Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2020 4:14 pm
EN: I'm ready to add one more message to my history of Western classical music, but today I have a problem: the idea was to start in Finland, then take the ferry to Estonia and further on to Latvia and Lithuania. I guess I can concoct something in Russian and (later on) Polish ... but Finnish ? Nope. Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian ? nope, nope, nope . So today some of the text will be in English, the rest in Esperanto. And then I'll have to add the missing languages later .
First a controversial question: was there ANY music in Finland before Sibelius, apart from folk music, played and sung by itinerant kantele players? And I have to say that the answer is: no. What functions as the national poem of Finland, "Kalevala", was compiled from texts collected by an amazing man named Elias Lönrott (1802-1884), who was employed as a district health officer in the town Kaajani in the middle of the country. However much of the content came from Karelia, which was occupied by the Sovjet Union during the second world war and never returned. In these poems we get a whole gallery of heroes (Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen), a goddess Ilmatar and wood nymphs and men and a place called Pohjola and lots of other things from a legendary world that has little to do with anything from outside Finland. The nearest parallel would probably be the works of Tolkien, and it is a wellknown fact that Tolkien was inspired by the Kalavala..
Jean Sibelius (or rather: Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, 1865-1957) was born in a Swedish family, but was inscribed in Finnish speaking schools. His father was dead, but several members of the family could play music. He received a violin from his uncle, and this later became his preferred instrument. He started out composing music at the age of 7, but the first big work (from 1892) is the hourlong symphony Kullervo for choir and soloists and orchestra (though it can be cut down to 28 minutes by leaving out the vocal sections). The text was taken from Kalavala, and using a text in Finnish was actually quite controversial at the time. Finland had been under Swedish rule for centuries, but had been ceded to Russia in 1814. Much of the cultural elite was however still clinging to Swedish as the proper language for Finnish culture. Soon after he published "A saga" for orchestra and the music to the play Karelia, both with clear references to Finnish folk music. And then the Lemminkäinen, alias "Four Legends from Kalevala". As you see, Sibelius was totally enthralled by his discovery of Finnish folklore during this early period, which culminated in the tone poem Finlandia from 1899. It took a further 18 years for Finland to become independent, so writing this piece was definitely a political manifestation from the composer.
He then started his series of symphonies, with a rough and folklore inspired no. 1 and then onwards through a brooding dark no. 4 to the almost serene 6. and 7., which were followed in 1926 by the masterly tone poem Tapiola, and ... well, nothing - no eight symphony. He did start writing it, and a few fragmentary sketches have been found, but for some unknown reason he destroyed his unfinished work and never ever again wrote anything substantial (apart from a few insignificant pieces for the freemasons and revisions of a couple of old works). So for all practical purposes he withdrew from active music making and just lived off his lifelong honorary pension. There are few other cases in the musical history where this has happened, with Charles Ives as the most known case (and me as the least known one), but the problem with Sibelius is that nobody understands why he stopped composing at the peak of his artistic powers - maybe it simply was in disgust over the direction of classical Western music, which clearly wasn't moving in his direction.
Without real forerunners, did Sibelius have contemporary collegues? Well, there was a guy called Järnefeldt, but he went to Stockholm in 1905 and became a fulltime conductor. So the next composer worth mentioning here would be the much younger Uuno Klami (1900-1961), who like Sæverud yesterday was a brave man with a penchant for the local folklore - so he published his own five-movement Kalevala suite, though he waited until 1943, long after Sibelius had withdrawn from active service. And Klami's work - which in my opinion is a worthy companion to the elder composer's Lemminkäinen cycle - is as dark and brooding as that of Sibelius. Actually it is hard to find a work of a major Finnish composer that is uniformly polyanna happy and cheerful. Other composers from the 20. century include excellent, but little known names like Mellartin and Madetoja. It would be exceedingly difficult to find their works anywhere outside Finland - except on Youtube.
And now we take the ferry to Estonia.
EO: Kaj kial Esperanto, vi petas? Bone, mi ankoraŭ ne scias la estonan, kaj la gehomoj mallaboregas se oni ili ĉion servas sur arĝenta plado en la angla lingvo.
Kompreneble, estona muzika historio komenciĝas kun centoj da jaroj, kiam homoj kantis popolajn kantojn en la kamparo, sed neniu kolektis kaj notis ĉi tiun materialon sur paperon.. Nur ekde ĉirkaŭ 1850 kelkaj akademiuloj komencis kolekti tekstojn. Unu el ili, F.R. Kreutzwald (notu la germanlingvan nomon!), kolektis siajn trovaĵojn en la poemo "Kalevipoeg", tiel iĝante paralelo al la Kalevala de la finnoj ... sed Estonio neniam trovis sian Sibeliuson.
Laŭdire la plej konataj komponistoj estas Arvo Pärt kaj Veljo Tormis, kaj mi scias iomete pri ilia muziko, sed ĝi plejparte estas voĉa - kaj tiale iom pala por mi. La estonaj komponistoj, kiujn mi preferas, nomiĝas Artur Lemba kaj Heino Eller - kaj denove: mi nur konas ilin per Youtube.
Kaj nun al Latvio. Mi sciis nenion pri iliaj popularaj tradicioj tie, sed Vikipedio asertas, ke iliaj popolkantoj "dainoj" enhavas gediojn kaj gehomojn, sed neniujn geheroojn - kaj estas tiome strange, ke oni devis plupripensi la aferon. Sed mi ŝatas lasi ĉi tiu laboro al aliaj, pli kvalifikitaj.
Kaj kiujn klasikajn komponistojn el Latvio mi povus nomi? Mi studis unu liston kun latvaj komponistoj en Vikipedio kaj alia listo de 10 komponistoj kiujn mi "devus scii"... sed estas tiom multe ke oni devus. Fakte mi nur konis kvar el la nomoj (sed intencas serĉi verkojn de almenaŭ kelkaj el la ceteraj). Tipa malĝoja sorto: Emīls Dārziņš (1875-1910). Li estis malriĉa, malsana kaj trinkis tro multe, do ne kompletigis siajn muzikajn studojn en Moskvo. Post lia reveno al Rigo kelkaj el liaj verkoj ludigitiĝis, sed la kritiko estis tiel devastiga, ke li decidis detrui ĉiujn siajn orkestrajn verkojn - nur unu melankolia valso pluvivis. La komponisto ne - li estis trovita morta sub trajno.
Ni daŭros ĝis Litovio, kie mia ĉefa rekomendo koncernus la pentriston, komponiston kaj verkiston Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911). Li naskiĝis en pola-parolanta familio, sed ŝanĝis al litovo kiam fianĉiĝis en 1909. En la komenco ĉio iris bone: li estis mirinfano kaj akiris bonan muzikan trejnadon, kaj li havis spertan amantinon kiu povis persvadi lin por lerni novan lingvon (la litovan) - sed bedaŭrinde, jam en 1910 li estis frapita de profunda depresio kaj mortis pro tuberkulozo ĉe frenezulejo. Kun tiaj diversaj agadoj fariĝis lia muzika produktado malgranda - sed provu ekzemple aŭskulti orkestran poemon "Jura". Kaj ne - NE temas pri paleontologio: 'juro' signifas "maro" en la litova lingvo.
First a controversial question: was there ANY music in Finland before Sibelius, apart from folk music, played and sung by itinerant kantele players? And I have to say that the answer is: no. What functions as the national poem of Finland, "Kalevala", was compiled from texts collected by an amazing man named Elias Lönrott (1802-1884), who was employed as a district health officer in the town Kaajani in the middle of the country. However much of the content came from Karelia, which was occupied by the Sovjet Union during the second world war and never returned. In these poems we get a whole gallery of heroes (Väinämöinen, Lemminkäinen), a goddess Ilmatar and wood nymphs and men and a place called Pohjola and lots of other things from a legendary world that has little to do with anything from outside Finland. The nearest parallel would probably be the works of Tolkien, and it is a wellknown fact that Tolkien was inspired by the Kalavala..
Jean Sibelius (or rather: Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, 1865-1957) was born in a Swedish family, but was inscribed in Finnish speaking schools. His father was dead, but several members of the family could play music. He received a violin from his uncle, and this later became his preferred instrument. He started out composing music at the age of 7, but the first big work (from 1892) is the hourlong symphony Kullervo for choir and soloists and orchestra (though it can be cut down to 28 minutes by leaving out the vocal sections). The text was taken from Kalavala, and using a text in Finnish was actually quite controversial at the time. Finland had been under Swedish rule for centuries, but had been ceded to Russia in 1814. Much of the cultural elite was however still clinging to Swedish as the proper language for Finnish culture. Soon after he published "A saga" for orchestra and the music to the play Karelia, both with clear references to Finnish folk music. And then the Lemminkäinen, alias "Four Legends from Kalevala". As you see, Sibelius was totally enthralled by his discovery of Finnish folklore during this early period, which culminated in the tone poem Finlandia from 1899. It took a further 18 years for Finland to become independent, so writing this piece was definitely a political manifestation from the composer.
He then started his series of symphonies, with a rough and folklore inspired no. 1 and then onwards through a brooding dark no. 4 to the almost serene 6. and 7., which were followed in 1926 by the masterly tone poem Tapiola, and ... well, nothing - no eight symphony. He did start writing it, and a few fragmentary sketches have been found, but for some unknown reason he destroyed his unfinished work and never ever again wrote anything substantial (apart from a few insignificant pieces for the freemasons and revisions of a couple of old works). So for all practical purposes he withdrew from active music making and just lived off his lifelong honorary pension. There are few other cases in the musical history where this has happened, with Charles Ives as the most known case (and me as the least known one), but the problem with Sibelius is that nobody understands why he stopped composing at the peak of his artistic powers - maybe it simply was in disgust over the direction of classical Western music, which clearly wasn't moving in his direction.
Without real forerunners, did Sibelius have contemporary collegues? Well, there was a guy called Järnefeldt, but he went to Stockholm in 1905 and became a fulltime conductor. So the next composer worth mentioning here would be the much younger Uuno Klami (1900-1961), who like Sæverud yesterday was a brave man with a penchant for the local folklore - so he published his own five-movement Kalevala suite, though he waited until 1943, long after Sibelius had withdrawn from active service. And Klami's work - which in my opinion is a worthy companion to the elder composer's Lemminkäinen cycle - is as dark and brooding as that of Sibelius. Actually it is hard to find a work of a major Finnish composer that is uniformly polyanna happy and cheerful. Other composers from the 20. century include excellent, but little known names like Mellartin and Madetoja. It would be exceedingly difficult to find their works anywhere outside Finland - except on Youtube.
And now we take the ferry to Estonia.
EO: Kaj kial Esperanto, vi petas? Bone, mi ankoraŭ ne scias la estonan, kaj la gehomoj mallaboregas se oni ili ĉion servas sur arĝenta plado en la angla lingvo.
Kompreneble, estona muzika historio komenciĝas kun centoj da jaroj, kiam homoj kantis popolajn kantojn en la kamparo, sed neniu kolektis kaj notis ĉi tiun materialon sur paperon.. Nur ekde ĉirkaŭ 1850 kelkaj akademiuloj komencis kolekti tekstojn. Unu el ili, F.R. Kreutzwald (notu la germanlingvan nomon!), kolektis siajn trovaĵojn en la poemo "Kalevipoeg", tiel iĝante paralelo al la Kalevala de la finnoj ... sed Estonio neniam trovis sian Sibeliuson.
Laŭdire la plej konataj komponistoj estas Arvo Pärt kaj Veljo Tormis, kaj mi scias iomete pri ilia muziko, sed ĝi plejparte estas voĉa - kaj tiale iom pala por mi. La estonaj komponistoj, kiujn mi preferas, nomiĝas Artur Lemba kaj Heino Eller - kaj denove: mi nur konas ilin per Youtube.
Kaj nun al Latvio. Mi sciis nenion pri iliaj popularaj tradicioj tie, sed Vikipedio asertas, ke iliaj popolkantoj "dainoj" enhavas gediojn kaj gehomojn, sed neniujn geheroojn - kaj estas tiome strange, ke oni devis plupripensi la aferon. Sed mi ŝatas lasi ĉi tiu laboro al aliaj, pli kvalifikitaj.
Kaj kiujn klasikajn komponistojn el Latvio mi povus nomi? Mi studis unu liston kun latvaj komponistoj en Vikipedio kaj alia listo de 10 komponistoj kiujn mi "devus scii"... sed estas tiom multe ke oni devus. Fakte mi nur konis kvar el la nomoj (sed intencas serĉi verkojn de almenaŭ kelkaj el la ceteraj). Tipa malĝoja sorto: Emīls Dārziņš (1875-1910). Li estis malriĉa, malsana kaj trinkis tro multe, do ne kompletigis siajn muzikajn studojn en Moskvo. Post lia reveno al Rigo kelkaj el liaj verkoj ludigitiĝis, sed la kritiko estis tiel devastiga, ke li decidis detrui ĉiujn siajn orkestrajn verkojn - nur unu melankolia valso pluvivis. La komponisto ne - li estis trovita morta sub trajno.
Ni daŭros ĝis Litovio, kie mia ĉefa rekomendo koncernus la pentriston, komponiston kaj verkiston Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911). Li naskiĝis en pola-parolanta familio, sed ŝanĝis al litovo kiam fianĉiĝis en 1909. En la komenco ĉio iris bone: li estis mirinfano kaj akiris bonan muzikan trejnadon, kaj li havis spertan amantinon kiu povis persvadi lin por lerni novan lingvon (la litovan) - sed bedaŭrinde, jam en 1910 li estis frapita de profunda depresio kaj mortis pro tuberkulozo ĉe frenezulejo. Kun tiaj diversaj agadoj fariĝis lia muzika produktado malgranda - sed provu ekzemple aŭskulti orkestran poemon "Jura". Kaj ne - NE temas pri paleontologio: 'juro' signifas "maro" en la litova lingvo.