Customer Reviews

Les Cahiers de l'Ircam. Compositeurs d'aujourd'hui - Numéro 6 - Kaija Saariaho

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This (French language) entry in IRCAM's "Compositeurs d'aujourd'hui" series, published in 1994, is dedicated to the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who made the sound-research centre her home for many years starting in 1982.

The book opens with an interview between the composer and Pierre Michel that must hold a record for the least substantial interview with a composer. Saariaho never goes into much detail about her works, and you'll grasp little more about the principles behind them from this interview than from just listening to them themselves. On the other hand, some career decisions are made clear; for example, Saariaho was unhappy with "...a la fumee", explaining the reason for the chamber reworking, which we might take as a more authoritative exposition of her ideas.

The second portion of the book Damien Pousset's essay "La transparence du signe", a musicological analysis of several works from the late 1980s and early 1990s. The discussion of the structure of "Du cristal" is fascinating, and there are plenty of interesting score samples. However, the best part of the book is the third and final section, Ivanka Stoianova's "Une oeuvre de synthese", an analysis of Saariaho's 1993 piece "Amers" for cello, orchestra, and electronics. I've long been fascinating by the technical ingenuity of this piece. For it, IRCAM developed a special microphone that can isolate each of the four strings of the cello to amplify or alter their sound separately, and the work is full of striking electronic effects over traditional instrumentation. Stoianova's essay expanded my appreciation of the work greatly; if you like "Amers", get this book.

In addition, the book contains a list of works, a discography, and a bibliography. However, the book also has major limitations. It is a pity that there is no biography of Saariaho here or much discussion of her earliest works, and of course it ends in 1993. On the other hand, since Saariaho has made a turn into relatively boring music full of melody and has eschewed electronics, maybe we can be content that the book discusses her most creative period without distraction by her lesser music of today.