ARMAS LAUNIS, COMPOSER AT HOME IN LAPLAND AS WELL AS IN MOROCCO: ORIENTALISM AND POST-COLONIALISM IN HIS LIFE AND WORK
Excerpts from the presentation at the Armas Launis Colloquium at the Finnish Institute in Paris in November 2003.
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… Launis became interested in France and settled on the French Riviera, in Nice. He remained there permanently from 1930 onward, although he maintained contact with his native country, sending news to the press and reporting on the success of his operas. In his homeland, he held the position of ‘internationally renowned Finn,’ whose operas were broadcast on the radio in France. He almost succeeded in having his opera Kullervo included in the program of the Paris Opera just as the war broke out.
In 1915, Launis published a short, amusing study, “Opera and Spoken Theater”, in the Kansanvalistusseura (Society for the Education of the People) Publications series, No. 171. He was able to demonstrate to Finnish readers his already considerable experience of performances he had seen in various European opera houses and to present himself as a post-Wagnerian theorist, somewhat in the style of Wagner’s Oper und Drama. Launis, however, did not share Wagner’s theoretical and philosophical views; purely empirical, he was an observer. Nor can it be said that he followed the ideas presented in that work in his own operatic compositions.
… Launis believed that the best way to set a text to music was to imitate the speed of speech as precisely as possible. According to him, that method had already been used in recent operas—he was probably thinking of his own opera, The Seven Brothers—but here too there was a risk. The singable quality disappeared from the singing, which became dry speech. But it was necessary to enliven it with what is called diegetic music—Launis certainly doesn’t use that term, which, in the theory of film music, refers to music that is part of the plot. Thus, the singing competition scenes in Tannhäuser are diegetic. But he criticizes Wagner for the fact that, in his later style, he arrives at continuous spoken singing, that is, an interminable melody, so that one can no longer expect a harmonious sound, an aspect which, for him, is Wagner’s weak point. Launis thinks that Wagner composed the orchestral part first and then added the singing to it. He couldn’t have known that the opposite was actually true. It is true that Launis has often been compared to Wagner, but his leitmotif technique is much more modest. Moreover, he refused to abandon separate “numbers.”
…To whom did Launis owe his fame in France? To the conductor Charles Boisard, as he readily acknowledged. Boisard was the principal conductor of the Nice Opera. He had studied the German score of Launis’s opera Kullervo, become enthusiastic, and translated the libretto into French using the French version of the Kalevala. He was immediately interviewed for the magazine Musiikkitieto (December 1938), where he said: “I met him… here in Nice, on the shores of the Mediterranean, where his rebellious hero Kullervo poured out his heart and sang of his repentance.” He gave me his opera Aslak Hetta… I was immediately convinced of its great value and the remarkable personality of its composer, and I took it upon myself to promote it in our country.” A little later, he rediscovered Kullervo, “whose music, with its fresh and moving humanism, could surely have garnered the greatest attention, were it not for the dubious allusions to folk music…” But elsewhere, Boisard spoke of Launis’s “composer’s appearance,” noting that, at first glance, one would not have believed him to be a composer at all.
Kullervo was performed on Radio Nice in 1938 and generated considerable interest in the French and Finnish press. The performance was also heard in many countries outside Europe. Shortly afterward, Boisard was awarded the Order of the White Rose of Finland.
During the war, Launis represented heroic Finland at diplomatic receptions in Nice. He was interviewed again: “Mr. Launis, the illustrious composer, speaks to us of his heroic homeland. We recalled the performance of Kullervo from the previous year. Launis spoke about the history of Finland.” He emphasized that Finland had been an independent country since 1808. He explained in detail the war situation and the genuine friendship of the Finns towards the French, whose plays were being performed in Helsinki. He didn’t forget to point out that the Germans were allies by force of circumstance. But the war put an end to Launis’s hopes of seeing his works performed at the Paris Opera.
Interest in Launis did not wane after the war. The Nordic Suite was broadcast on Radio Paris in 1951, and finally, Jehudith, his opera on an Arabic subject, in 1954. René Dumesnil himself wrote a review in Le Monde, even though only excerpts of the work were heard. But these excerpts were enough to attract attention. According to Dumesnil, these excerpts demonstrated the composer’s merits. Launis chose a biblical plot and used oriental influences. The Berber pastoral at the beginning already creates this atmosphere, and then the lullaby and the melody of The Rose of Jericho evoke the Orient even more. According to Dumesnil, the melody sung by the tenor and the overall form of this scene were reminiscent of Ravel. The dances are part of this atmosphere but are not slavishly folkloric. Jehudith was the occasion for a reception at the Finnish Embassy in Paris, organized by Ambassador Johan Helo. A few recorded excerpts from these radio broadcasts remain, both of Kullervo and Jehudith. Launis’s name still appears in 1959 on the honorary committee of a French national violin competition, but in Finland, his works were little heard—until the reappearance of Aslak Hetta in the spring of 2004.
Launis presents many facets as a composer. It is evident that his folkloric research lies in the background of his operas. He drew on this research in delightful ways in his travelogues, which remain accessible today: Kaipaukseni maa. Lapinkävijän muistoja (The Country I Miss: Memories of a Traveler in Lapland, 1922) and Murjaanien maassa (In the Land of the Moors, 1927). In an interview given at the premiere of Jehudith, he confided that “the work was born in the semi-eastern milieu of the Provençal mountains. …” The text, like the music with its oriental hues, evokes the moments the composer spent among the desert people and is thus a kind of recollection, just as Kullervo is of his travels in Karelia and Aslak Hetta of his experiences in the Lappish mountains.” Was he then a kind of Finnish Béla Bartók? In his mind, yes, but stylistically, no. The Launis of The Seven Brothers and Kullervo is still a national romantic, close to Sibelius, though original. At best, the melodrama refers to Italian bel canto, as in Kullervo’s Mother’s Lullaby, one of his finest melodic creations. As for Aslak Hetta, it lies somewhere between Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Puccini’s Turandot; every act is tense, the singers constantly pushing their vocal limits. Thus, the opera almost presents the image of a static fresco, and the dramatic culmination of Aslak’s death at the end is not the climax because the entire work maintains a consistent atmosphere from beginning to end. The incantatory element fascinates Launis, just as it does in Kullervo and Jehudith, and here we see the anthropologist’s perspective.
It seems that a symposium on Launis in France was bound to happen sooner or later, as three essays and analyses of his work by French scholars have already been published in its wake : “Quelques souvenirs sur l’auteur de Kullervo” (A few memories about Kullervo‘s composer) by Charles Boisard, “Armas Launis, librettiste” (Armas Launis, Librettist) by André Charmel, and “Armas Launis, folkloriste” (Armas Launis, Folklorist) by André Gaudelette. In addition, there is Boisard’s important study, “Armas Launis, Musicien dramatique” (Armas Launis, Dramatic Musician). These articles reflect French perspectives on Launis and demonstrate the seriousness with which they approached his music.
Charmel also speaks briefly about form. Launis’s text is already conceived in a musical way. While in some composers the music disrupts the inner rhythm of the poetry, in Launis the opposite occurs. The rhythm of his music adapts to the cadences of the words, adapting the sound of the syllables to the resonance of the musical verses. Here, Charmel refers to the idea of spoken song developed by Launis.
André Claudette develops his colleague’s remarks and observes that the rich Finnish language is perfectly suited to music, but he pays attention to the conflict between the roles of scientist and artist, since the poet and the musician in Launis’s case both develop from the folklorist. He recalls that Launis studied for a time with Sibelius, the composer of the Valse triste. But this is almost the only reference to Sibelius in these French texts.
Having studied all of Launis’s works, Gaudelette arrives at Jehudith, which he considers—no doubt rightly so—to be his principal work. The conclusion is: Launis, in his simple and pure originality, in his luminous and classical atmosphere, is one of the foremost composers of his time.
Charles Boisard, on the other hand, observes that Launis reinvents himself in each of his works, not only out of pride but also thanks to the depth of his temperament. We might add here that, from this perspective, he resembles Stravinsky, who was the prototype of the nomadic and migratory composers of the early 20th century. However, Haïdenvietto Karjalan Runomailla (A Wedding in the Karelian Songlands) (1921) cannot be considered a Finnish equivalent of “Les Noces”. It is an amalgamation of Launis’s best melodies. But although he remains connected to folklore, Launis always develops an original style, a picturesque creative force. Boisard’s analysis of the originality of Jehudith is pertinent: the motifs have a folkloric character, but the melodic line never exceeds a few bars; there are few repetitions. Thus, in a certain way, he is an anti-Debussy, and the resulting style is quite unique. The vocal part is entirely in recitative. The harmonic foundation, despite the chromaticism, is simple. It always maintains a pleasing sound. We could continue Boisard’s reflections by asking whether Launis might be situated within the realm of colonial and post-colonial music. He belongs to colonialism through Orientalism and exoticism: the Other is presented as picturesque. But his intention is to enter into this Other and, through his music, to decolonize this situation. The human aspect of his music transcends the limits of strict regionalism.
Finally, let’s take a look at the music itself. Kullervo begins with bassoon calls that avoid the clear relationship between the tonic and the dominant—a typical Launis “opening” also used in Aslak Hetta and Jehudith. Here, it is Kullervo‘s leitmotif. Yet Launis cannot be reduced to Wagner, and his leitmotifs do not form as dense a network as in “The Ring Cycle”. The Elven round dance represents a more conventional, national romantic style, in the vein of Sibelius’s “Musette”. Kimmo’s shepherd’s lyrical music also evokes Sibelius. Ajatar’s leitmotif features whole-tone scales, and his fatal appearance at Kullervo resembles the scene of the Death Proclamation in Act II of “Die Walküre”.
Later, Ajatar’s incantation brings magic and folklore to the fore. A robust motif of fourths is heard, which later becomes the Grieg-like leitmotif for the trolls. The predators’ attack is effectively evoked with a fugal texture. Launis employs the technique of rhythmic speech without pitch (Nyyrikki, No. 56 in the score). The Largo overture of Act II recalls the allegretto of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony with its funeral march theme. At the beginning of the second act, the chorus of researchers examines the various harmonizations of the Lydian fourth. The opera’s lyrical climax is Kullervo’s mother’s Puccini-esque lullaby (No. 99 in the score). Another highlight of the work is the unisono war song sung by the chorus.
…Jehudith’s style is different. From the outset, we find ourselves in a world akin to that of Strauss’s Salome. The music is aperiodic and chromatic, and has nothing to do with national romanticism. The opera’s central character is Jehudith, an Arab woman who offers her mediation to Mary and the infant Jesus as they flee before the Roman troops, and is herself ultimately destroyed. Jehudith is an enigmatic figure, a kind of Arab Kundry. The music is strongly marked by Orientalism, but Launis avoids the pseudo-Orientalism of Salome’s Dance of the Seven Veils and the colonial overtones found in the background of Saint-Saëns’s Bacchanalia. He introduces us to the Arab world—with the same skill as in his book “In the Land of the Moors” (Launis 1927), illustrated with exceptionally poetic photographs taken by the composer himself. Launis observes that the music of the Arabs “is, for a European, almost entirely strange, being constantly monophonic and without harmonic accompaniment.” It is music transmitted orally, in a certain way freely imagined, which uses varied repetitions, although it is based on very ancient Arabic melodies.” (op. cit., p. 29). Or again: “In the shade, sheltered by a wall, sits a group of musicians: two percussionists and a shepherd’s flute player. The fragile sound of the flute is concealed within the louder, hollow sounds of the percussion. The beat of the drum is violent, energetic.” (p. 140)
In places, Jehudith’s music can almost resemble that of another Provençal master, Darius Milhaud. The harmonies in the music sometimes take on a leitmotif-like character, such as the D-flat major when the text evokes the Star of Bethlehem (No. 36 in the score) or the E-flat major for Joseph. The Egyptian Dance is also impressive on its own. The snake charmer’s music is certainly an idea Launis discovered during his anthropological expeditions. The Bedouin chorus sings a wordless vocalise. The Bedouin serenade is based on an exotic Arabic scale. The orchestral score is full of corrections and additions, and revising it for a performance can be an enormous undertaking.
But Jehudith, Launis’s major work, deserves to finally be performed.
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Original text in Finnish
Bibliography :
- Charles Boisard s.d. « Armas Launis, Musicien dramatique ». Manuscrits de la HYK (Bibliothèque de l’Université de Helsinki =Bibliothèque Nationale).
- Charles Boisard s.d. « Quelques souvenirs sur l’auteur de ‘Kullervo’ ». Manuscrits de HYK.
- André Charmel s.d. « Armas Launis, librettiste ». Manuscrits de la HYK.
- André Gaudelette s.d. « Armas Launis, Folkloriste. Manuscrits de la HYK.
- Armas Launis 1915 Ooppera ja puhenäytelmä. Muutamia vertailevia piirteitä. Kansanvalistusseuran toimituksia 171. Helsinki : Raittiuskansan Kirjapaino-osakeyhtiö
- Armas Launis – Manuscrits et coupures de presse de la HYK.
- Erkki Salmenhaara 1994 « Armas Launis » Suomalaisia säveltäjiä. p. 237-240. Helsinki; Otava.
