The Finnish label Ondine releases “The Sound of Wings” by Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits, dedicated to the memory of Amelia Earhart.

Composer Tõnu Kõrvits (Tallinn, 1969) is one of the emblematic figures of the post-Arvo Pärt generation of Estonian musicians. A member of the Estonian Composers’ Union since 1994 and professor of composition and orchestration at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre since 2001, he was composer-in-residence with the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO) during the 2003/2004 season. With a musical language rich in harmonic and timbral colours and complex textures, he also has a predilection for choral music, a field in which he has composed numerous works recorded for the Finnish label Ondine.

The Sound of Wings (Tiibade hääl) is an extensive choral work of almost fifty-five minutes, premiered live in May 2022 at the church of Haapsalu Episcopal Castle, which completes a kind of trilogy (although it was not a premeditated proposal) with two of his previous albums for Ondine, Moorland Elegies (2017) and You Are Light and Morning (2020). If these previous albums of the “cycle” were related to the elements of earth and water, in this final chapter the relationship is established with air (we might therefore miss a fourth chapter of a supposed tetralogy of the elements of nature, with fire) and the existential themes that Tõnu Kõrvits has been dealing with for decades in his works – nature, life, death, suffering, love -.  The composer himself has stated that The Sound of Wings is “the most brilliant work of the trilogy […], the one that emanates the most light.

One of the sources of inspiration for The Sound of Wings was Amelia Earhart’s attempt to become the first woman in the history of aviation to circumnavigate the globe with her navigator Fred Noonan, a journey that was cut short when they were reported missing while crossing the Pacific Ocean. The work is divided into nine choral parts (the texts of which have been written by the Estonian poet and essayist Doris Kareva), the first of which is preceded by an instrumental part for violin (entitled Ülemereühenduses…, “disconnection”, in Estonian, alluding to Earhart’s last radio broadcast) which is soon joined by a carpet of strings. Air, wind, emptiness, flight and a sense of freedom are embodied in the music by the solo viola. The first eight sung movements, each lasting between two and six minutes, evoke the tragic story of Amelia Earhart, highlighting the human aspects: love, courage, loneliness, patience… The general atmosphere is one of contemplation, at times ecstatic, of the immensity of the sky and the proximity of the stars, all framed with the fascinating lyricism that Kõrvits succeeds in expressing.

The final sung part, a movement of more than eight minutes entitled Tiibade haal ja hüüd (“the wings and the cry”, in Estonian), expresses eternity: “You know that heaven is my home/ Heaven and beyond/ No one ever disappears/ Only the horizon remains to be known”, reads Kareve’s poems. The strings and choir participate in a progressive symbolism of wind and air that culminates in the choral outpouring prior to the return of calm, evoking the universal order in which, if death is at the end of the horizon, light and love remain. The work, as a whole, is of overwhelming cosmic beauty: a luminous song of hope, which the choir and strings, admirably conducted by Estonian conductor Risto Joost, approach with fervour and warmth in a comforting and reassuring composition.