Armas Launis (1884-1959) (Finnish composer)

[dhibbard]

Here is certainly an unsung composer  ....

Incidental music to "Wedding in the Karelian Songlands"
composed by Armas Launis (1884 - 1959)

[00:00] Sinipiiat (Kullervo)
[02:42] Nyyrikin laulu (Kullervo)
[04:11] Loitsu (Kullervo)
[07:36] Karjahuhuilu (Kullervo)
[09:51] Itkuvirsi (Kullervo)
[14:27] Venla (Seitsemän veljestä)
[16:39] Kehtolaulu (Kullervo)
[19:35] Karjalainen tanssi
[21:23] Viinalaulu (Kullervo)
[24:31] Impivaara-välisoitot (Seitsemän veljestä)
[29:05] Alkusoitto II. näytökseen (Kullervo)
[33:08] Veljesten kotiinpaluu (Seitsemän veljestä)

performed by Avanti!
conducted by Yrjö Hjelt

Incidental music to the ethnographic film "Häiden vietto Karjalan runomailla". The score mainly consists of arrangements from his operas 'Kullervo' and 'Seitsemän veljestä'. Launis composed one original piece for this film – Karjalainen tanssi (Karelian dance), which he also later used in his 1937 opera 'Karjalainen taikahuivi'.

For technical reasons, Avanti! recorded an extended version of Launis' score. By editing the audio and removing the extended sections piece by piece, the resulting music in this video represents the score as Launis had initially conceived it. The performance order of the pieces has been changed slightly to account for omitting a few of the pieces being played twice in the film.

Armas Launis was mainly an opera composer. He wrote ten operas (both libretto and music). Several were performed:

    In Finland: "The Seven Brothers" (1913), the first Finnish opera comique, and "Kullervo" (1917), both in full stage performance, and a concert performance of "Aslak Hetta" in 2004 at Finlandia Hall, Helsinki, directed by Sakari Oramo.
    In France: stage performance of Kullervo (1940, Nice, Palais de la Méditerranée) with radio broadcasts on Paris-Inter and Radio Monte-Carlo (1938–1940). A short version of "Jehudith" was also broadcast in 1954 (Paris-Inter)

Armas Launis also wrote chamber music pieces, cantatas, choruses, suites for orchestra, and the music of the first Finnish ethnographic film "A Wedding in Karelia, the Land of Poetry" (1921).

Launis earned a Ph.D (1911) and was full professor at the University of Helsinki where he taught musical analysis and composition. He completed his studies in Berlin with Wilhelm Klatte and in Weimar with Waldemar von Baußnern. Deeply concerned with the availability of musical education for everyone, Launis founded and until 1930 directed the first popular conservatories in Finland, which still exist.

As early as 1920, Launis received a life pension from the Finnish State, with the permission to live abroad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih8zCtRDSi4&feature=em-uploademail

[Gareth Vaughan]

And very attractive music it is.

[semloh]

Yes, very sweet music, perhaps best consumed in two sittings.