Sounding North: Music in Scandinavia

Daniel Grimleydaniel.grimley@music.ox.ac.uk

Jean Sibelius Chronology

1865 born, Hämeenlinna 1885 enrols Helsinki University, study

law, later joins Music Institute 1889-91 Studies in Berlin, Vienna 1891 meets runic singer Larin Paraske 1892 Premiere of Kullervo Symphony 1900 First Symphony (1899) performed

in Finnish pavilion at Paris World Fair

1905 First visit to England 1911 Premiere of Fourth Symphony 1921 Meets Vaughan Williams in

London 1924 Premiere of Seventh Symphony,

Stockholm 1930 Works on Eighth Symphony 1957 Dies, 20 September, aged 91

Sibelius and Finnish Nationalism 1809 Finland becomes Russian Duchy 1835 Elias Lönnrot publishes Kalevala 1882 Martin Wegelius founds Helsinki

Music Institute 1889 Finnish newspaper Päivälehti

founded 1893 Sibelius writes Karelia Music 1894 Coronation of Tsar Nicholas II 1899 Premiere of Finlandia (‘Suomi

Herää’) 1904 Assassination of Nikolai Bobrikov 1917 Russian Revolution; Finland

declares independence 6 December

1918 Finnish Civil War; Sibelius house arrest

1936 Hitler awards Sibelius Goethe Medal

1939 Russian attacks Finland; ‘Winter War’

1943 Sibelius hears Vaughan Williams Fifth Symphony on wireless

1955 Finland joins United Nations

Kullervo Symphony

Premiered 28 April 1892

Influence of Bruckner/Wagner

Composed 1891-2 after hearing Larin Paraske

Texts from Kalevala, canto 35

Finnish language text, mvmts 3 and 5

Kalevala ‘Folk’ rhythms Rotational cycles

Runeberg Songs, op. 13 Johan Ludvig Runeberg (1804-1877) Contemporary with Kullervo Symphony Swedish texts, Finnish folk rhythms ‘Under Strandens granar’

Strophic structure Nature mysticism/haunting Tonal structure: auxiliary cadence

‘Till Frigga’ Eroticism Waltz topic Tonal structure

Lemminkäinen Legends, op. 22

Composed 1894-5 Veneen Luominen ‘Swan of Tuonela’ Symbolism Symposium group

Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931)

Kalevala, Cantos 14, 15 Programmatic narrative Symphonic Structure

‘Lemminkäinen and the Maidens of the Island’, op. 22/1

Opening gesture: nature threshold

Midsummer night Knut Hamsun

Pan (1894), Victoria (1896)

Scoring and cadential articulation

‘Second subject’ Eroticism and chromatic

desire Development/Reprise Tonal Closure as Telos

Ainola and the Third Symphony

Architect: Lars Sonck Karelianism vs Junge

Klassizität Ferrucio Busoni

Entwurf eine neue aesthetik der Tonkunst (1907)

Symphony ‘in C’, op. 52 (1907)

Meeting with Mahler ‘Profound logic’

Third Symphony: Finale

Bi-movement form Sibelius: ‘Crystallisation of thought from chaos’ Motivic development Texture Topic Programme/narrative Harmony and Tonal Closure (Hepokoski:

‘teleological genesis’) Symphonic convention/expectation