Outi Tarkiainen
Day Night Day

A mysterious, deep hum, gentle undulating movements, and finally a plain melody played on the muted trumpet: Outi Tarkiainen’s Day Night Day is as clear as a winter’s day. According to the Finnish composer, her short orchestral work reflects the “northern light and ice that every winter invade the land but that reflect the early spring light in brilliant spectra.” The oscillating trumpet melody sounds like a compelling incantation. 

It is based on a joik, the traditional chanting of the Sámi people in Lapland. Joiking is not merely singing: it is a philosophy, an attitude imbued with spirituality, soul, and personality. A joik conveys knowledge and history, serving as a means of communication with ancestors over centuries. One does not joikabout something; rather, one immerses oneself in what is sung – a person, an animal, or a natural phenomenon. For her trumpet melody, Outi Tarkiainen drew on a joik from the region around the Teno River, near the border with Norway. After living in the USA, London, and Paris, Tarkiainen has now returned to her birthplace, Rovaniemi, the capital of Finnish Lapland, located near the Arctic Circle.

Day Night Day is a quiet piece, dynamically centred in the pianissimo range, featuring soft tremolos and flageolets from the strings as well as breath sounds from the winds. Tarkiainen says she needs the silence of her homeland: “I have a fundamental longing for the northernmost regions within me.” The international appeal of her music is undiminished by this. Since her breakthrough at the BBC Proms in 2018, her works have been frequently performed in England. In Germany, her opera A Room of One’s Own at the Hagen Theatre was highly acclaimed. Her next opera commission from Germany will take her to the Aalto Theatre in Essen. The work, titled Day of Night, a collaboration with the Finnish National Opera, is based on the novel Halla Helle by Sámi author Niillas Holmberg, celebrated as the “Zauberberg of Sámi culture.” As the similarity in titles suggests, Day Night Day serves as a preliminary study for this stage work, where Tarkiainen explores the musical themes of the opera. She concludes the composition with another tribute to Sámi culture, which was suppressed for centuries: the lullaby Sjamma, Sjamma from Southern Lapland. As if from a distance, it is heard in the flute and clarinet before the glittering sounds of harp, celesta, and glockenspiel settle over the enchanting song like a blanket of snow. The Sámi language has 300 words for snow – some of this nuance is reflected in Day Night Day.