61, is a 1972 orchestral composition by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara.
[1] Subtitled Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, it incorporates tape recordings of birdsong recorded near the Arctic Circle, and on the bogs of Liminka, in northern Finland.
The work is in three movements, "somber, stately, mysterious and mostly consonant"[2]: The bog opens with a flute duet, after which the birds join in, followed by the other woodwinds.
The second movement, Melancholy, features a slowed-down recording of the song of the shore lark.
[3] Cantus Arcticus was commissioned by the University of Oulu for its first doctoral degree ceremony[4] and premièred on 18 October 1972 with Stephen Portman conducting.