(b Uusikaarlepyy, 24 Nov 1911). Finnish composer. He studied in Helsinki, with Tiessen in Berlin (1937-9) and with Vogel in Ascona (1949-50), then worked as a music critic and teacher, notably at the Helsinki Academy (from 1963). His studies with Vogel led him from tonal Romanticism to 12-note music, deployed mostly in large-scale choral tableaux on God and nature; later he adopted a freer technique involving improvisation and aleatory writing.
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.