Eero Tarasti
Humanist of the day

Eero Tarasti

During his long career, Professor of Musicology Eero Tarasti has done more than many dare to even dream about. He is a scholar of classical music and a pioneer of semiotics in Finland. His international activity is truly global in its reach.

Eero Tarasti

Eero Aarne Pekka Tarasti
Born September 27, 1948, Helsinki.

Master of Arts, 1973, Licentiate of Philosophy, 1976, and Doctor of Philosophy (Musicology), University of Helsinki

Professor of Musicology, 1984–2016, University of Helsinki
Professor of Musicology, 1983–84, University of Jyväskylä
Professor of Arts Education, 1979–83, University of Jyväskylä

Vice-president, 1994–2004, President, 2004–2014 and Honorary President, 2014-, IASS/AIS:n (International Association for Semiotic Studies)
Founder and President, ISI at Imatra (International Institute for Semiotic Studies), 1988–2013
Chairperson, Finnish Semiotic Society, 1979-
Founder and Editor-in-chief, Synteesi arts research periodical, 1982-

Publications, research projects and other academic activity

Awards and special achievements
J.V. Snellman Prize, University of Helsinki, 1997
Honorary Doctorates in four universities abroad (Bloomington, Indiana; Tallinn, Estonia; Sofia, Hungary and Aix-Marseille, France)
Honorary member, Victoria College, University of Toronto

Written by Eero Tarasti and Riitta-Ilona Hurmerinta (ed.)
Translated by John Calton

I once said in an interview that I couldn’t imagine what it was like not to be a professor, since I had been one my whole life. “Whole life” in practice means from the age of 23, when I held my first professorial chair in general literature at the University of Helsinki.

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As a schoolboy I had studied German in 1966 in the Vienna Summer University and piano during a second summer in 1971. Then I chanced on a slim volume called Myten om Asdival (Engl. Myth and Meaning) by Claude Lévi-Strauss. He became my greatest idol.

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My work on my doctoral thesis meant a year’s study in Rio de Janeiro. I was supposed myth and music in practice and travel to the river Xingu to study time among the Suya Indians, but nothing came of it. Even before I departed Erik Tawaststjerna advised me to study ‘the Brazilian Sibelius’, Heitor Villa-Lobos. So I ended up following the advice because his museum was in Rio and run by his widow Arminda.

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The Musicology Department moved to renovated premises in no. 1 Vironkatu street in 1984. And an ideal academic community came into being, small but decidedly international. Guests began to arrive with support from annual grants provided by the Tampere-based Pro Musica foundation. Everyone had a study, short-term visitors lived in guest accommodation across the courtyard and walked to the department to give their lessons. The students had their own room, too.

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Semiotics has enriched my life tremendously. Since 1988 I headed the International Semiotic Institute (ISI) at Imatra in eastern Finland until 2013, when the Ministry of Education ceased to fund it. The Institute in Imatra had in its time forged a truly academic brand. It was the source of the series Acta Semiotica Fennica, it paid host to the 10th World Congress of Semiotics, and it led the national university network for semiotics between 2004 and 2007.

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Like so many semioticians, I too have been fascinated by literature. I have written novels. My first was the 1995 novel Professori Amfortasin salaisuus (’The secret of Professor Amfortas’, translated into French in 2000 and Estonian in 1996), which, on account of the title, was mistakenly thought to be a detective novel.

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I am now in the final year of my academic career with the University of Helsinki. I would love to continue, especially the lecturing and the teaching, because I get ideas and inspiration for my research. But at present I cannot see how that would be possible. When I give up my study, I won’t be able to produce the periodical Synteesi, nor Acta semiotica fennica, or anything else. Perhaps I have to set up a private department or academy. After all privatisation is in fashion nowadays.

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