Kalevi Aho: 'My Fourteenth Symphony, , completed in February 2007, is scored for darabuka, djembe, gongs and chamber orchestra. The darabuka is found in Arabian music, a goblet drum played with the hand rather than with drumsticks, and the djembe is a hand drum of African origin. The technique for playing these fine percussion instruments is extremely demanding and it is only in the last few decades, that it has become more common for European percussionists to master it. ---- The first incantation begins with a very violent darabuka solo. As it progresses, the incantation is dominated by hypnotically reptitive figures from the djembe that finally lead to a great climax. These figures are initially 44 quavers long but, as the musical tension increases, their lenght is reduced to 37 quavers. In the second incantation, which opens in a mood of dejection, a repeated rhythmic idea, fifteen quavers long, conjures up furious, extremely fast music for chamber music. This is followed by the Procession, like a funeral narch, which is dominated by a repeated rhythmic motif, thurteen crotchets in length, from the three gongs and two tam-tams. This episode. progressing inescapably and fatefully, marks the climax of the entire symphony. In the third and final incantation (Mantra of the Ending), a 27-quaver-long, rhythmic mantra from the djenbe, growing uncreasingly clam and remote, brings the work to a conclusion.
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