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Sade avaa

(1998-99)

bass clarinet solo + fl, ehn, bsn, hn, perc, vln, vla, vlc, db

Duration: 15'

commissioned by Finnish Broadcasting Company

premier March 8, 1999 Heikki Nikula and Zagros Ensemble cond. Hannu Lintu

available at Music Finland:

https://core.musicfinland.fi/works/sade-avaa-for-bass-clarinet-and-ensemble-06eed95a-1fd4-4814-9d68-00202c9789b0

https://open.spotify.com/album/0d5Kun2PVuJSq7TNVmHXs3

The starting point to Sade avaa (Rain opens) was a poem by a famous Finnish modernist Eeva-Liisa Manner. The poem begins with the same words: ‘Rain opens the sleeper’s ears/ rain opens the shadows for the walker/ rain opens your listening, the promenade inwards./ (—)

Nevertheless, my aim was not to follow the details of the text or to write program music. Rather I found the poem an inspiring muse in composing: my dream was that the music would tell the poem in a sort of secret language – it would express something, which we still wouldn’t exhaustively understand.

(L.W.)