At Ainola, Sibelius once remarked 'The silence speaks' and the master undoubtedly captured this element in his music.
''The silence speaks'? What can Sibelius mean by this.
The American composer, John Cage once wrote a piece, 4'-33'' or the 'Silent Sonata'. It consists of four minutes and thirty-three seconds in which a pianist or several musicians with their instruments, sit as if in readiness to play, but produce no sound.
Cage may have been breaking new ground in this 'piece', but I am not at all surprised that he did not attempt a large-scale composition in this genre!
The silence that Jean Sibelius gives us in many of his large scale masterpieces is at a much more exalted level.
Take for example the second movement of his Symphony No.2, for all its rhetorical passion, the music fades away into silence several times. A silence, I would contend that is infinately more profound than that found in the Cage.
The final hammar blows of the mighty Fifth Symphony are seperated by silences which on reaching their resolution, even death may have been summoned.
And in that final great utterance 'Tapiola. after the most ferocious storm in all music, the silence indeed speaks.--kullervopete.

„Silence is the best way of modulation“- L. van Beethoven

I'm thinking of all the "empty" passages, which, while not exactly silent, evoke the sense of silence. I think in particular of the opening moments of the violin concerto and the Swan of Tuonela... it isn't silent, but it's empty and stark, and feels like it's silent in its own unique way.

Yes I can see what you mean, but empty? This reminds me of some advice that Sibelius once gave to budding composers.
'You must always create an artificial pedal for the orchestra, if you don't, some passages will sound ragged and empty'.
I see the opening of Sibs Concerto and The Swan as 'remote and austere', a Sibelian twilight.--kullervopete.

Sorry, I didn't mean "empty," I just must have been tired or something. What I meant was the "bleak" color that Sibelius was noted for...

Mind you, Sibelius does include some genuine silences - not just (as already mentioned by Kullervopete) at the end of the Fifth Symphony, but also for instance the long pause in the last movement of Kullervo, and the slightly shorter one before the cor anglais solo in the Ballade from the Karelia Suite. In the case of Kullervo there is an obvious dramatic reason for the pause; in Karelia one suspects that it may have been put there to allow the singer to come on stage in the original tableau.

Strangely, though, many conductors foreshorten these pauses - sometimes radically so, which (for me) spoils the effect. Luckily, at the end of the Fifth Symphony, it has now become the norm to play the chords as notated. One can only hope that the same will happen in the other works.

I do remember when Osmo Vänskä's recording of Kullervo came out - with that pause very precisely observed (as he always does in concert, and as he did at the sessions - no digital trickery there)... some nitwit critic wrote about a lengthy 'digital silence' in the middle of the last movement. This was a particularly dim thing to write, as it implies that somehow a period of 'digital zero' was inserted artificially. No recording worth its salt will use digital zero, but will retain the room atmosphere between movements and at the end of the CD - otherwise it sounds wholly, unmusically empty. At BIS it would be an act of high treason to stick in digital zero on a CD. Anyway, the reviewer refused to be told the simple truth or to retract his erroneous claim. Does that surprise you?

World Violist makes a valid point regarding Sibelius evoking the sense of silence. One of the remarkable facets of Tapiola is the way that he depicts the 'silence' of those dark and mysterious Northern forests.--kullervopete.

About a year or so ago, I was listening to a "Discovering Music" type radio program and the host actually talked about the silences in the Second Symphony. Before playing the full orchestral version, he highlighted certain areas (using a piano) to demonstrate Sibbe's use of silence in an otherwise grand work. He seemed especially intrigues by this, saying things like "listen to that pause of silence! Isn't it vast!" He was really into it!

"Täällä Ainolassa, hiljaisuus puhuu." "Here at Ainola, silence speaks."

Indeed it must.

Yes indeed, I also made the point about the silences in Sibelius's second in my first post. By the way Tapkaara, have you seen the poem I wrote following my first visit to Ainola in 1997. It can be found in 'Performance' section 'Lahti Sibelius Festival' thread. (

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

) -- kp