Keltainen huone (Yellow Room)

TITLE: Keltainen huone (Yellow Room)
CAT# (YEAR COMPOSED): 80 (2008)
INSTRUMENTATION: choir
PAGES: 16
DURATION (APPROX): 2’40
PREMIERE BY: Premiere was by a community choir (adult & youth) in Alajärvi, Finland on November 24, 2008 at the Nelimarkka Museum.
NOTE: Dedicated to Leena Passi and Ritta Thiam. The Painting on the cover titled Keltainen huone (Yellow Room) by Marjatta Hanhijoki was the inspiration for this piece

Keltainen huone (Yellow Room) was written during a residency at the Nelimarkka Museum in Alajärvi, Finland in 2008.

This piece focuses on the sense of pitch movement of unvoiced sounds that are achieved by highlighting the dominant formant frequencies of the vocal tract. However, through the use of radical manipulations of the upper vocal tract, the voices intentionally do not always follow natural production characteristics seen with speech and song. These procedures, naturally, are done to continue systematic explorations of art-music in the 20th and 21st centuries.

A Painting titled “Keltainen huone” by Marjatta Hanhijoki was the inspiration for this piece.

I decided to offer a second alternative version of Keltainen huone in response to a performance by 441 Hz Chamber Choir, conductor Anna Wilczewska in 2015 (which was subsequently released on a cd titled Modern Choral Masterpieces in November 2015 on Dux Records (Poland)). In the performance by 441 Hz, they reinterpreted the score to use mostly voiced rather than the intended unvoiced singing. The result is an expression that is light, airy and cheerful.