Performers & composers

Asko Hyvärinen

Finnish composer Asko Hyvärinen  (b. 1963) has studied  percussion,  music theory and musicology in Helsinki  and  Turku.  He has studied composition with many leading Finnish composers. He has also attended composition master classes in Germany, in Finland and in France   under guidance of Jukka Tiensuu, Helmut Lachenmann and Brian Ferneyhough, among others.
Hyvärinen’s works have been awarded in many competitions and he has received numerous scholarships from foundations such as The Finnish Cultural Foundation and   The National Council for Music (Artist Grant for the Years 2001 and 2005).
Asko Hyvärinen's  list  of  work  consists  of  orchestral  works, stage works, solo  pieces  and  various chamber music. His most important works are The Sound of Inevitability, music for piano and orchestra (2000) (Fp: April 2002, Turku Philharmonic Orchestra/ John Storgårds), Erg/Hamâda (2003) for percussion soloist and chamber orchestra (Fp: February 2004, Helsinki, Avanti! Chamber Orchestra) and Spring Contours (2001) for 11 players, commissioned by ERGO Ensemble (Can).
His work Obscure Contours have been selected for The 2nd International Composers Forum, 2002 arranged by the Ensemble Aleph and also for “Ars Poetica Composers Competition” in 2003.
His work valse griffyre was in the International Rostrum of Composers in Vienna, 2005.
Asko Hyvärinen’s music has performed in Europe, in Japan and in Canada. He’s composition concerts has been held in Helsinki, 2004 and at Järvenpää Sibelius Weeks Festival, 2002.

Selected works

A Lie Nation (2005-) for a.fl, b.cl, perc, harp, sopr, vl, vla, vc & db. ca 20’ (work in progress)
After trace (2005) for bass clarinet & marimba (amplified), 10’
Sound Leakage (2005) for five players (fl, cl, vl, vla, vc.), 7’30’’
Quatour pour un homme seul (2004) for 3 clarinets & alto sax (one player), 11’
Erg / Hamâda (2003) for percussion soloist & chamber orchestra, 27’
Disappearing Area (2002) for quarter-tone flute and 3 percussionist, 15’
The Enigma of Jeroen (2002) for sopr, fl, mand, guit, hapr. 10’.
Spring Contours (2001) for 11 players, 18’
Karu (Arid) (2000-01/2004) for alto saxophone and piano, 12’
The Sound of Inevitability (2000) for piano and orchestra, 22’
Egregious (1999) for chamber orchestra, 13’
Approche (1997) for 10 players, 8’
Lueur (1997) for orchestra, 13’
Déformation (1995-96) for orchestra, 10’30’’

Broken Contours (11')

Is it possible - or permitted - to use  melodies in contemporary music today? Most of the composers have answered the question negatively, but at the same time their music tells something else. Same kind of inconsistency has come out when tonality has been the topic of discussion. In my string quartet Broken Contours the central concept is melody, taken in a very broad sense. The musical material in this piece is based on 12 different kind of melodic contours, some kind of archetypes – or skeletons - of melodies. These contours appear mostly in the 2nd violin, the viola and the cello parts, and sometimes also in the 1st violin part, which was written last of all. In this piece the sounding material is subordinated to produce those contours. The length of the contours varies from semiquaver to several bars. The central concept in the piece is directions and shapes of the melodic contours - instead of motives or themes – and vertical constructions created by a combination of them.