The Paradigm of Gesture in Leevi Madetoja’s Okon Fuoko

Abstract

The music of Jean Sibelius’ younger contemporary and his private student Leevi Madetoja is little known in Russia. He is traditionally reckoned among the late romanticists, and his music was developed during Sibelus’ life and under his “shadow.” Nonetheless, Madetoja’s heritage is in need of a critical reevaluation in order to understand the composer’s involvement in the relevant tendencies and paradigms of 20th century music. The article brings biographical facts which formed the composer’s character and aural experience, and characterization is given to the artistic context of early 20th century Paris in the spheres of the theater and the ballet. As the object of study in the aspect of relevant paradigms, the suite from the ballet Okon Fuoko, created by the composer in 1930. The reason the ballet was forgotten after its premiere and its two genre-related versions are examined. The variant readings in determining the genre by Finnish researchers in defining the genre of the work, and the definition which was preserved in the composer’s archive is established. Paul Knudsen’s scenario appealing to the tradition of the Japanese puppet theater and the makeup of the suite are indicative for the period of the Europeans’ fascination with exoticism and search for a new plastic language. The analysis of the Grotesque Dance reveals features of gesture paradigm and the peculiarity of the composition’s musical dramaturgy, which provides grounds for calling Okon Fuoko a ballet for orchestra.