#A-TO-Z CHALLENGE 2015 – LETTER “J” – JEAN SIBELIUS, FINNISH COMPOSER

 

I think the first piece I ever played by Jean Sibelius was “Finlandia” and I was in the San Jose Youth Symphony. I'm sure it was pretty horrible, but it was loud and busy and that was all we kids needed to keep us occupied. The orchestra was filled with pretty talented kids, from ages 12 to 18 and I spent several happy years in this orchestra. Our conductor was a tyrant, who really had very little English, but knew enough to call us “little worms” and yell at the cellos, violas and 2^nd violins to shut up, when he was trying to work out passages with the 1^st violins and the rest of the orchestra was bored, bored, bored. Rehearsals frequently ran until 11 pm on Monday nights, instead of 10 pm, and we'd be tired and cranky. But, I see Youth Symphonies are still a thing and I'm sure the discipline is much better now than it was in the early 1970s.

courtesy:sjsy.org                                     

Geeze, these kids even look more professional than some working orchestras I've seen. Although it's been forty-some years since I played, we looked like a bunch of refugees from the nerd factory.

Anyway, in my first season there, we did play “Finlandia” and I've played it since then. I think it is the least favorite of mine, of any piece that Jean Sibelius has ever written. Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865 and died September 20, 1957, a huge and important span of time in the musical scene. His music played in integral part in the development of Finnish National Identity.

The core of his ouevre is his set of seven symphonies (which I have had the great good fortune to play). Like Beethoven, he used each successive work to further develop his own personal compositional style. His music continues to be performed and recorded in the concert hall.

Yes, he does. It's difficult to find a composer who has NOT been influenced in some way by Beethoven.

In addition to the symphonies, he also composed a number of “tone poems” besides the anthem-like “Finlandia”. “The Karelian Suite”, “Valse Triste”, “Kullervo” and “Swan of Tuonela” (one of four movements of the “Lemminkäinen Suite”) and his superb “Violin Concerto in D minor”. Apart from that, he also wrote choral music, with 21 publications.*

*Citation needed.

This is probably my favorite interpretation of the "Karelian Suite." It's joyful and brooding, but don't be put off by it; it's delightful!

Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, but after completing his Seventh Symphony, he composed no more large-scale works. Although reputed to have stopped composing completely, he is known to have developed sketches for an Eight Symphony, written some Masonic music and re-edited some of his earlier works. He retained an active interest in music, although he didn't always view modern music favorably. Until adoption of the Euro, his likeness graced the Finnish 100 mark bill. In 2011, Finland adopted Flag Day, on December 8^th, the composer's birthday, a day of Finnish music.

Jean Sibelius, circa 1891.

I have always had a deep fondness for Sibelius' music. It is arctic and passionate all at once. This is nowhere more obvious than in his “Violin Concerto in D minor”. The opening movement seems ominous, and, like much of his music, the chord changes and movement are slow. The violin sweeps in and rises to, what seems an impossible height and cuts loose with a melody in parallel 6^ths, and I defy anyone to listen to this and not get the “feels”; the fireworks. The 3^rd movement is a balancing act in tempi; you are off-balance through the entire thing. It almost sounds like the violin is rushing, on the climbing runs, but that is a trick that Sibelius employed to great effect.

Jean Sibelius, 1939. Sweet Moses on a buttered cracker! He looks like Uncle Fester from the Addams Family! What a great picture!

This sort of thing and the repetitive obbligato, in the 4^th movement of his Second Symphony in the celli, basses and violas for 25 measures the first time, and 39 measures the second time and finally, 6 measures towards the end, baffled and left some critics cold. One critic, René Leibowitz, a renowned theorist, composer and conducter, went so far as to call Sibelius “Sibelius the worst composer in the world.” To which Sibelius replied, “Pay no attention to what critics say; no one ever put up a statue to a critic.”

courtesy:deviantart.com

Okay, so Jean Sibelius didn't get a whole statue, but he got a head. There us also a monument in his name that looks like a bunch of organ pipes glued together. I'm not a modern art afficionado, as you can tell.

He was also a rival of Gustav Mahler and felt that Mahler's approach to symphonic writing was entirely undisciplined. For every symphony that Sibelius wrote, he addressed some issue with form, harmonic movement, resolution, development, or thematic material in his own unique way, while Mahler tended to be all over the place. The two had a chance to discuss this while in a sauna. Sibelius later reported that during the bath:

“I said that I admired the severity of style and the profound logic the created an inner connection between all the motifs. . . Mahler's opinion was just the reverse. 'No, a symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.'”

Gustav Mahler lived and worked in Vienna and Bohemia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was an eminent composer-conductor and a huge rival of Richard Strauss, who was a neo-classicist. Mahler set in stone the foundations of the 2^nd Viennese School of composition, which went down the road of 12-tone music and serialism, with composers like Arnold Schoenbert, Anton Weber and Alban Berg.

The two could agree on the usage of indigenous folk music, however. After Sibelius got over his Wagnerian period, he tended more towards using naked tri-tones, Haydn's built-in dissonances and bare melodic structures, with jagged melodies, at times. In other words, what would was recognized as the 2^nd Viennese School of composition, something Mahler, Alban Berg and Anton Webern embraced, although once again, Sibelius was not a proponent of “modern” music. He was sometimes referred to as “antimodern modernism” a true paradox to be sure.

Violin Concerto in D minor, played by Maxim Vengerov. I can think of no finer interpretation. His tone is warm, and his technique flawless.

Again, it is most notable in his Violins Concerto in D minor, which is breathtaking. He remains an important figure in 20^th century music, and in the development of later composers, Vaughan Williams, William Walton (That Viola Concerto!) and Arnold Bax.

#ROW80 - Young Person's Guide to the Opera

Young Person's Guide to the OPERA

Young persons today have lost sight of the fact that opera used to be the 19^th century's version of “Jersey Shore.” Well, kind of. Persons in operas did all sorts of outlandish things that just were not done in polite company. Actually, this analogy doesn't play out well, because all of the shit that goes on in “Jersey Shore” pretty much goes on in real life. Never mind.

Anyway, opera was THE form of entertainment back in the days before television and iPods and all of that, so composers and librettists were hell-bent on coming up with some pretty outrageous stuff to keep the hoi-polloi amused. In Italy, Puccini ruled and he wrote some beautiful stuff. Between Puccini and Guiseppe Verdi, Italian opera was well represented.

The Germans on the other hand, had a few problems. One of them was the Kaiser. Kaiser Wilhelm was a bit odd. He, uh decided, much like Stalin did in Russia several decades later, that he would decide what was acceptable for German audiences. Never mind that the Germans had been raised on the Aesir and Ragnarok and were already of a Berserker mentality. There was a problem with his favorite composer, who later became Hitler's favorite composer. Herr Richard Strauss lived long enough to achieve this dubious distinction, but Strauss really didn't give a fig what Wilhelm, or Hitler or Göebbels thought and went on to compose operas that were, ah, indeed in questionable taste. 

The other is that for sheer crazy, German opera just can't be beat. Before Richard Strauss, we had Richard Wagner, whose magnum opus is the “Ring Cycle,” 20 hours of mayhem. Incest, death, destruction, war, 20 questions with dragons, trolls, witches, stupid but good looking heroes, Brünhilde, Rheinmaidens, Välkyrie, Valhalla, topped off by Götterdammerüng. A very happy batch of operas indeed, called "Das Ringen der Nibelungen," or "The Ring Cycle." I'll let Anna Russell describe it for us.

This set the stage for Richard Strauss who thought wholesome stuff like Salome would be perfect for operatic treatment. Herr Strauss was an awesome composer, but he had not clue one about anything socio-political during his long life. He thought it was a swell idea to collaborate with Stefan Zweig as his librettist during his stint as Reichsminister of musik for the Third Reich under Josef Goebbels. Herr Zweig was Jewish and living in London. Herr Goebbels was pissed about it and Strauss was lucky not to get a one-way ticket to Dachau.

Well, during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm, who was a notorious blue-stocking, Strauss thought it would be a hella idea to do an operatic treatment of “Salome.” D'you remember this story? Antipas marries Herodias so he can get at her daughter Salome. John the Baptist is locked up in Antipas' prison under the palace. Salome gets a gander at John, as he squabbles over theology with some pharisees and goes all googly-eyed over him, but John spurns her for the harlot-in-training that she is. Antipas wants to see Salome dance, but she's all like, “Ewwww.” Herodias is rather annoyed at both Antipas and John (must be PMS) and she tells Salome to dance for Antipas, because Antipas will give her whatever Salome asks for, and she should ask for John's head.

Herodias is sick and tired of Antipas mooning over both Salome and John the Baptist. Antipas is afraid of John, as John is a man of God and keeps saying all this scary stuff from his cistern. So, Salome says, “Okay, A, I'll hip-hop for ya” and does the “Dance of the 7 Veils.”

This is a more modern treatment, but the staging is so well-done, I chose this.

Once done, she asks for the head of John the Baptist and the evil deed is done. Next comes perhaps the most unbelievably hellish passage in music imaginable, as a huge hand rises out of the cistern bearing the head of John the Baptist.

Antipas is horrified, but the nightmare is not yet ended. Salome proceeds to roll around on stage with the severed head of John the Baptist and sings the most glorious song of love that is also horrifying.

So, Antipas has her put to death by the Roman guards. Curtain falls.

Great stuff! Seriously, this is music I grew up listening to and played, so even though my ears are by no means jaded, one can see why I am pretty tolerant of today's Rammstein-like groups and less than thrilled with precious music like Mozart. I love Haydn. Haydn took chances and is wonderful. Enough digression.

Strauss went ahead and debuted this opera without the Kaiser's approval. The Kaiser's favorite minister later died wearing a pink tutu at some function or another. So much for propriety; the Kaiser had a really bad year.

I played in Opera Tampa for 12 seasons, so I have plenty of rich material to draw from. We did mostly Italian opera. Maestro Coppola (the same family that produced Francis and Nic Cage) summed it up this way: “Anyone can play a Goddamned German opera. It's just 1, 2, 3, 4.  In Italian opera there are so many rubatos and tempi changes it requires so much artistry. You are all here because you were hand-picked. Be proud.” Tyrant. I miss it. Maestro wasn't necessarily wrong, although in his waltzes, Richard Strauss affords lots of rubatos in the Viennese style. You may have picked that out in the "7 Veils." For the record, I LOVE playing Richard Strauss; supremely challenging and he pushes orchestras to the limits. In "Ein Heldenleben," (A Hero's Life" with him as the hero) during it's debut, one of the first violinists complained to him that a certain passage is unplayable. He casually looked over the score and said, "Don't worry, it's unplayable in the flutes, too." It is in the violas as well. Let's end this with one of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons ever.

Probably one of the best Wagner treatments I've ever seen.