'With the Bard, I always tend to think about delicate and fragile rays of light permeating through a shadowy forest. While the darkness of the forest lays the foundation of the piece, the gentle, fleeting light is what this music is about for me'.--Michael Rohac, conductor [Kurkikohtaus]

An exquisite distilation of the essence that is one of Sibelius's finest and most underated masterpieces.--kp

Another new one – a short one but quite pithy, from the cellist Torleif Thedéen [who is now recording the rest of JS's cello music – quoted with permission]:

‘Sibelius is an -ism in himself.’

Andrew B wrote:

‘Sibelius is an -ism in himself.’

Great quote, we talk about Darwinism, Marxism and dare I say it even Thatcherism! So bring on Sibeliusism.--kp

Does that make us Sibeliusists?

Well, in 2007 the critic Martin Anderson coined the term 'Sibeliologist'. Might that do?

All these terms... and you're all so close to my 3rd forum-anniversary topic! Keep going, I'll be sure to incorporate some of these ideas into my article!

I think we all suffer from acute obsessive Sibeliophilia, and we need to be on medication. If the symptoms are not treated soon enough, you develop throat tumors and you'll go badly into debt.

For many years I have had the condition 'Chronic Sibelitus' with no known antidote, but its never done me any harm.--kp

There is no such thing as a safe dose of Sibelius.

And don't forget the Sibeliites: those who go to pilgrimage at Ainola. Tapkaara shall be inducted soon enough, I suppose (and I whenever I can scrape together the money... maybe airline tickets will plummet for next summer...)

Tapkaara wrote:

I think we all suffer from acute obsessive Sibeliophilia, and we need to be on medication. If the symptoms are not treated soon enough, you develop throat tumors and you'll go badly into debt.

And go bald.

Andrew B wrote:

There is no such thing as a safe dose of Sibelius.

Exactly!

Funny how Sibelianism can sound like a sickness.

I wil always remember when I first got into Sibelius (I was in the 11th grade in high school), I told one of my dearest friends, Sarah, that I was into music bythis guy from Finland named "Sibelius." She immediately starting laughing and said "That sounds like some sort of disease." She then started fake crying and said "Mom...I have something to tell you. I have....Sibelius."

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Tapkaara, giving a poor innocent girl a case of Sibelius...

Kurkikohtaus wrote:

You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Tapkaara, giving a poor innocent girl a case of Sibelius...

I won't even tell you how I got it to begin with, Kurki...!

'I have long thought that Sibelius's way of building his structures from tiny thematic and rhythmic nuclei, apparently unrelated, reflects much that has happened in the physical sciences during the last seventy years or so and in fact gives him the appearance of the first composer for a nuclear age'.--Burnett James, writer on music.

It was Cecil Gray in his book [1931] who remarked that 'Sibelius, in his symphonies, makes use of fragments, or scraps of thematic material, which are then worked into a continuous statement later in the movement'. But the composer told his secretary, Santeri Levas 'Thats not true at all. I do not build my themes out of small fragments'.
Interesting--kp

Yes, to quote Churchill it's 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'. To an outside observer it does indeed appear that the themes are built up from little pieces - hard to deny in many cases. But (I can't prove this of course but) I don't think Sibelius himself realized it. He just wrote it as he felt it.

Andrew B wrote:

Yes, to quote Churchill it's 'a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma'. To an outside observer it does indeed appear that the themes are built up from little pieces - hard to deny in many cases. But (I can't prove this of course but) I don't think Sibelius himself realized it. He just wrote it as he felt it.

Thats probably true. On one occasion he did refer to motifs and themes as 'mosaic pieces' falling from heavens floor, he had the task of rearranging them within a work. Indeed some mosaic pieces even migrated to other works.--kp

Here is an interesting quote by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara :

'If an artist is not a modernist when he is young, he has no heart, and if he is a modernist when he is old, he has no brain'.

I believe Rautavaara made this quote in Philadelphia around 2000. Any thoughts on its validity and might it apply to Sibelius?-kp

kullervopete wrote:

Here is an interesting quote by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara : 'If an artist is not a modernist when he is young, he has no heart, and if he is a modernist when he is old, he has no brain'. I believe Rautavaara made this quote in Philadelphia around 2000. Any thoughts on its validity and might it apply to Sibelius?-kp

Well then that says a lot about Schoenberg...

And as for Sibelius, I dunno. Maybe it depends on how much you actually care about being modernistic?

Good point about the brainless Schoenberg! Looking at Sibelius's music I think that it reveals both Head and heart.--kp

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'In this piece you may find it a matter of some difficulty to keep your places. I think you may do well to imagine yourself disporting on some form of hair-raising locomotion such as Brooklands, or a switchback railway. My advice to you is merely: hold tight and do not let yourselves fall off. I cannot guarantee to help you on again'.

Sir Thomas Beecham was once rehearsing 'Lemminkainen's return' and he gave his orchestra the above advice.--kp