Sibelius 1904 1914

Erik Tawaststjerna embarked on his monumental and acclaimed study of Jean Sibelius's life and music in 1960 and it occupied him for over a quarter of a century. His study differs from other work on the composer in one important respect: he had unrestricted access to the composer's papers, diaries and letters as well as the advantage of numerous conversations with the composer's widow and other members of the family. Thus his researches can justifiably claim to have thrown entirely fresh light on the great Finnish composer. Far from the remote personality of the Sibelius legend, Sibelius emerges as a highly colourful figure. This second volume covers the crucial period from 1904 and the beginning of the Third Symphony through to the outbreak of the First World War ten years later. During this period Sibelius began keeping a diary which, together with his letters to his wife, Aino, and to his friend, Axel Carpelan, helped the author give us a day-by-day, intimate account of the turbulent years that saw the gestation and completion of many of his finest works, culminating in the Fourth Symphony. Translated by Robert Layton, himself a Sibelius specialist, this is a compelling and insightful account of the music of one of the twentieth century's greatest composers.

Erik Tawaststjerna embarked on his monumental and acclaimed study of Jean Sibelius's life and music in 1960 and it occupied him for over a quarter of a century. His study differs from other work on the composer in one important respect: he had unrestricted access to the composer's papers, diaries and letters as well as the advantage of numerous conversations with the composer's widow and other members of the family. Thus his researches can justifiably claim to have thrown entirely fresh light on the great Finnish composer. Far from the remote personality of the Sibelius legend, Sibelius emerges as a highly colourful figure. This third volume traces the composer's career from the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, which found him poised on the brink of the Fifth Symphony, through to his death in 1957. It traces the genesis of the Fifth Symphony and gives a vivid portrait of Finland during the early years of independence and civil war. Tawaststjerna relates in fascinating detail the composer's financial plight during these years and his struggles with his own psyche. We follow his career through to the Seventh Symphony and Tapiola, and the increasingly corrosive streak of self-criticism which blighted Sibelius's last years and resulted in the destruction of the Eighth Symphony. Translated by Robert Layton, himself a Sibelius specialist, this is a compelling and insightful account of the music of one of the twentieth century's greatest composers.

An illuminating investigation into the interdisciplinary impact of the beloved modern classical composer. Few composers have enjoyed such critical acclaim—or longevity—as Jean Sibelius, who died in 1957 aged ninety-one. Always more than simply a Finnish national figure, an “apparition from the woods” as he ironically described himself, Sibelius’s life spanned turbulent and tumultuous events, and his work is central to the story of late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century music. This book situates Sibelius within a rich interdisciplinary environment, paying attention to his relationship with architecture, literature, politics, and the visual arts. Drawing on the latest developments in Sibelius research, it is intended as an accessible and rewarding introduction for the general reader, and it also offers a fresh and provocative interpretation for those more familiar with his music.

Mäkelä's study brings together German, Nordic and Anglo-American work on Sibelius, and synthesizes these various strands of Sibelius reception into a single coherent critical narrative. This acclaimed study, available in English for the first time, looks at the music of Jean Sibelius in its biographical context. Myths have surrounded Sibelius [1865-1957] and his work, for more than 100 years, often diverting attention away from his creative output. Drawing on many unpublished sources, Mäkelä's study leads us back to Sibelius as a musician and a 'poet' of universal validity. Chapters examine the composer's creativity, inspiration, influence, aspects of genre, as well as the relationship of the artist with nature and homeland. Those who knew Sibelius at an early age tell of a youthful bohemian in the midst of European decadence. This 'age of Carmen'[Eduard Munch] marked Sibelius's formative years. The composer's most important works, dating from a time between his third symphony and Tapiola, reflect the modernistic mainstream. Sibelius's last three decades, known asthe 'Silence of Ainola', have inspired the masculine clichés that this book deconstructs. Sibelius was one of the least political artists of his time who nevertheless became heavily politicized. The first supreme musical talent in the region, he gave his nation a genuine sound. Europeans of the late nineteenth century showed increasing affinity with Nordic culture. Aino, Sibelius's wife, was instrumental in creating the image of her husband as a Nordic icon. The book closely scrutinizes this popular image. In an Anglo-American artistic context his mix of regionalism and modernity remained attractive even when these elements went out of fashion in the art movement of continental Europe. Ideas of Finland and the North vastly influenced the interpretation of meaning in Sibelius's music, a music that until this day remains enigmatic.

New perspectives on the greatest Finnish composer of all time Perhaps no twentieth-century composer has provoked a more varied reaction among the music-loving public than Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). Originally hailed as a new Beethoven by much of the Anglo-Saxon world, he was also widely disparaged by critics more receptive to newer trends in music. At the height of his popular appeal, he was revered as the embodiment of Finnish nationalism and the apostle of a new musical naturalism. Yet he seemingly chose that moment to stop composing altogether, despite living for three more decades. Providing wide cultural contexts, contesting received ideas about modernism, and interrogating notions of landscape and nature, Jean Sibelius and His World sheds new light on the critical position occupied by Sibelius in the Western musical tradition. The essays in the book explore such varied themes as the impact of Russian musical traditions on Sibelius, his compositional process, Sibelius and the theater, his understanding of music as a fluid and improvised creation, his critical reception in Great Britain and America, his "late style" in the incidental music for The Tempest, and the parallel contemporary careers of Sibelius and Richard Strauss. Documents include the draft of Sibelius's 1896 lecture on folk music, selections from a roman à clef about his student circle in Berlin at the turn of the century, Theodor Adorno's brief but controversial tirade against the composer, and the newspaper debates about the Sibelius monument unveiled in Helsinki a decade after the composer's death. The contributors are Byron Adams, Leon Botstein, Philip Ross Bullock, Glenda Dawn Goss, Daniel Grimley, Jeffrey Kallberg, Tomi Mäkelä, Sarah Menin, Max Paddison, and Timo Virtanen.