Sfäärit (2025) in Musica Nova, Helsinki

With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, Justina Repečkaitė is commissioned by Musica nova festival Helsinki to write a composition for the project Sfäärit (2025).

Video: Venla Helenius. Music: Justina Repečkaitė

Justina Repečkaitė’s - Sfäärit programm note:

Harpsichord and organ—an odd pair. The organ, sustained by electricity, produces an uninterrupted, eternal sound. In contrast, the plucked string of the harpsichord fades almost instantly. Synthesizing electronics, I sought to create a sustained harpsichord-like resonance. This resonance enhances the harpsichord’s natural timbre and blends with the organ’s mixtures to form a hybrid sound. Electronics, injected via transducers into the instruments’ bodies, filter through them before reaching the listener’s ears.

In the score, I explored quarter-comma meantone temperament, a historical (16th-17th century) tuning system whose unequal semitones produce some unusual diminished and augmented intervals. Once avoided due to their perceived inharmonicity—including the well-known wolf fifth —these intervals form the foundation of the composition. Proportionally mapping these intervals onto rhythm and pulse, the composition moves through these relationships, shifting from abstraction to physicality.

Sfäärit alludes to the philosophical concept of the music of the spheres, and in collaboration with choreographer Anna Mustonen, explores movement between vast, resonant spaces and intimate inner vibrations, both physical and metaphysical.

Photos: Venla Helenius.

Spheres on the Zodiac website:

Marianna Henriksson , Anna Mustonen : Spheres

Dance House, Pannuhalli

Presentation

Sidestep Festival 2025

Spheres is a performance convened by harpsichordist Marianna Henriksson and choreographer Anna Mustonen , which brings together contemporary music and contemporary choreography.

The starting point of the work Spheres is  the concept of composition : how the work can be approached both as a way of organizing sound into a composition and as a reflection on the connections inherent in choreographic thinking. 

The crashing chords, the movement of dust, the roaring organ, and the spatial intervals of the mean-tone tuning system overlap with centuries-old ideas about the harmony of the spheres – the sound produced by the movements of the universe and its vibration in the smaller units of nature, such as humans. 

The dance in the performance immerses itself in the experiential spaces opened up by the music and gathers, loosens, leaves space until it thickens, presses and evaporates into the air. The dance curls towards the private, expands into the environment, forms wondrous patterns and shockingly slight movements.

The spheres  will feature premieres by Lithuanian Justina Repečkaitė and Finnish Lauri Supponen, who have worked on compositional material for organ positive and harpsichord together with Henriksson and Mustonen, as well as performers Anna Maria Häkkinen, Marlon Moilanen, Mira Kautto and Petteri Pitko . In addition, the harpsichord work For Marianna (2020)  by British-Iranian Shiva Fesharek, composed for Henriksson,  will be included .

Marianna Henriksson and Anna Mustonen are known for their pioneering and dedicated work in combining new dance and baroque music.  In Spheres , the pair continue their work on the assumptions and questions surrounding the bringing together of dance and music. 

Spheres  is part of the activities of the interdisciplinary i dolci association and is seen as part of the programs of the Sivuaskel contemporary dance festival and the Musica nova contemporary music festival.

Music

Shiva Feshareki:  For Marianna.  For Double Manual Harpsichord in 1⁄4 comma Meantone Tuning, Amplified and Encased in Live Tape Echo, or Echo Pedal. (2021)

Justina Repečkaitė:  Sfäärit – for harpsichord, organ, and electronics. (2025)

Lauri Supponen:  north for organ positive  (2025)

What was said about the performance

An episode of the Zodiak Presents podcast, featuring choreographer Anna Mustonen & Marianna Henriksson.
Interview with Marianna Henriksson and Anna Mustonen in Zodiak Diary.
Review of the work in Hufvudstadsbladet.
Auli Särkiö's Kuukauduen kynä text about the performance in Zodiak Diary.

Video: Venla Helenius
Music: Justina Repečkaitė

Conveners and ensemble : Marianna Henriksson, Anna Mustonen
Choreographer : Anna Mustonen
Composers : Shiva Feshareki, Justina Repečkaitė, Lauri Supponen
Harpsichord, organ positive : Marianna Henriksson, Petteri Pitko
Dancers : Anna Maria Häkkinen, Mira Kautto, Marlon Moilanen, Anna Mustonen
Performance dramaturg : Masi Tiitta
Lighting designer : Meri Ekola
Space materials : Piia Rinne
Sound designer : Markus Heino
Costume design: Marianna Henriksson, Anna Mustonen, Masi Tiitta
Costumes are the performers' own

Administrative coordination and substantive discussion : Riikka Thitz / i dolci 
Production coordination: Marianna Henriksson, Anna Mustonen
Preview : Hertta Kiiski
Preview videos : Venla Helenius

Production : i dolci, Zodiak - New Dance Center, Musica nova Helsinki
Supporters : Alfred Kordelin Foundation, Lithuanian Culture Institute, Finnish Cultural Foundation, Arts Promotion Centre, Teosto 
Residencies : Ehkä-tuotanto/Contemporary Art Space Kutomo (Turku), Greta and William Lehtinen Foundation (Helsinki)
In collaboration with : rendezvous ry

Musica nova Helsinki has commissioned a composition by Justina Repečkaitė with the support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation.

Time:

• Thu 6.2.2025 18:00

• Fri 7.2.2025 19:00

• Sat 8.2.2025 15:00

• Organiser:

  i dolci, Zodiak - Center for New Dance, Musica nova Helsinki

• Address:

  Cable Factory, Pannu Hall
  Kaapeliaukio 3
  00180 Helsinki

• Tickets:

  44/40/22 € (Zodiak – Uuden tanssin keskus)

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