Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus: National Exoticism or International Modernism?

Einojuhani Rautavaara’s international fame rests largely on pieces celebrated for their seemingly non-modernist accessibility. Cantus Arcticus – Concerto for Birds and Orchestra (1972) is greeted with suspicion on account of its wide appeal. This article re-considers this piece in the context of his complicated and original stylistic development and re-evaluates its relation to Finnish nature and culture. By examining the intersections of nationalism, landscape and modernism in a late-twentieth-century piece, this discussion builds upon established research on early-twentieth-century Nordic repertoire, applying it to this contemporary context. It also finds a new perspective by supplementing that approach to include more recent scholarship on post-war tonality. As a result, new insights into musical form and a post-serial renewal of tonal thinking emerge, and through its unique synthesis of seemingly diverse elements, Cantus Arcticus can be seen as a milestone work within Rautavaara’s stylistic evolution.