String Quartet
"maisema, muistuma, enne"

An interdisciplinary work that captures four generations’ memories and stories from a landscape

Collaboration with Anne Naukkarinen

25'

(2025)

String Quartet is an interdisciplinary work by choreographer and visual artist Anne Naukkarinen, in which she captures four generations of her family’s memories and stories from the landscape of Pappilanlahti in Ruokolahti – a place where her maternal lineage has lived for over a hundred years.​ The work is based on interviews Naukkarinen conducted with her family members, from which she compiled a multi-voiced script.

​

Composer Leevi Räsänen translated the script into a composition for string quartet, titled maisema, muistuma, enne (landscape, reminiscence, omen). In his composition, Räsänen drew inspiration from the imagined presence of an ancient song woven into the landscape, and from the mist of memories. The contents of the script take on an auditory form in the composition – at times through the interpretations of individual musicians, at others as a shared family chorus. The work was premiered in the home of Naukkarinen’s grandmother, Kerttu Kukkurainen, overlooking Lake Saimaa and the Ruokolahti church.

In the piece, one family’s memories based on a site are woven into a sonic tapestry that stretches across decades. Broader developments in Finnish society – such as the structural transformation of rural areas – are juxtaposed with everyday, intimate moments like gardening or taking a dip in the lake, each rendered equally meaningful. Personal memories evolve into shared myths within the family, inevitably shaping how the constantly changing surrounding landscape is experienced.​

Recording of the premiere performance in Ruokolahti: