Aarre Merikanto (29 June 1893 – 28 September 1958) was a Finnish

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He was born in

Helsinki Helsinki () is the Capital city, capital and most populous List of cities and towns in Finland, city in Finland. It is on the shore of the Gulf of Finland and is the seat of southern Finland's Uusimaa region. About people live in the municipali ...

Grand Duchy of Finland The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed from 1809 to 1917 as an Autonomous region, autonomous state within the Russian Empire. Originating in the 16th century as a titular grand duchy held by the Monarc ...

, the son of Elise "Liisa" Häyrynen (1869–1949) and the famous romantic composer, professor

Oskar Merikanto Oskar Merikanto (; born Frans Oskar Ala-Kanto; 5 August 186817 February 1924) was a Finnish composer, music critic, pianist, and organist. As a composer, Merikanto was primarily a miniaturist, and includes songs and piano pieces (he wrote over ...

(1868–1924). His childhood he spent in

Vilppula Vilppula was a former municipality of Finland. Neighbouring Mänttä was merged into it on 1 January 2009 to form the municipality of Mänttä-Vilppula. The municipality was unilingually Finnish. It was located in the province of Western Finl ...

, Finland. He married Meri Grönmark in 1919. They had two daughters, Anna Marjatta Peltonen (née Merikanto) and Arma Kyllikki Tukia (née Merikanto). He later married Evi Sylvia Mähönen (1910–1968). They had two sons, Ukri Uolevi Merikanto (1950–2010), a sculptor and Pan Ylermi Merikanto (1951–2012). He is considered a key figure in early Finnish modernism (together with Väinö Raitio and Ernest Pingoud) and several of his works, most notably the opera Juha, have obtained posthumous attention. As professor of composition in the

Sibelius Academy The Sibelius Academy (, ) is part of the University of the Arts Helsinki and a university-level music school which operates in Helsinki and Kuopio, Finland. It also has an adult education centre in Järvenpää and a training centre in Seinäjoki ...

(1951–1958) Merikanto taught several Finnish composers of the next generation, including

Einojuhani Rautavaara Einojuhani Rautavaara (; 9 October 1928 – 27 July 2016) was a Finnish composer of classical music. Among the most notable Finnish composers since Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Rautavaara wrote a List of compositions by Einojuhani Rautavaara, gre ...

Usko Meriläinen Usko Aatos Meriläinen (27 January 1930 – 12 November 2004) was a Finnish composer. He was born in Tampere. Usko Meriläinen studied orchestral conducting with Leo Funtek and composition with Aarre Merikanto at the Sibelius Academy. Meriläine ...

Aulis Sallinen Aulis Heikki Sallinen (born 9 April 1935) is a Finnish contemporary classical music composer. His music has been variously described as "remorselessly harsh", a "beautifully crafted amalgam of several 20th-century styles", and "neo-romantic". ...

and Paavo Heininen. He studied music in

1911,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

1912–1914 and

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

1916–1917. Merikanto's early style was rooted in Finnish romanticism, but in the 1920s he developed a personal, atonal but not

dodecaphonic The twelve-tone technique—also known as dodecaphony, twelve-tone serialism, and (in British usage) twelve-note composition—is a method of musical composition. The technique is a means of ensuring that all 12 notes of the chromatic scale ...

Modernist style. The reception of Merikanto's works of this period was mixed: the "Schott" Concerto for nine instruments was awarded in a competition organized by the German publishers Schott & Söhne, but his domestic Finnish audiences and critics were generally unenthusiastic and his opera Juha, today considered one of his major works, was never performed during Merikanto's lifetime. Disappointed with the reactions, starting in the early 1930s, Merikanto gradually abandoned his more radical style and turned towards a more traditional idiom based on

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

. He also destroyed or mutilated the scores of several works from his earlier style period, some of which were later reconstructed by his last composition student Paavo Heininen. His work was also part of the music event in the art competition at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

. Merikanto was diagnosed with

lung cancer Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma, is a malignant tumor that begins in the lung. Lung cancer is caused by genetic damage to the DNA of cells in the airways, often caused by cigarette smoking or inhaling damaging chemicals. Damaged ...

in the summer 1957, and he died on 28 September the following year, in Helsinki, aged 65.

Main works

* '' Juha'', opera (1922; premiered in 1963) * Symphony No. 1 in

B minor B minor is a minor scale based on B, consisting of the pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two sharps. Its relative major is D major and its parallel major is B major. The B natural minor scale is: Changes need ...

(1916) * Symphony No. 2 in

A major A major is a major scale based on A, with the pitches A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Its key signature has three sharps. Its relative minor is F-sharp minor and its parallel minor is A minor. The A major scale is: Changes needed for the ...

(1918) * ''Symphonic Study'' (1928) * Symphony No. 3 (1953) * Violin Concerto No. 1 (1915) * Violin Concerto No. 2 (1925) * Violin Concerto No. 3 (1931; destroyed) * Violin Concerto No. 4 (1954) * Piano Concerto No. 1 (1913) * Piano Concerto No. 2 (1937) * Piano Concerto No. 3 (1955) * Cello Concerto No. 1 (1919) * ''Konzertstück'', for cello and chamber orchestra (1923) * Cello Concerto No. 2 (1941) * ''Lemminkäinen'',

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ( ...

(1916) * ''Pan'', symphonic poem (1924) * ''Notturno'', symphonic poem (1928) * ''The Abduction of Kyllikki'', symphonic poem (1936) * ''Schott Concerto'', for violin, clarinet, horn, and string sextet (1925) * Nonet (1926) * ''Fantasia'' (1923) * Ten Pieces for Orchestra (1930) * ''Olympic Fanfare'' (1939) * ''Song of the City by the Sea'',

cantata A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian language, Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal music, vocal Musical composition, composition with an musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, ty ...

(1949–1950) * ''Genesis'', cantata (1955)

Chronological list of compositions

References

External links

Composer profile
on the Finnish Music Information Center * {{DEFAULTSORT:Merikanto, Aarre 1893 births 1958 deaths Musicians from Helsinki Musicians from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland) Pupils of Max Reger 20th-century Finnish classical composers Deaths from lung cancer in Finland Finnish opera composers Finnish male opera composers Burials at Hietaniemi Cemetery 20th-century Finnish male musicians Art competitors at the 1948 Summer Olympics