Program note
Originally written for cellist Ariane Lallemand and the children's choir of the CRR de Montpellier, FLORES ARTIFICII takes for inspiration the natural electrical phenomenon of aurora borealis or Northern lights. The text is a short poem I wrote in Latin which provides a short scenario of the event.
The project in Montpellier fell through, but a suitable competition (requiring an unperformed and unpublished piece) serendipitously emerged in Finland shortly thereafter. Contracting the piece by 3 minutes to fit the prerequisites for this, I submitted and won, to my great surprise. I subsequently revised the piece to its original length.
A year later, during COVID, I transcribed the piece for wind ensemble, adding a short introduction and repeating some sections, expanding the piece to 15'30". See Fleurs d'artifice.
EMO Ensemble • Pasi Hyökki, conducting
Petja Kainulainen, cello
Details
Instrumentation
SSAATTBB choir and solo cello
Duration
11'
Date
2018 - revised 2019 and 2024
Sheet music
Available upon request
Prize
VocalEspoo International Choral Composition Competition – First Prize
First performance
EMO Ensemble, Pasi Hyökki, conducting. Intl. Choral Composition Competition, VocalEspoo Festival, Finland, June 2018
Full version, EMO Ensemble, Pasi Hyökki, conducting, Petja Kainulainen, cello, Tapiola, Espoo, Finland, April 2019