Unto Uuno Mononen (23 October 1930 in Muolaa – 28 June 1968 in

Somero Somero () is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality of Finland. It is part of the Southwest Finland regions of Finland, region in the provinces of Finland, province of Western Finland, located nort ...

) was a Finnish

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

. He is best known for his numerous

tango Tango is a partner dance and social dance that originated in the 1880s along the Río de la Plata, the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The tango was born in the impoverished port areas of these countries from a combination of Arge ...

compositions including the famous Finnish tango song, ''"

Satumaa "Satumaa" (roughly, in English "The Fabled Land" or "The Fairytale Land") is the quintessential Finnish tango. It was written by Unto Mononen, and published in 1955. The most famous recording is probably the one made by Reijo Taipale in 1962. Th ...

".'' His first name was originally Uuno.

Biography

Mononen is often said to come from

, but he was actually from Muolaa. He first came to Somero after the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

was over when Muolaa was conquered by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Mononen studied

church music Church music is a genre of Christian music written for performance in church, or any musical setting of ecclesiastical liturgy, or music set to words expressing propositions of a sacred nature, such as a hymn. History Early Christian musi ...

in the

University of Turku The University of Turku (, shortened ''UTU'') is a multidisciplinary public university with eight faculties located in the city of Turku in southwestern Finland. The university also has campuses in Rauma and Pori and research stations in Kevo ...

. He quit these studies since he felt he did not learn anything important. As a composer, he was self-taught. Mononen began his musical career by singing with local dance groups while he was under 20. After a failed operation to his

adenoids In anatomy, the pharyngeal tonsil, also known as the nasopharyngeal tonsil or adenoid, is the superior-most of the tonsils. It is a mass of lymphoid tissue located behind the nasal cavity, in the roof and the posterior wall of the nasopharynx, ...

damaged his voice, Mononen started to compose music. In 1950, Mononen first successfully sold his songs to a record company. The first song recorded was ''"Pieni laulu"'' ("A small song"), a

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

sung by Pentti Halme. In 1955,

Henry Theel Henry Per-Erik Theel (November 14, 1917 – December 19, 1989), also known by his pseudonym Heikki Hovi, was one of the most prominent Finnish singers during the 1940s and the 1950s, though he continued to perform until the late 1980s. His most f ...

recorded the famous ''"Satumaa"'' to some success, but the song's status was not cemented until seven years later, in 1962, when

Reijo Taipale Reijo Toivo Taipale (9 March 1940 – 26 April 2019) was a Finnish pop singer, active since the 1950s, specializing in Schlager music and tango. Many of his albums have been certified gold and platinum. Biography Taipale was born in Miehikkä ...

recorded it. Other famous tangos by Mononen include ''"Tähdet meren yllä"'' ("Stars above the Sea"), ''"Lapin Tango'''' ("The Tango of Lappland"), ''"Erottamattomat"'' ("Inseparables"), ''"Kangastus"'' ("The Mirage"), ''"Kaipuuni Tango"'' ("The Tango of my Longing"), ''"Kohtalon Tango"'' ("The Tango of Destiny") and ''"Yön Hiljaisuudessa"'' ("In the Silence of Night"). The last two of these became renowned when another famous musician from Somero, singer Rauli "Badding" Somerjoki, recorded them. Singer Esko Rahkonen also worked with the composer in the 1960s. One of the most well known figures in Finnish popular culture, provocative entertainer

M. A. Numminen Mies Mauri Antero Numminen (born 12 March 1940) is a Finnish artist who has worked in several different fields of music and culture. Biography Early life Mies Mauri Antero Numminen was born in Somero in Southwest Finland on 12 March 1940, ...

had played drums in Mononen's band. Later, Numminen asked Mononen to compose a humorous tango to his lyrics. Mononen answered that for Numminen, he would write a tango even to the words of a phone book. From this collaboration, the song ''"Naiseni kanssa eduskuntatalon puistossa"'' ("With my Woman at the Park of the Parliament House") was born. During his later years, Mononen suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World He ...

and eventually shot himself with a

pistol A pistol is a type of handgun, characterised by a gun barrel, barrel with an integral chamber (firearms), chamber. The word "pistol" derives from the Middle French ''pistolet'' (), meaning a small gun or knife, and first appeared in the Englis ...

on 28 June 1968 in Somero, Finland. He was 37 years old at the time of his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mononen, Unto 1930 births 1968 suicides 1968 deaths People from Vyborg District Finnish male songwriters Finnish tango musicians Suicides by firearm in Finland