Listen:
ilo
nibe
malviinan laulu
peninkulma

Olli Varis explains the play and the creation of the music:
Niskavuoren nuori emäntä : The Young Lady of the House of Niskavuori
Manuscript by Hella Wuolijoki

The play takes place in 1880. It tells the story of the young Loviisa as she slowly realizes exactly what is happening in the house, and what people are trying to hide from her. She fights for control of the house from her husband's sister Heta, who had been the head of the household for all of their lives.

One strong theme in the play is "suomalaistaminen," to "make Finnish." (At that time Swedish language still dominated Finnish life; for example, all schools in Finland taught only in Swedish). Loviisa's husband Juhani has just been chosen as the member of the Parliament. He is an advocate for suomalaistaminen, for bringing power back into Finnish hands.

The play is a Finnish classic; it premiered in the National Theatre was in 1930´s. It has been revived in this edition by director Juha Lehtola, with a strong, creative choreography by Matti Paloniemi.

New music was composed and improvised, seeking the deeper emotional layers in each act. Maria and I (as her assistant) took part in rehearsals and got a lot of ideas from there. Before the rehearsals we intensively read the manuscript and tried to catch the main themes. Director Lehtola had choosen some of the music from Maria´s existing CDs before asking her to compose new stuff for the play. On this CD there are two old tunes ("Skymningspolskan" and "Sofias flykt") and one older tune in a new version ("Nibe"). On the CD, the music is as it was originally composed, in full length performances
01 / Ilo = Joy, for a big group dance
03 / Malviina´s melody, a theme for the third part of the sad triangle drama
05 / Birds, the main theme, used all over the play, mostly improvised bird and wind sounds
07 / League (as 10 kilometres), for old mothers funeral
09 / Crane landscape