Guitar
SKU:
FG.55011-320-6
Composed by Kai Nieminen.
Fennica Gehrman
#55011-320-6. Published
by Fennica Gehrman
(FG.55011-320-6).
ISBN
9790550113206.
Guit
ar sonata A Walk to the
Mysterious Woods
(2012-13) is so far the
most extensive of the
works Kai Nieminen has
written for his own
instrument, the guitar.
The sonata features
virtuosic and delicate
timbre which is typical
of Nieminen's musical
idiom and which requires
both technical and poetic
skill of the performer.
The music invokes a
fairytale-like scene of
nature with its
references to Finnish
mythology.
Kai
Nieminen's guitar sonata
is in four movements
which follow each other
attacca. The form of the
work resembles the
traditional sonata form:
exposition (A Walk with
Birdsong) - development
(Along the Brook and
Song(s) from the Arctic)
- recapitulation
(Return). The dark chords
of the beginning, the
pressing silence and the
icy-sounding harmony
created by the E flat
bass line evoke an image
of a winter forest. As if
following birdsong, the
music carries the
listener through various
landscapes and moods.
Birdsong takes the
listener to a brook,
which then carries the
traveller to the ancient
Sami joik, a traditional
form of chant, and allows
him or her to bask in the
serenity of natural
beauty in a moment where
the past and present
meet.
Carrie Burdzinski
