Category: Blog posts

The other day, I stumbled upon a twentieth-century composer whom I had never heard of before: the Austrian pianist and composer Friedrich Gulda, who made a name for himself in both the classical and jazz worlds, respectively. I happened on Friedrich Gulda by way of the French virtuoso cellist Edgar Moreau, who recorded Gulda’s Concerto… Continue reading All That Glitters Is Not Gulda

While I wouldn’t go for all-out blasphemy and compare my blog with a certain important religious leader, it is an interesting coincidence that I would publish my first blog post in over three months on Easter Monday… There are a few different reasons behind my extended absence from this blog, but the main one is… Continue reading A Timely Resurrection

Looking back on the past year, I feel like I have grown even more determined in wanting to compose music that is true to my own musical ideals – my own “voice”, if you would. Another direction would be to try to adapt my musical style, in order to appeal to or gain rank among… Continue reading New Year’s Dissolutions

The so-called parody mass is quite an interesting concept. It developed and blossomed in European sacred music in the 16th century by way of prominent composers like Josquin des Prez and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina. Parody technique was one of several different compositional techniques used for mass compositions during the Renaissance. A similar but different… Continue reading Jauchzet, frohlocket!

Ever since grade school, Lucia has been one of my favourite feasts of the year. To an outsider, a chorus of children (and/or adults) in long, white gowns holding white candles and singing together might seem more than slightly peculiar. Particularly so starting at around 6 am in the morning. Strange or not, for me… Continue reading Paint a Door on the Wall

I opened the last blog post stating that I’d had an eventful weekend. The rest of November, it turned out, continued in much the same way. The past three weeks have been unrelenting, leaving little space or time for writing blog posts. Most of what’s happened has been exciting and pleasant, but there have also… Continue reading Setback, Get Back

Last weekend was quite eventful. On Saturday, as part of the All Saints’ Day celebration, I sang with the Cathedral Choir in Mass and the same afternoon attended a memorial service in the cathedral. On Sunday, my pianist Matti Busch and I performed our death-and-life themed recital programme in Sundsvall. Last year around this time,… Continue reading As Life Is

Last Tuesday I held my first ever lecture about working in the music business. I have been hired to give a series of five lectures in total in this school year, aimed at young twenty-somethings with a very general understanding – if any – of what working as a freelance musician entails. Merriam-Webster’s definition of… Continue reading Business Acumen

I feel that giving lectures on both Western music history as well as game music history offers an interesting perspective on both. The extremely short period in which we have been playing video games, compared to our several millennia of recorded musical traditions, appears to me as a kind of microcosm of humanity’s musical development.… Continue reading History In the Making

I feel like this week hit me like a sledgehammer! Monday feels like it was only yesterday, even though it was actually three days ago. Madness. And I feel like I have spent most of the week so far writing and replying to an endless number of emails. I started the week off by getting… Continue reading It’s Hammer Time