(virtual.finland.fi/finfo/images/ainola2.jpg, Picture from Virtual Finland website produced by Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland)In an effort to edify readers and promote Western Civilization at the same time, this blog will focus on a number of artists and composers who impacted Western Civilization in a positive manner.
Today we will discuss the great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. Sibelius was born in 1865. The place pictured above, Ainola, was his home, where he spent most of his waking moments. At one point in his life, not only was he a national hero in Finland, but in America, he was being likened to Beethoven.
His music reflected the natural beauty of Finland: the trees, the fresh air, the climate, and the animals. In fact, the Fifth Symphony was called the "swan hymn" by Sibelius. This piece was about an experience of Sibelius in which he witnessed 16 swans soaring in the air. Sibelius writes how this was "One of my greatest experiences!" In many of his other works, he tried to use the sound of nature as a model for his music. He wanted to musically notate the sounds he heard in the forest near his house.
From a political perspective, his music promoted the independence of Finland. As the music critic for the New Yorker, Alex Ross, put it, Sibelius "played a symbolic but active role in the drive toward Finnish independence, which was finally achieved in 1917." Ross comments on how "Finns quickly appropriated the Second as an emblem of national liberation."
As a composer, he was very self critical. Never happy with his work, he would often create music and then quickly dispose of it and make changes. As Alex Ross writes, "As the revisions of the Fifth show, he looked at his own creations with a merciless eye, slashing away at them as if they were scribblings of an inept student."
To Sibelius, as with many musicians, music was a deeply personal venture. He described it as a "confession of faith."
He often felt alone and used alcohol to assuage the pain of his lonely profession. He was also plagued with health problems.
During his composition of the Fourth Symphony, he was undergoing surgery for a tumor in his throat. Facing the fear of death came the dark and forbidden sounds so characteristic of the Fourth.
Throughout his career, he wrote 7 symphonies.
Source:
Ross Alex, "Apparition in the Woods: Rescuing Sibelius from Silence," The New Yorker, July 9, 2007
Today we will discuss the great Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. Sibelius was born in 1865. The place pictured above, Ainola, was his home, where he spent most of his waking moments. At one point in his life, not only was he a national hero in Finland, but in America, he was being likened to Beethoven.
His music reflected the natural beauty of Finland: the trees, the fresh air, the climate, and the animals. In fact, the Fifth Symphony was called the "swan hymn" by Sibelius. This piece was about an experience of Sibelius in which he witnessed 16 swans soaring in the air. Sibelius writes how this was "One of my greatest experiences!" In many of his other works, he tried to use the sound of nature as a model for his music. He wanted to musically notate the sounds he heard in the forest near his house.
From a political perspective, his music promoted the independence of Finland. As the music critic for the New Yorker, Alex Ross, put it, Sibelius "played a symbolic but active role in the drive toward Finnish independence, which was finally achieved in 1917." Ross comments on how "Finns quickly appropriated the Second as an emblem of national liberation."
As a composer, he was very self critical. Never happy with his work, he would often create music and then quickly dispose of it and make changes. As Alex Ross writes, "As the revisions of the Fifth show, he looked at his own creations with a merciless eye, slashing away at them as if they were scribblings of an inept student."
To Sibelius, as with many musicians, music was a deeply personal venture. He described it as a "confession of faith."
He often felt alone and used alcohol to assuage the pain of his lonely profession. He was also plagued with health problems.
During his composition of the Fourth Symphony, he was undergoing surgery for a tumor in his throat. Facing the fear of death came the dark and forbidden sounds so characteristic of the Fourth.
Throughout his career, he wrote 7 symphonies.
Source:
Ross Alex, "Apparition in the Woods: Rescuing Sibelius from Silence," The New Yorker, July 9, 2007
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