Sibelius Lemminkainens Return

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Sibelius Lemminkainens Return Program Notes

Swedes  or  Russians  governed  the  Finns  for  centuries,  and  Sibelius’s  choices  –  a  distinct  musical  style,  Finnish  language  and  folk-legends  –  parallel  the  nationalism  of  Smetana,  Dvořák,  Grieg  and  others,  and  contributed  to  Finland’s  independence  coalescence  into  a  nation  that  declared  independence  in  1917.  Finnish  oral  tradition  of  epic  poetry  concerned  heroic  figures  like  Lemminkainen,  and  was  collected  and  published  by  Elias  Lönnrot  (a  district  health  officer,  but  more  importantly  an  amateur  anthropologist)  in  the  mid-1800s,  as  the  Kalevala.  The  tone  poem  begins  in  a  brooding,  driving  C  minor  –  Sibelius  writes  con  fuoco,  or  Dzwith  fire.dz  In  orchestral  writing,  C  minor  is  a  fairly  dark  key,  and  Lemminkainen  is  coming  from  a  dark  place.  Defeated  in  battle,  he  was  cut  into  pieces  Dztill  the  sharpened  axe  strikes  flint-sparks  from  the  rocks.dz    Luckily  for  Lemminkainen,  his  mother  trawls  him  from  the  lake  where  he  was  thrown,  and  using  magical  skills,  reassembles  and  returns  him  to  life.    Presumably,  he’s  taking  some  motherly  advice  to  go  home:  On  horseback  (the  energetic  writing  throughout  the  orchestra),  with  the  wind  whistling  past  the  hero  –  the  brass  writing  could  only  be  heard  as  heroic  –  the  music  moves  through  several  harmonic  centers,  ending  in  the  triumphant  key  of  E-flat  major,  the  same  as  Beethoven’s  Eroica  (heroic)  symphony  and  the  relative  major  of  the  opening  C-minor.

Born: December 8, 1865, Hämeenlinna, Finland
Died: September 20, 1957, Ainola, Järvenpää, Finland

Categories: Program Notes