Kalevi Aho

Solo III for Flute

COMPOSER'S NOTE
The solo flute piece Solo III consists of two contrasting movements. the slow first movement was a commission from the Cruselk Week Music Festival in Uusikaupunki, Finland, for the Scandinavian Flute Competition held there in August 1990. The first movement was a complusory piece at the competition. This movement is like a single, endless melody and it tests the sound quality of the flautist and his/her ability to create long melodic phrases and a long, continuous musical form. The whole movement is based on a quarter-tone scale.
After finishing the first movement in January 1990, I decided to write a second, fast movement for Solo III. A year later, in January 1991, I composed the technically very demanding and virtuoso second movement, Presto. The Presto flows in a very fast perpetual motion in semiquavers. The movement begins mysteriously in the lower register of the flute and gradually the music moves towards the upper register. At the same time, the texture becomes more complex, with hidden polyphony. The second movement culminates in a wild prestissimo.
The complete Solo III was premiered by the Finnish flautist Tapio Jalas in Helsinki, on April 14, 1991.