Ilmari Hannikaisen kokemuksia kotimaan konserttikiertueella 1921

Abstract

Ilmari Hannikainen’s domestic concert tour in 1921

This article explores the concert tour of composer-pianist Ilmari Hannikainen (1892–1955) in Finland in February and March 1921, examining the content, themes, and effects of Hannikainen’s tour and placing it in the cultural and social context of his time. The primary research material is Hannikainen’s surviving diaries and letters, the content of which is analysed thematically.

The diary entries and letters from the tour period are used to reconstruct Hannikainen’s experience of the tour. By complementing the life-writing material with newspaper accounts, concert programmes, composition manuscripts, and salary records the entirety of the tour is reconstructed. The central question of the article is what the tour was like as experienced by Hannikainen himself.

The results show that analysing the tour diary provides valuable insights into Hannikainen’s experiences as a performer, audience encounters, and musical perceptions, which deepens our understanding of his career and the development of Finnish musical life in the 1920s.