Tulve, Helena

Helena Tulve was born on April 28, 1972 in the Estonian city of Tartu. She began to study musical composition at the Tallinn Alo Põldmäe Secondary School of Music. In 1989, she entered the Estonian Academy of Music, where she studied under the direction of Erkki-Sven Tuyr ; Tulva to this day remains the only student of the composer. Helena successfully completed her studies at the Academy in 1992, after which she entered the Paris Higher National Conservatory of Music and Dance - in the composition class of the organist Jacques Charpentier. In 1994, Tulve graduated from this educational institution, receiving the “Premium” award upon graduation.

Between 1993 and 1996, Helena Tulve studied Gregorian singing; in addition, she also attended the summer courses of the Hungarian and Austrian composer Gyorgye Ligeti , as well as the Italian composer Marco Stropp .

Helena Tulve belongs to the young generation of Estonian composers who, in contrast to the neo-classic tradition of “rhythm-centeredness”, create music that focuses on the sound itself and sonority. Critics believe that her work gives a clear idea of ​​the richness and diversity of her cultural experience: the French school of spectral music, the IRCAM experimentation, the influence of the works of Kaya Saariaho and Giacinto Shelsi . In addition, the presence in her works of “echoes” of Gregorian chants and oriental music in general is noted. Her approach to composing music is called a “fluid”, more connected with the process itself - contrasting it with a more “architectural” version.

• Thomson, Clare (2006). Footprint Tallinn. Footprint Travel Guides. p. 179. ISBN 978-1-904777-77-9 .
• Eesti Elulood. Tallinn: Eesti Entsüklopeediakirjastus 2000 (= Eesti Entsüklopeedia 14) ISBN 9985-70-064-3 , S. 555