The Music of Joonas Kokkonen (review)

The Finnish composer Joonas Kokkonen, who died in October 1996, remains an unjustly neglected figure in the history of twentieth-century music, and this study of his music is welcome. Outside Finland, Kokkonen is best known for his opera Viiemeiset kiusaukset (The Last Temptations) but he also composed significant orchestral and chamber music. His four symphonies are rightly described in this book as 'the most vital series of essays by any Finnish symphonist—save, of course, Sibelius' (p. vii) and are frequently performed in Finland, where they have enjoyed enormous and well-deserved recognition. Yet elsewhere, Kokkonen's music—almost stubbornly—remains little known. Edward Jurkowski's dedicatedly detailed study is a wholly justifiable endeavour to redress that balance.

The book is a survey of Kokkonen's entire output and is usefully structured according to genre: symphonies, orchestral music, The Last Temptations, and vocal, chamber, and keyboard works. This complete catalogue of his compositions is prefaced by historical, biographical, and stylistic summaries and rounded off with a four-page conclusion addressing 'Kokkonen's Legacy'. The preface informs us that, after the initial chapters, the book 'does not have to be read in a linear fashion, as the description of each piece is essentially self-contained' (p. ix); useful advice indeed, since the ensuing commentary on every part of every piece (amounting to some 185 pages) does not make for easy reading. Moreover, this prose 'is descriptive in nature and at a level for one with knowledge of rudimentary concepts of contemporary analytical writing' (loc. cit.) and there is a glossary of terms ('definitions'), presumably for those not yet at that rudimentary stage.

This is all very well intentioned, addressing coverage of materials and accessibility of approach, and channelled towards informing the reader of the genuine merits of this highly imaginative, but essentially little-known, composer. It is, however, hugely problematic. To write about everything in a descriptive catalogue runs the risk of the reader being unable to see the wood for the trees: there is no focus. While there is an enormous amount of information, the effect is curiously uninformative. To adopt an analytical approach that caters for a wide readership is a highly laudable aim—but there is a contradiction here. Surely the readership for the music of Joonas Kokkonen is going to be rather specialized? Given both the subject matter and the cost of this volume (and all credit to Ashgate for promoting more rarefied topics), the reader is likely to be from a particular elite—not at the somewhat 'rudimentary' level predicated at the outset. However, if we accept at face value this all-encompassing readership, then the premiss that, if the topic is obscure the approach should be accessible, is commendable. But an insoluble problem remains: accessible analysis is not merely description. Any analysis must involve some degree of enquiry and speculation; it should still be asking 'why' things happen, not just detailing 'what' and 'how'. There is no analysis here: the book is encyclopedic but not insightful.

The initial summary chapters provide useful background and an all-important context for the detailed study to follow. Discussions of 'stylistic features' (Ch. 3) turn out to be surprisingly contentious. It is customary to divide Kokkonen's output into three stylistic phases, and although such categorization undoubtedly has its limitations (as is nearly always the case in music history) there is some merit to these broad distinctions. Jurkowski is justifiably concerned about the resulting oversimplifications, but he goes much further. 'By stating that a stylistic shift away from dodecaphonic construction to a "freely atonal" approach began with the 1967 Third Symphony, and to focus attention towards these tertian sonorities, implies a decreased use of dodecaphonic procedures in those works. However, analysis clearly illuminates that this is not the case whatsoever.' He goes on: 'In sum, instead of the traditional three, it is more profitable to consider that there are, in fact, only two stylistic periods in Kokkonen's career' (p. 15); and finally...