The Composer and musicologist Armas Launis
10.03.2014
Many residents of Leppävaara are familiar with Armas Launiksen Katu (Armas Launis Street). However, few know who Armas Launis was and what his remarkable achievement was, so significant that a street in Puustellinmäki is named after him. This April marks the 130th anniversary of Armas Launis’s birth.
Armas Launis was a multi-talented musician: a folk music researcher, explorer, opera composer, music teacher, writer, and journalist. Born in Hämeenlinna in 1884, he died in Nice in 1959. At the beginning of the 20th century, he settled in Leppävaara. His telephone number appears in the Alberga telephone directory of 1925 and 1927. He then lived in a house designed by his brother, the architect Ilmari Launis, whose current address is Armas Launiksen katu 5. In 1930, he left Puustellinmäki for Nice, where he lived until his death.
Music researcher and collector of folk poetry
Launis was one of the first collectors and researchers of Finnish folk poetry and music. The results of his collecting trips laid the foundation for subsequent research. He undertook collecting trips to Lapland (1904, 1905, and 1922), Kainuu (1902), Ingria (1903 and 1906), and Estonia (1930). During his travels, he listened to, noted, and recorded renowned singer-poets, mourners, and kantele players. His collections, publications, and travel journals constitute an important part of Finland’s cultural heritage. His observations on the joiu have been cited in numerous studies.
Armas Launis carried a phonograph, the precursor to the tape recorder, with him on his research trips. His phonograph recordings made in 1905 are the oldest surviving musical recordings in Finland. Three of Launis’ original phonograph recordings were released on the album “The Kalevala Heritage” (Ondine): “Lemminkäinen” performed by Iivana Härkönen, the poem “Maailman synty” by Iivana Onoila and “Tulen synty” by Petri Shemeika. On the basis of these and other materials he edited the works “Lappische Juoigos-Melodien” (1908), the parts of the Suomen Kansan sävelmiä collection “Inkerin runosävelmät” (1910) and Karjalan runosävelmät (1930) and Eesti runoviisid (Tartu 1930). In addition to collections of learned melodies, Armas Launis published “Suomen partioväen laulukirja” (1917) and “Partiolaisen laulukirja” (1925).
Launis studied composition with Jean Sibelius and cello with Ossian Fohström in Helsinki from 1901 to 1907, then continued his composition studies in Berlin. He obtained a master’s degree in philosophy in 1906 and a doctorate in 1911. From 1918 to 1922, he was a lecturer in musical analysis and folk music research at the University of Helsinki and participated in the major international debates of the time on the possibilities of classifying folk melodies. In this work, he applied the method of Ilmari Krohn, which also served as the basis for the method later developed by Kodály and Bartók.
Composer
Armas Launis combined his musical and literary talents in opera. He composed ten operas, for which he also wrote the libretti. Launis began his career as an opera composer with Seitsemän veljestä (The Seven Brothers) (Helsinki, 1913), based on a theme by the nationalist writer Aleksis Kivi. However, the work received a mixed reception, and even later, the spoken-word style, omnipresent and somewhere between spoken text and sung song, was largely abandoned.
Launis’s next opera, Kullervo, inspired by the Kalevala, is melodically more graceful. Kullervo became his most popular work, being revived in Finland in 1920, 1921, and 1934, then performed in Nice in 1940 and broadcast in its entirety on Monte Carlo radio in 1947. The opera Aslak Hetta, based on Sami tradition, was presented in a radio concert version and recorded (Ondine). Furthermore, French radio broadcast excerpts from Launis’s opera Jehudith in 1954.
The other operatic works by Armas Launis— Noidan laulu (The witch’s song), Kesä, jota ei koskaan tullut (The summer that never came), Lumottu silkkihuivi (The Enchanted scarf), Theodora, Olle kerran (Il était une fois…) and Jäiset liekit (Stella borealis, later name Frozen Flames)—are still awaiting performance on the opera stage. Armas Launis considered himself primarily an opera composer and did not lose hope, even though his music never achieved the expected success.
A pioneer of film music in Finland
Besides his operas, Armas Launis composed numerous other works, including orchestral pieces, chamber music, piano pieces, and vocal works. Furthermore, in 1921, he likely became the first Finnish film composer. Launis composed the music for the first Finnish ethnographic film, Häidenvietto Karjalan runomailla (Wedding Celebration in the Land of Karelian Poetry) (1921).
Although Launis’s music has largely fallen into obscurity, he holds a permanent place in Finnish musical history, particularly because he played an active role in the development of Finnish opera with his first two operas.
Journalist and writer
Armas Launis twice received the National Composition Prize and, in 1920, a lifetime state pension. During his years in Leppävaara, he developed a music education program for Finnish folk conservatories and directed the Helsinki Folk Conservatory. Simultaneously, he traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa. In 1927, he published Murjaanien maassa (In the Land of the Moroccans), an account of his journey to Morocco. Despite its title, the book portrays Moroccans and Morocco with respect and admiration, as an extension of a long-standing cultural heritage.
In 1930, he settled permanently in Nice with his family. During his time in Nice, he actively participated in the local musical scene, fostered Franco-Finnish musical exchange, and wrote about French culture for the Finnish press.
Armas Launis died in Nice in 1959.
Markku Salmi
(original article in the Magazine LEPPÄVAARA-SEURA )
https://lepuski.fi/Armas_Launis_10032014.html
Visit the above mentioned page for its numerous photos.
