'Maa' ('Earth' in Finnish) is written for seven instruments and electronics. The ensemble (flute, percussion, harpsichord/keyboards, harp, violin, viola and cello) comes together as a whole only in the last part. The ballet itself has no story line. One general theme is passing from one state to another; opening doors, gates, falling, crossing the water. These themes, often found in mythologies, offer possibilities for musical metamorphoses, transformations and other ways of proceeding from one material to another.
This work was written at the request of the choreographer Carolyn Carlson, and was realized with her for the Finnish National Ballet, who commissioned it. The electronics consist of pre-recorded and transformed natural sounds (wind, sea, whispering voice, etc.), and of amplified and processed instrumental sounds. These natural sound were recorded by me during the spring and summer of 1991 with a DAT recorder. This material has been brought into a Macintosh, where it has been edited and mixed with the SoundTools system (by Digidesign).
All seven instruments are amplified and processed in various manners in the different parts of the piece, except the first and fifth parts, which are purely 'tape music' (played from the hard disk).

Kaja Saariaho (SF) is a composer supported hy the Finnish government and living in Paris, where she studied at IRCAM. Numerous commissioned works, also some multimedia works. She has won prizes at international competitions (Kranich Steiner Prize 1986, Prix Italia 1988, Prix Ars Electronica 89).