Reflections on an Ethnomusicological Study of a Contemporary Western Art Music Composer

Editor's Note: In 2009, ethnomusicologist Pirkko Moisala published a book on the work of contemporary Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (b.1952). In this short item, we invited Moisala to reflect on the process of writing a composer biography from the perspective of someone who has worked for many years in the field of ethnomusicology, reflections which were not possible to include in the book itself.