Sibelius: Kullervo

Vesa Matteo Piludu, Kalevala Suite31.10.2011

Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Arts

Musicology

University of Helsinki

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)Barbaric and raw

Jean Sibelius started to think up ideas for Kullervo in Vienna

Spring 1891

According to his teacher Fuchs the ideas were "barbaric and raw".

Folk music

Sibelius was fascinated by Kalevala and Finnish folk music:

"that melodious, strangely melancholic monotony which is in all Finnish melodies".

The story

Plot in a nutshell

Kullervo seduces a woman without knowing that she is his long-lost sister.

Both end up committing suicide.

Difficulties

In a letter to his girlfriend Aino, Sibelius wrote that he had initially discarded at least 50 themes

"I am trying to find out what my symphony is all about. It is so different from everything that I have written so far”

Sibelius and Larin Paraske (1891)

Right at the end of the year Sibelius acquainted himself with the art of Larin Paraske, a Finnish singer of runes, in Porvoo. Yrjö Hirn later recollected the meeting.

"I was travelling with Jean Sibelius from Loviisa via Porvoo to Hämeenlinna. At that time my travelling companion, who was five years my senior, was developing plans that would result in the symphonic poem Kullervo, which was completed and performed the following year.

He was very eager to hear what Karelian runes sounded like when they were sung by a genuine Karelian singer, and I was of course glad to be able to witness this encounter between the new and the old.

I dare not speculate what it meant for the compositions the master based on Kalevala, the fact that he could listen to Paraske just then. I just remember how he followed the song attentively and wrote down the melody and the rhythms."

Eero Järnefelt: Larin Paraske.The clothes are not the right ones

Sibelius and Lauri Paraske

There was not much snow on the ground but it was already very cold. At the time I had no idea what a celebrity was sitting in front of me.

In her singing I mainly paid attention to how such a 'rune singer' uses Finnish: 'murehiaa-aa-aa', 'musta lintuu-uu-uu', in other words, especially the way they prolong and stress the last syllables of a word.

To my ears the stress that Paraske used sounded very strange, and I had no idea that I was dealing with such a great master, since I did not find her such an extraordinary rune singer.

In 'Kullervo' I had used a natural stressing of syllables. Later I followed Paraske's way in poems with the Kalevala metre, e.g. in 'Väinämöisen venematka' (Väinämöinen's Boat-ride)."

Male choir

From the end of January 1892 the composing continued in Helsinki, at the Kaivopuisto bathing establishment. At the beginning of March Sibelius decided that the choir should be a male choir.

According to Sibelius the third movement depicting sexual intercourse would embarrass

female singers.

"You, my dear, will understand," Sibelius wrote to Aino

Problem: the 'official' language of the orchestra was German, most of the

musicians being foreigners.

Sibeliuksen Kullervo 1892

Kullervo: hybrid

Kullervo

Mix between A symphony, a symphonic poem and opera.

First movement: fate and destiny

Introduction (Allegro moderato)

The clarinets and the French horns play a kind of destiny theme: inevitability of fate

sonata form

References: Finnish rune singing Bruckner

Different opinions about the first movement

Oskar Merikanto: the introduction is fragmentary

Robert Layton: Sibelius showed an "inborn talent for symphony“

Salmenhaara: the composer "paints with broad strokes the dark, ominous background of the Kullervo drama".

The second movement, Kullervo's Youth

Unusual , a kind of second instrumental "introduction"

Strings: lullaby motif that become violent

Sibelius: a lullaby whose "intensity is increased through variation"

Erkki Salmenhaara: a lullaby theme a rune-singing theme shepherd theme.

Layton: Tchaikovskian influences

Like the rune singers Sibelius varies his themes rhythmically and melodically, combining ideas from each one

Kullervo

CD: Kullervo Op. 7

Track 3: Kullervo and his Sister

Texts Chapter XXXV del Kalevala,

verses 69-286

Kullervo persuades a young woman (his sister) to enter his sleigh and induces her to yield herself to him in exchange for material goods

This is followed by an episode of unrestrained love-making, shown by orchestral means

incest

Third movement

Rhythm: 5/4

Kullervo, Kalervon poika / sinisukka äijön lapsi…

The time signature in the movement Kullervo and his Sister is the typically Finnish 5/4.

The orchestra creates the atmosphere and finally the choir begins the story: Kullervo, son of Kalervo, son of an old man, wearing blue stockings.

The archaic atmosphere is accentuated by male voice choir, which sings in unison.

Best version: Soloists: Karita Mattila (soprano, Sister) Jorma Hynninen (baritone, Kullervo)

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7 1892

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJIEC_j840

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7III. Kullervo and His SisterPart 1 of 3

Swedish Radio Symphony OrchestraEsa-Pekka Salonen

Marianne Rorholm, mezzo-sopranoPeter Mattei, baritone

Helsinki University Men's Chorus

Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, SwedenJanuary 1995

Chorus:

CHORUS.Kullervo, Kalervo's offspring,With the very bluest stockings,And with yellow hair the finest,And with shoes of finest leather,Went his way to pay the taxes,And he went to pay the land-dues.

When he now had paid the taxes,And had also paid the land-dues,In his sledge he quickly bounded,And upon the sledge he mounted,And began to journey homeward,And to travel to his country.

Kullervo, third movementKullervo and his sister

Kullervo: Nouse, neito, korjahani,

taaksi maata taljoilleni!

Sisko: Surma sulle korjahani, taaksi

maata taljoilleni

Kullervo: Come into my sledge, my

dear, Relax on the fur inside

Sister: May death enter your sledge,

may sickness rest upon the furs

Third movement: the revelation

It is revealed that Kullervo has unknowingly seduced his long-lost sister.

This is followed by the sister's song of lamentation

Fourth movementKullervo goes to War (Alla marcia).

Strange

Its cheerfulness and heroism seem to come from an entirely different world, even if the piccolo trills at the very beginning do give some sense of violence.

"went off piping to the war, went rejoicing to the battle".

Tawaststjerna and Salmenhaara: Karelian and Russian tones The movement anticipated Stravinsky's Petrushka

Fifth movement:Kullervo's Death (Andante)

Most of the musical material comes from the introduction

Circle of fate

Final part:Kullervo and the sword

the choir presents a dialogue between a sword and a swordsman: ”Would it please this blade to eat guilty flesh and to drink sinful blood?”

The sword answers: Why should it not please me to eat guilty flesh and to drink sinful

blood? Since I eat the flesh of the guiltless and I drink the blood of the innocent."

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7 1892

Video- Orchestra sinfonica di Lahti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROm9C7rUxwg&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (1/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b4ph5rDg4&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (2/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knv-cza1nzY&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (3/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-dr4JcWG6c&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (4/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0nWHCeus9E&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (5/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-GUqbFIXg&feature=related

Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (6/7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyGva3RBczw&feature=related

Robert Kajanus: Kullervo

Robert Kajanus was enthusiast:

Saloilta kuului valtava kohina.…

Suomalaisten sävelten mahtava kevätvirta vyöryi esiin.

From the forest grows a majestic wash The mighty spring stream of the Finnish music billows

The Vulcam

It was like a volcanic eruption," Axel Törnudd recollected. "Most of the listeners considered it complete chaos."

Fennoman´s vs Svennomans

For Fennomans, Sibelius was “one of us”

The svennomans considered Sibelius a “traitor”

Oskar Merikanto

The Finnish-speaking composer and critic Oskar Merikanto wrote of his uncertainty about the work (in Päivälehti, 29th April). He conceded, however, that the composer had "taken a long step forward with this work and, at the same time, taken Finnish art towards a highly promising future." He continued: "The whole composition is, due to its Finnish content, the most impressive and powerful work ever to come from a Finnish pen."

Karl Flodin

The Swedish-speaking critic Karl Flodin praised the work with reservations: "Jean Sibelius has a tune of his own, it is a gift originating from great abilities, and with it he writes his own, our own music."

Kullervo: ancient and modern

Kullervo: strong protagonist

Kullervo is archaic in his tragic elements Similarieties with Greek and Germanic Heroes

Has the caracteristics of a modern hero: Doesn’k know his origins, identity and destiny

Kullervo and Finnish politics

Kullervo is a slave, but he knows that he is an hero, he could not accept slavery, rebellion against Untamo and the Wife of Ilmarinen

Kullervo doesn’t know exactly who he is He is searching for his identity

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Finland under the Tzars Many Finnish were pursuing national independence

The Finns were searching for their national identity their national language (Finnish or Swedish?) Their national arts

Kullervo according to Eero Tarasti Myths and Music

Symphony as a complicate text

Synthesis between Karelianism Western, European classical and romantic musical tradition

Codes Mythic Musical

Public Karelianists, nationalists Music lovers, musicians, critics

Kullervo and Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet

Both symphonies with chorus

Choruses with different functions:

In Berlioz: the chorus remember a Renaissance’s court

In Sibelius: the chorus is the voice of the primitive, of the ancienty Finnish communinies

Kullervo, Wagner, Bruckner

Sibelius avoided Wagner’s style

Some indirect influence: In the seduction: use of passionate descendent scales used

sometimes by Wagner in some opera’s dramatic climax

Bruckner’s influence (Third Symphonyt) Use of the pauses to introduce a new theme In Sibelius: a way to pass from one phase of the mythical saga to

another A way to express mythical variety

Kullervo has some typic features of Sibelius’ style: use of óbscure tonal fields

Tarasti:Myth and music

Kullervo’s mythical structure is well expressed by arcaicisms

Sibelius and Kullervo:a dificult relation

Sibelius directed Kullervo only some times

Last concerts in 1893

Hard critics: even Merikanto admitted that the orchestral parts were boring

The composer was shoked he never conducted the work again – nor did he let anyone else

conduct the entire work during his lifetime.

But "Kullervo was a treasure house," he said in his old age

Late critics:”the King Kong of orchestral composition”

In the 1990s there was a flood of Kullervo recordings

massive size

megalomaniac ambitions

Absolutely romantic work