Anadyomene ("Adoration of Aphrodite"), for orchestra

• Date: 1968
• Composer: Einojuhani Rautavaara
• Period: Contemporary (1950- )

Review

Anadyomene, by the leading Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928), is a lovely 13-minute tone poem with rich, impressionistic harmonies and a mysterious, flowing mood. It started out as something almost completely different. In as delightful and amusing an account as any composer has ever penned about the circumstances of the creation of a new piece of music, Rautavaara recounts how, at 40 years old, like much of his generation, he was convinced that serial (12-tone) music was a necessary development. Living in New York, he decided to base this work on James Joyce's novel Finnegan's Wake. "I had learnt that one of the basic accomplishments of any truly sophisticated literary-artistic snob was a command of all the levels, associations and latent structures of at least the first two paragraphs of Finnegan."

Accordingly, the basic cell from which the tone rows were built was "B-C-E" which stood for Joyce's phrase "Howth Castle and Environs" (the letter H in German musical terms denotes what is called B in English-speaking countries). He also thought of a flowing, undulating idea to represent the River Liffey. Rautavaara recalls that by the time he was 50 measures into the piece, the musical ideas were taking over; they " ...no longer agreed to submit to becoming literary symbols." What might have become one of dozens of overcelebrated Finnegan pieces instead turned out to be an homage to the Goddess of Love and Beauty, born of sea foam. In addition, writes the composer, "This music wrenched itself free (and liberated me) from the serial straitjacket and quasi-scientific thinking, towards organic music-making and 'born-of-the-foam' autogenesis."

A slow murmuring on strings starts the composition, spreading through various registers of the orchestra, and other mysterious ideas appear. The music is highly chromatic, with a tonal center being perceived through the haze of enriched harmonies. The texture lightens as bird-like figurations appear. The music surges in a stately tempo, like waves rolling in and out. Some melodic figures in the work mysteriously refuse to submit to the regnant tonality; one fancies that they are based on the original serial motives of the work. An example is the first outstanding line on violins, which sounds like it might have been produced by Alban Berg, in a calm mood. The work builds in majesty, and the chordal structure remains rich. Aphrodite appears among swirls of woodwind figurations, with a calm rising motive in violins and brass. After the music has risen to heights of power, it fades and disappears. ~ Joseph Stevenson, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title	Date
Rautavaara: Angels and Visitations	2006
Rautavaara: On the Last Frontier

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