for ensemble

Flute – Cl in Bb – Asax in Eb – Horn in F – Harp – Piano – 2 Violins – Cello
Fp. NYKY Ensemble, cond. Jarkko Hartikainen, Helsinki 23 April 2025


Program note

MaTer(re)ia (2025)

After composing EMBODIED: Violin Solo—a key work written for my brave favorite musician Eriikka Maalismaa and based on the so-called “wolf tone”—my compositional work has increasingly sought to let the natural materials used in instruments shape the music more holistically, according to their own will. At its core, this is a non-verbal reexamination of our relationship with nature, explored through one of the major arenas for our emotions (because in the end emotions guide all our actions).

I am inspired by ritualistically and meditatively listening to what music-making becomes if it consciously and truly democratizes itself into the tangible materiality of the performance event. In the classical tradition, we are thoroughly trained to smooth out the friction connected to material reality and our environment—so that our purely human-centered fantasies may shine uninterrupted. The broader consequences of this attitude are evident in daily climate news, which offer far less inspiration. Since all of our lives are responsible and dependent for making a corrective shift, I believe that this must also permeate the work of the composer.

MaTer(re)ia (2025), developed with the weekly support of the NYKY Ensemble, begins from sonic phenomena rooted in material reality—those that elude our full control. In the past six weeks of workshop collaboration, we have searched for sounds that behave not 100% predictably, but 50%, in one way or another. These are sounds where the non-human reality can influence the music as an equal partner. The behavior of the instruments in this 50/50 state determines how the music forms in time—somewhat like navigating a maze-like board game—resulting in a performance that is thrillingly different each time, with the agency of the players, composer, and natural materials in balance.

The piece begins at a moment where the tonality underlying the machines we build from wood and metal is just barely forming. From there, we move through the limits of sustaining this life by exploring the instrument-specific differences, eventually marveling at the poetry between human and matter in the various dialogues before ending by going back to square one with newly sensitized consciousness.

The words matter and material—referring to physical reality—come from the Latin word mater, whose meanings unite the key elements in the birth and maintenance of human culture: timber (wood) and motherhood. Spoken aloud, it even evokes the French phrase ma terre (“my Earth”). The piece is dedicated to the memory of violinist and activist Eriikka Maalismaa (1980–2024).

© 2025 Jarkko Hartikainen

23 April 2025 world premiere performance
Helsinki Musiikkitalo, Sonore hall

from the NYKY Ensemble: matter – body – freedom concert
part of the Maalisvalo concert series

NYKY Ensemble
Tuule-Helin Krigul, flute
Ioana Tomescu, clarinet
Vicent Orón Bolós, alto saxophone
Børge Rekstad, horn
Clara Perez, harp
Máté Dömötör, piano
Fanni Piri, violin I
Skyla Murray, violin II
Liu Pöntinen, cello

Terhi Paldanius, Music coaching
Jarkko Hartikainen, Composing and musical directing
Mikko Ingman, Audio and lighting engineering
Libero Mureddu, Intendent of the NYKY Ensemble
Jaakko Kilpeläinen, Producer of the NYKY Ensemble

read more about the concert: https://www.uniarts.fi/en/events/nyky-ensemble-aine-keho-vapaus/