Madetoja, Leevi

Leevi Antti Madetoja (17.2. 1887 Oulu – 6.10. 1947 Helsinki) was a Finnish composer, conductor, writer, and teacher. He has a central position in Finnish music after Jean Sibelius as perhaps the finest late romantic of his generation.

Leevi Madetoja was born in Oulu, Finland. He studied at the Conservatory in Helsinki (now Sibelius Academy) and at the University of Helsinki from 1906 to 1910 with Armas Järnefelt, Erik Furuhjelm and Jean Sibelius, as well as in Paris and Vienna. Madetoja belonged to the student’s club of Ostrobothnia, in whose activities he got to know the composer Toivo Kuula, became friends with the poet Eino Leino and met his future wife, the poet L. Onerva. They were married since 1913, although Leino was for a long time the third wheel in their relationship. Madetoja died in Helsinki in 1947, aged 60.

Madetoja’s music has a clear Finnish melancholic undertone, but on the other hand it has a French-like sophistication and even elegance. In addition to choral music, he composed orchestral works (incl. 3 symphonies), 2 operas, ballet, chamber music, cantatas and solo songs. Madetoja also worked as a conductor in Vyborg, as a music critic for the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat and as a music teacher at the University of Helsinki.

Nearly all of his male choir works has been written for the first Finnish speaking choir YL Male Voice Choir.

Works

Title of the work (Translation) Price

Duration Division of parts Year of composing Poet/collection Language Style

SA choirs

SATB choirs

TB choirs

2`

30``

TTBB

1924

/1937

Kanteletar

Finnish

Classical, Traditional

13`

30``

3T2B-div

1908

/1937

Kanteletar

Finnish

Classical, Traditional

Multiple choirs

Privacy Overview
cw-logo

We use cookies on the website, which constitutes a personal register according the meaning of the EU Data Protection Regulation, whose registrar is Hyökki Choral Oy. Cookies are small files stored in the browser, which without it’s not possible to separate one user from another.

In this view different types of cookies can separately be accepted or rejected. You may at any time cancel your approval and in any conditions the approval will not be valid for more than 30 days.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Essential cookies are cookies that are required for normal use of the site. The necessary cookies on this website are only used to remember the choices you make about the cookies you accept or reject.

3rd Party Cookies

This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous information such as the number of visitors to the site, and the most popular pages.

Keeping this cookie enabled helps us to improve our website.