The Sound of the Senate Square gives Helsinki townspeople daily delight

The composition is heard every day at 5.49 p.m. throughout the year.

The best place to hear the Sound of the Senate Square is to listen at the middle of the square, at Emperor Alexander's statue, towards which the loudspeakers are pointed. The Sound travels from one building to the next and the composition runs for 5 minutes and 18 seconds.

The Sound of the Senate Square has been composed for the delight of the townspeople. It brings a new experience to the town milieu and hopefully makes the townspeople more interested in the Senate Square. Events take place on the Senate Square especially during summer, but for the largest part of the year the Square is quiet.

The sound installation tells of the meeting point between work and leisure time. The peculiar timing of the Sound has to do with the church bell traditions of Helsinki Cathedral.

If one wants to hear all the church bells chiming one after the other, the best time is on Saturday evening, when after the Sound of the Senate Square you can hear the evening bells, the minister's bells and the gathering bells. The bells of the Orthodox Holy Trinity Church chime at 6 p.m. and they can also be heard at the Square.

The sound installation is composed by the organist of Helsinki Cathedral, composer Harri Viitanen and Doctor of Technology Jyrki Alakuijala. It is a modern version of the European glockenspiel. The Empire-style central square designed by Carl Ludvig Engel has given inspiration to the composers.

All the movements of the composition have been synthesised algorhythmically using a computer. The composers have brought together the frequencies of church bells, the clinks of glass birds and the tones of the grand piano and the organ and connected them with composed motifs which are partly brand new and partly based on old, familiar tunes.

The four movements of the composition are: Gaudeamus, Signal of Independence, Footsteps in the Square and Cathedral Fantasy. The sound installation reflects the life and work of the institutions at the square, the townspeople, the spiritual life promoted by the church and the university and the independent state.

The Senate Square has always been the stage of the reign and the homeland, of science and civilisation, on the other hand also of art, religion and architecture. It has been the estrade of remarkable events in Finnish history, during the latest times also a place of leisure for townspeople and tourists.

The Sound of the Senate Square was heard for the first time on Helsinki Day 12 June 2005. The implementers of the project are Helsinki City Tourist & Convention Bureau, Helsinki Parish Union and Helsinki University.

More about Senate Square

Text: The implementers of the project
Picture: Helsinki City image bank / Comma Image Oy

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