Book Review | MA Numminen says in his memoirs that he will not return as a musician: now the 81-year-old is focusing on writing

Memoirs

M. A. Numminen: It is worth remembering – Memoirs II. Docendo. 373 s.

Fifties M. A. Nummisen the third decade as an artist culminated in a pleasant, if not downlifting, opportunity in December 1989.

Numminen had had a wife Helena Free for the first time I invite you to a party at the castle and got to talk to the Mauno Koiviston with.

“He referred us to the side and started the conversation From Wittgenstein. As the president raised the issue himself, we had a great moment of discussion, “Numminen summed up on page 484 of the first part of his memoirs, in the last subchapter of it, in a declarative style that permeates the entire work.

Nummisen at the end of the second part of the memoirs, the mood is different, albeit for reasons beyond his control. The corona pandemic that began in the spring of 2020 had also taken gigs from him and forced him to stop, to think about the future.

The retreat to Lempäälä cottage, planned for a few weeks, had dragged on for months, over the summer.

“As time went on, I decided I wouldn’t go back to being a musician. Other fields of art were allowed to stay, so I could focus on writing,” Numminen now says in his book. It is worth remembering in the last paragraph of the seven lines.

“Now I might take all the different forms of writing I had been in for about 60 years. It’s joyful to write!”

Does it mean this final entry of the second part of 2020 now then the fact that he will never perform as a singer and musician again? Impossible to know, but also pretty hard to believe, even though Numminen paves the decision with small clues sprinkled on his book. Age does not come alone to the eighties.

And then what? As a musician and performing musician, Numminen already had a production in his fifties, which is on a par with at least in Finland. He had recorded swing jazz, rock, tango, percussion, children’s music, techno and stove, among other things.

And yet always as his own identifiable and gradually also predictable self, as some kind of semi-official starter.

Somerolla Born in March 1940, Mauri Antero Numminen ‘s best work seems to have been the artist M. A. Numminen at that stage – a character and type whose activities all turned into being M. A. Numminen.

In the first part of his memoirs, which ended in 1989, Numminen seemed to look at himself publicly from outside himself, as an observer lurking between the lines.

General restraint and the protection of privacy also characterize the thirty-second part of Numminen’s memoirs, whose name It is worth remembering probably refers to the song he recorded The young husband is worth remembering (1966).

And what’s in it. He has been making his own kind of art – records, musicals, books, auditions, plays, films – for so long and so much that you would think of two interesting books effortlessly enough for two books.

But like its predecessor, the second part still largely consists of hundreds of simplistly described “scenes” revolving around Numminen’s individual activities: where I went and why I went, who I met, and where I met, what I was planning, and what I was doing.

Indeed, the book is only a frame or an outline of the events, encounters, and deeds on which the memoirs could be based. But Numminen hardly delves into his notes, his subtitled chapters.

Three In a book divided into decades and 31 years, there are a total of 197 of them – an average of a page or a half, sometimes combining several events.

For example, the year 1991 progressed on the basis of the titles: “Detective with Untsu”, “Idol and University”, “Vienna and Innsbruck”, “Short films and singles”, “May Day in Karlsruhe”, “M. A. and Torwet ”,“ Let’s Be Animals ”and“ Book Presentation and Blues ”.

In the opening part, the transfer of places, dates and names was partly supported by the fact that the events coincided with his most creative years and at the same time took place in the turning points of Finnish culture, the 1960s and 1970s. Memories were often common even in private – at least for those who recognize names, know events, know the context.

In the early part of the second part, as an artist in his fifties, he is already “ready” for the most part: he has published most of his records and books and achieved social status in the first class of cultural influencers. One of its strong marks was the 1993 FIM 200,000 Finland Prize.

“We were interested in whether I would now be ringing the System. I replied that the award committee probably did not expect that. ”

Some kind the systematic “formalization” and awareness of the cultural status of the second part of the memoirs is still heard. At the same time, the musician, composer and writer Numminen, who has opened his head in Central Europe, has made more and more appearances outside Finland, including at embassies, cultural institutes and “high cultural” events, as well as at seminars and book fairs.

You can also read between the lines that the limits of doing things in Finland came about at the time when Numminen started writing and composing extensive “classical” musical works – and striving for the same market with “real” artists.

“Yes, the classical composers invited me to perform, talk, or discuss their field or elitism, but they didn’t give me money as representatives of the foundations,” Numminen writes after one stinging disappointment.

Over time, it seems that his artistic significance is better appreciated and understood in the world. It is clear that the most ingenious plans do not receive full support in Finland.

Not that In fact, it seems that Numminen has been rejected in Finland, let alone in some way. On the contrary, a personal directory of more than 800 names communicates, at least in part, his networking, even though the names are at times a mere effect of dropping.

Still, one might assume that the Deaths of long-term co-workers and friends would sensitize him to slightly more personal recollections, or at least analyzes. But no, loyal to his low-key style, Numminen refrains from confessional sentiment and still lurks between the lines, with little privacy.

Except for the few times you do something out of the ordinary, like your wife’s people on the 75th anniversary of Hyvinkää depart from ABC Station:

“We ate leaf steaks first. For dessert we enjoy tea and half of the Viennese bread. We had not invited guests to this party. ”