Aulis Sallinen: music aims at a different humanity

Aulis Sallinen, who will turn 90 on 9 April 2025, kindly gave us permission to print the speech he made at the award-giving ceremony in September when he received the Honorary Award of the Finnish Music Publishers.

“I would like to express my warmest thanks for the honour. It means a lot to me, because being a composer, I know how important your work is in getting music heard. It has been a pleasure to observe the trend in publishing in Finland. I was once involved for a long time with the Society of Finnish Composers and the Finnish copyright organisation Teosto, and I know that things have not always been so good.

I can remember a time when you were lucky to get your music published, especially if it was an orchestral work. It was mainly up to orchestras and others to see that the conductors and performers got the copies they needed to play from. Sometime later, the Finnish Music Information Centre (nowadays Music Finland) also helped.

Today, things are different, and modern technology has undoubtedly occupied a big, maybe decisive role in this. Looking around at events in the world today, the old saying that war and hostility are and always have been with us seems to be blatantly true. We can, therefore, with good reason be proud to say that what we do – by which I mean composing and getting music heard in the concert hall – represents humanism in its purest form. It aims at a different humanity and world. Let us be proud of this.”

Photo: Artturi Winstén