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| Mikko Heiniö |
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Mikko Heiniö (b. 1948) studied composition with Joonas Kokkonen in Finland and Witold Szalonek in West Berlin, gaining his composition diploma from the Sibelius Academy in 1977. He also studied musicology and in 1984 earned a doctorate in the subject from the University of Helsinki, where worked as an assistant 1977-1985. He was appointed Professor of musicology at the University of Turku in 1986, composer-in-residence of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra in 1997, and has been Chairman of the Society of Finnish Composers since 1992.
The main items in Heiniö’s oeuvre include seven piano concertos, the orchestral song cycle Vuelo de alambre (1983), the symphonies Possible Worlds (1987) and Songs of the Night and Love (1997), and Wind Pictures for choir and orchestra (1991). Among his greatest and most frequently performed chamber works are Framtidens skugga (The Shadow of the Future) for soprano and brass ensemble (1980), Minimba for four guitars (1982), the Piano Trio (1988), Piano Quintet (1993) and the Sextet (2000) for baritone and ensemble. Heiniö is also the composer of choral music, such as Three Folk Songs (1977), Landet som icke är (The Land that is Not, 1980) and Luceat (1992).
Heiniö has composed two operas: the church opera Riddaren och draken (The Knight and the Dragon, 2000) was written for Turku Cathedral’s 700 th anniversary celebrations and it has been recorded on the BIS label. His second opera Käärmeen hetki (The Hour of the Serpent) was commissioned by the Finnish National Opera (premiere in September 2006). His recent works include Envelope (2002) for trumpet and orchestra, intended to be performed before and after the Haydn Trumpet Concerto in Eb, Three Morning Songs (2003) for baritone and piano, The Bishop’s Spring Dream (2005) for five male voices and Sonata da chiesa (2005) scored for brass, celesta and percussion.
As the basis for his harmonies and melodies Mikko Heiniö takes a set of material, either modal or 12-note, that is always strictly bounded and that is given free-tonal rather than atonal treatment. Despite these constructivist tendencies, his music could be described as strongly emotional and easily accessible. Basic features of his style are its colourful, impressionistic sonority and energetic rhythms displaying the influence of Latin-American music, jazz and rock. In the 1980s, particularly, he went in for marked contrasts of style within one and the same work (as in Possible Worlds). Some of his works are a combination of genres: the fourth piano concerto (Through the Evening) is also a choral work. Both the sixth and the seventh piano concerto (Hermes, 1994 and Khora, 2001) were composed for a dance theatre; in the former the piano is accompanied by strings and a soprano and in the latter by five percussionists.
Heiniö also has a reputation as a music scholar, as the author of several books and nearly two hundred articles. He specialises in new Finnish music, a subject on which he has written works focusing on the history of ideas (such as his doctoral dissertation The Idea of Innovation and Tradition , 1984) and the history of composition. His book Aikamme musiikki (1995) is volume 4 of the history of Finnish music that won the Finlandia Prize for non-fiction in 1997. Sanat sävelistä (1997) is a treatise on his own composition, his views on aesthetics and cultural policy, and his latest book, Karvalakki kansakunnan kaapin päällä (1999), deals with the public image of Finnish opera.
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