Noa-Noa

Born in 1952 in Finland, Kaija Saariaho was trained early on several musical instruments. Though she also studied art at the Fine Arts School in Helsinki, music quickly forced itself into the very center of her life. At the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, she studied composition with Paavo Heininen. Subsequently, in Darmstadt and Fribourg respectively, she undertook private composition lessons with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber. Saariaho’s works, including several operas, have been commissioned and performed at leading venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the stages of Paris, London, San Francisco, Berlin, Vienna, and many more.

Her work to date has been marked by explorations of novel timbres (and instrumental combinations), as well as the use of electronics. Both factors influence the piece we will hear this evening, an intriguing collaboration between the flute and electronic manipulation of its tones. Rhythmic factors, according to Saariaho herself, have become more pronounced in her recent music. But timbre and color have remained the focus of her creative efforts, and Noa-Noa (1992) stretches the bounds of flute technique to their utmost. The ten-minute work moves between cascades of glissandi to block of near stasis. According to the composer:

“Noa-Noa [meaning Fragrant] was born from the ideas I had for flute while writing my ballet music Maa. I wanted to write down, exaggerate, even abuse certain flute mannerisms that had been haunting me for some years, and thus force myself to move onto something new. Formally I experimented with an idea of developing several elements simultaneously, first sequentially, then superimposed on each other. The title refers to a wood cut by Paul Gauguin called Noa-Noa. It also refers to a travel diary of the same name, written by Gauguin during his visit to Tahiti in 1891-93. The fragments of phrases selected for the voice part in the piece come from this book.”

(c) Jason Stell