great job! I have to mention especially Laura Miettinen, who also sang on Chapter I “Shistavich: Who are we?”, but in the style and aesthetics of popular music. It is interesting to hear how the aesthetics differ. I love her voice and performance in both works.

How to sum it all up? For me Kilpilaulu was crucial in that it allowed me to put into music my experience of the burnout which was the biggest crisis of my life until then and even today one of the 2 crises I have gone through. I realised that there is nothing that music could not express and I live in that conviction even today. Also, it really is my first piece of modern western art music. Despite the certain naivety or bare/primitive expression, I seem to have found my musical voice in art music straight away. Such experiences have a lasting effect even though my journey was to take many turns. The seed was planted so to speak although I was not ready to give up rock of which I had so many years of experience.

The Path of a Composer Chapter III will address how I continued to train composing art music yet by accident found progressive rock which combined art music and rock and through which I was able to express the musical duality within myself for many years whilst letting the art musician in me slowly grow.

Path of a Composer Chapter I: Shistavich — Who Are We?

Shistavich – Who Are We? (Demo from year 2001.)

Shistavich was a band formed by a bunch of students mostly at the Sibelius Academy. It was based on my art songs, the powerful vocals of Laura Miettinen and the excellent playing and arrangements of guitarist Harri Kentala, bass player Osmo Ikonen and drummer J Salonen.

When Shistavich was formed, I already had some experience in rock bands. It all started with a grunge band Jubilee Club (1993-1995) in which I sang vocals and played the bass guitar. My first real songs were composed for the band — although I had improvised on the piano and by singing basically my whole life until then. In high school I had a band ugFish and that´s when my compositions started to head to the direction of art rock. That was mostly due to me truly finding classical music and especially Sibelius and Beethoven in 1996 on my exchange year in Australia.

What do I recall about “Who Are We?” and how is it typical of my art rock? Well, from the very beginning my compositions were based on chord progressions with bass lines and vocals on top, put to strong rhythms. I did all of this on the piano, singing. “Who are we?” is representative of the same tradition. Also from the beginning until those days I communicated my songs with chord sheets, without writing the melodies in detail but rather singing them with the lyrics to the vocalist. I also communicated the rhythms and the basic beat to the band for a starting point by playing the piano. As far as I remember in this instance I wrote in notes only the background harmonies for the studio work.

The chord progressions of “Who are we?” are in fact rather complex. At that time I often occupied myself with harmonic progressions that made the song constantly transpose it´s key. This song is a prime example of that. The listener might not even be aware of that it starts in A minor after which it transposes regularly in minor thirds: A minor to C minor to Eb minor and finally to ending in F# minor.

What are the connections to classical music? Well I think my roots in classical music can be heard in my pianism. Also the chords chosen, the way I combine the chords to each other and the tone leading do reflect classical music. This song is not particularly polyphonic in texture but I hear polyphonic thinking behind the music: it is spread between all the instruments and the vocals and it makes the music smooth, despite the intensive harmonies. Could I have composed this music without playing the classical piano and having learned about the classical tone leading and chord progressions? Nope.

One key feature typical to me as a composer that is also present in “Who Are We?” is the importance of the melody. There were (somewhat naive) times when I even valued and ranked songs and even instrumental classical music primarily on their melodies — and that is the reason why I demanded a lot from my own melodies. The song is very melodic indeed. Another key feature of mine is the demand of expression and drama. The listeners must always feel that I have given them something of significance. I work on my music as long as it takes to achieve the status where I can convincingly say: “Yes, I have expressed something meaningful and other people can probably get something from this.”

Lyrics in English is something I have done ever since Jubilee Club. I consider myself a decent writer in Finnish as I have been writing short stories and am in the middle of writing my first novel. But I must be honest: I have no true ability of evaluating the quality of my lyrics in English to any objectivity. What I can say is that in the lyrics of “Who Are We?” I have expressed my deep love for nature and described my long walks in the ancient Finnish forests wondering about the human life and the occasional insanity of living in a busy city as part of the immensely complex society. The song is about the basic question of life as stated by a person in his early 20´s.

“Who are we?” was undoubtedly included in the top 5 songs of the Shistavich band. I also consider it one of my best art rock songs and even today I am perfectly happy with it. Nevertheless, quite soon after this song the band started to move towards more funk, blues, R&B and roots type of aesthetics. Coming from the dichotomy and union of Rock & Classical myself, I didn´t feel at home with the direction the band and the arrangements were taking although I of course liked everything the great band did. Yet I have joked that there is absolutely NO GROOVE in me as a composer and musician. 😉 So inevitably Shistavich disbanded rather soon after that — luckily there was no drama at all included.

By the way, I talked to all the members of Shistavich before this blog post! They listened to the song and liked it even today. Many of the members of Shistavich are prominent full time musicians in Finland today.

The end of Shistavich also coincided with the time that I for the first time thought that maybe I should start composing art music myself. Classical music had slowly become the most important genre of music in my life but it took a long time before it even crossed my mind that maybe I could start composing it myself. Looking back, without Shistavich and all the feedback I would not have found my strengths as a composer or my identity — at least not as quickly.

It is in fact fascinating to think that before “Who Are We?” I had never composed a single piece of western “classical” or modern art music. The Path of a Composer Chapter II will let you hear my first ever composition of western modern art music.

I hope you enjoy the song!