The Rapids of Life (2023)

Only few people ever experience the Ferguson reflex, and they are all women. But those who do are sure to remember its magical strength for ever. I described that enormous surge to my husband as the rapids of life I had to shoot – as a precipice over which I was pushed; and in the process I realised how little I knew about the strength of the human body. This physical command, also known as the foetal ejection reflex and performed without conscious thought, shot our son out of my womb and into our arms in the space of two minutes. The Rapids of Life is a work about that paramount moment, about a female’s instinctive birth-giving and a little child of nature who opens his eyes for the first time. The form of the work imitates the physiological delivery and its different stages, carried along by the ever-shifting waves.

While I was composing the piece, the news reached me of the death of Kaija Saariaho, a great composer and a person who was very important to me. The composition began to reflect her as a person; a little flash of her cello concerto slipped into the cello solo at the beginning, and many of the instruments that meant a lot to her appeared to bear the flame of life along. The piece ends with birth and a great new beginning. This latter is reinforced by the reference in the low brass on the final stages of the score to the first bar of Sibelius’s fourth symphony.

The Rapids of Life is dedicated to the memory of Kaija Saariaho.

- Outi Tarkiainen