Do you believe in Angels?

Apparently the mystical Finnish composer Einojuhanni Rautavaara did. He produced a number of orchestral pieces with evocative titles like "Angels and Visitations" or "Angel of Light." One of these, a concerto for double-bass and orchestra, is titled "Angel of Dusk," and was given its premiere performance in on today's date in 1981, in Helsinki.

"Looking out the window of a plane," wrote Rautavaara, "I saw a strikingly shaped cloud, gray but pierced with color, rising above the Atlantic horizon. Suddenly, the words 'Angel of Dusk' came to mind." Rautavaara had been asked to write a double-bass concerto for a friend, who died before the composer could comply with the request. Some years later, when the idea of such a concerto was suggested by another soloist, Rautavaara recalled the vision of the cloud, and had his title.

In an interview, Rautavaara spoke of a scientist who wrote that "the existence of music is an intellectual scandal." "With that he meant," Rautavaara explained, "…that there is a message in music, and yet there are no words for that message. It's from another world. For a scientist that is a scandal. For me, it's a wonderful thing."

"In the end, I agree with Carl Jung," said Rautavaara. "The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him."