Listen to Emma Gibbins performing Sixty Variations on 14th October 2006 at St John the Evangelist, Islington

60 Variations (2003)

Music sometimes pulls a name-lifting trick: the name of Kari Jussila appears printed on the cover page of ‘60 Variations’, other names which appear are Aarre Merikanto, Jouko Linjama and Jan Lehtola. Shortly before the 60th birthday of Kari Jussila, the efficacious inspirer Jan Lehtola asked me for a contribution towards a collection of very short pieces, as a gift for the celebrant. I had at the time been writing a lot for organ music, both solo pieces in the tradition of cathedral music, and ensemble pieces (notably duos for piano and organ) about recent experiences around the hemisphere. Initially, the feeling I had towards the challenge was, "now what?" (or rather, "What next?") - it had to be different, festive and very short - pregnant - all of which meant: a fanfare. I had written some of those for Kiasma (the museum of MA) and the SA "Academy", but now the starting point imposed itself in the shape of that finest and most inspired fanfare of Finland, even the world, the story of which had been on my mind after reading Jouko Linjama's excellent book of memoirs "When Father composed the Hymn" (The Fanfare is so well known in Finland that my Finnish text never mentions it by name; that would spoil the joke. For foreign readers: Aarre Merikanto wrote the Olympic fanfare in 1939 and it was used in the Helsinki Games in 1952. He was himself well aware of the value of this rare bit of inspiration). That fanfare is so strong that there is nothing else one can do but sing it repeatedly with admiration and honest envy; so strong in fact that it is difficult to even begin writing variations upon it - which is an established and honouring way to react. I considered whether one could perhaps arrive at the brim of the theme... the variations starting from nothing and working towards the theme itself. I decided to do this. Kari Jussila received, as specified, the “variations 57 - 60" which mark the corresponding years in his journal. However, the variations in my mind did not stop at that: the game of years in life and numbers of variation wanted full realization, and one might imagine that the internal divisions of this form (three stages: the middle one quiet and calm, the final one fast and strong) correspond to the stages in the life of an active man: exposition and first summit followed by a placid stage of life with longer span of events and its rising terrain. Finally a climax... but inventing variations is of course not ultimately closed even then.

Duration: 13 minutes
Available from: Fennica Gehrman
Price: £12.50