Kalnins, Janis (1904 - 2000)
Biography Works
Jānis Kalniņš, composer and
conductor, studied composition at the Latvian Conservatoire
(1920–1924), and was conductor at the National Theatre (1923–1933)
and the Latvian National Opera (1933–1944). In 1944 he arrived in
Lübeck, Germany, as a refugee, and in 1949 went on to Canada. For
20 years he worked as lecturer in music at Fredericton Teachers
College of Music in New Brunswick and as symphony orchestra
conductor, later as organist and choir conductor. In 1981 Kalniņš
was awarded an honorary doctorate by Mount Allison University in
New Brunswick for his contribution to regional musical
development.
Jānis Kalniņš first gained prominence as a talented musical
dramatist with his operas and ballets written in the 1930s(Opera:
Lolita’s Wonderbird, 1934; Hamlet, 1936; In Fire, 1937; Ballet:
Autumn (one act), 1938; Nightingale and Rose (one act),
1938).
His output of chamber music and orchestral music,
particularly after 1940, was considerable, and included 5
symphonies and several cantatas. He generally avoided Romanticism
in developing his style, leaning more towards classical objectivity
and unadorned structural simplicity.
In his choral music of the 1920s and 1930s Kalniņš gradually
moved away from the essentially Romantic style of the Latvian
classics; in his works based on folklore he placed greater stress
on elements of humour and dance, but in his monumental songs
written 1931–1932 to lyrics by Jānis Sudrabkalns, the composer
pioneered a fundamentally new direction in Latvian music – towards
neoclassicism, towards pictorial representation and subtle
description.
Although his choral output is comparatively small (about 60
compositions), it contains works of significant dimension. Some are
neoclassical in style, while others approach the Romantic
lyrical-picturesque choral tradition in a fresh way.
In his works based on folklore Kalniņš has concentrated
mainly on elements of dance, playfulness and humour. Diatonic
scales completely dominate his style, resulting in diminished
contrasts between concordant and discordant intervals, with
harmonic intervals of seconds used just as they exist in folk music
(the second and chords comprising this interval used as
consonances).