Kaija Saariaho and Her Laterna Magica

Abstract

Nowadays Kaija Saariaho is one of the most successful composers in the field of contemporary classical music. A former student of Tristan Murail, she works in the direction initiated by socalled spectral composition, composing extremely colourful and poetic pieces that are highly appreciated by music critics. One of her orchestra compositions, Laterna Magica, based on the memoirs by Ingmar Bergman and commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker Orchestra, premiered in 2009 and became a hit — it was performed more than thirty times after the premiere. This successful piece is the main object of the analysis which is performed according to ideas of Saariaho expressed in her theoretical articles. One of the most interesting ideas about music form proposed by the composer is the idea of “polyphony of processes”, which means that different parameters of composition are realized in different schemes that do not intersect but act as separate phenomena creating an impression of both independence of the parameters and their interaction at the same time. Such parameters as rhythm, melodic ideas, application of text, tempos, textures and their combinations as well as orchestration and harmony have their own profile and are constructed according to different schemes. Besides music itself, a text by Saariaho written for the premiere of the piece is analysed and interpreted as a special case of a “composer’s vision” which shows specific angles in the author’s perception.

Keywords:

Kaija Saariaho, contemporary classical music, Laterna Magica, Ingmar Bergman, polyphony of parameters, independent compositional parametrical schemes, composer’s vision