To whose music should one "temporarily" migrate from Sibelius in order to test other Finnish waters -- Aho? Rautavaara? Other? Should one go backward or forward?

Or should one leave Finland entirely? I love the music of Nielsen, Stenhammer, and Tubin; not so much the likes of Alfven and Svendsen.

I realize music is probably best experienced as a directionless voyage of discovery, but limitations on cash and space have to be taken into consideration. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Is it Howard Hanson's second symphony that's heavily influenced by Sibelius? It reminds me quite a bit of it, anyway. The movements are played without pause, it has a big sweep in the music, and while the tunes are somewhat cliche they go somewhere (not saying Sibelius tunes are cliche by a long shot, by the way...).

I don't think listening to other Finnish composers is necessary at all. Rautavaara's works are rather interesting to me, though I've only got a couple of discs of his somewhat earlier work. The bass concerto (Angel of Dusk) is very atmospheric stuff... I really like it.

This is an interesting question. It can be addressed from several angles.

If one wants to "graduate" or "move on" from Sibelius to another composer who sounds like him, you would probably have to leave Finland. I'm at least familiar with the "sounds" of many Finnish composers, and no on from Sibbe's native land sounds close to him.

Rautavaara is an avant-gardist, but one of the more accessible ones. His atonal music is a far cry from Sibelius.

Uuno Klami may come close in that he has a sort of post-Romantic sound, but as his musical tuition happened in France, his music has a very "Gallic" feel in the tradition of Ravel or Roussel.

Einar Englund is also distant stylistically from Sibelius. His music sounds like Honnegger to me. Perhaps Nielsen as well.

And the list can go on and on.

Arnold Bax (of the UK) is often compared to Sibelius. Both enjoyed composing tone poems and have a similar "sound," I suppose. Bax, however, never seems to take an intitial idea and turn it into something spectacular like Sibelius. Sibelius is clearly the greater of the two artists.

I think the bottom line is that there's only one Sibelius. His musical voice is so unique, that if you want more of it, you better stick to the original master.

If you want to keep close in time, geography and style you could try Kajanus, Madetoja and Melartin.

(Yay! this was No. 400!)

Thank you all for your well-considered replies.

I'm quite familiar with the symphonies and tone poems of Bax and Hanson; in fact, the familiar theme from the last movement of Hanson's Symphony No. 2 has become known as "The Interlochen Theme" and has been traditionally played at the conclusion of every concert given by the World Youth Symphony Orchestra of Interlochen Arts Camp in Northwest Lower Michigan since 1931!

I've sampled works from all the other composers mentioned above and found the recording of Englund's Symphonies 4 & 5 along with The Great Wall of China to be the most immediately compelling. It's on order; I'll let you know what I think.

go far afield...some chopin or bruce sprinsteen's seeger sessions tour, etc.

dj

To explore possible sound connections through Sea-music, I enjoy the subjective connections between Aallottaret, Britten's Sea Interludes, Debussy's La Mer and, to answer the original quesiton in this topic, Vítěslav Novák's O věčné touze, "Of Eternal Longing".

This piece and Novák's style in general is not connected to Sibelius in any way, he owes pretty much everything to Debussy in his use of whole tone scales and non-functional harmonies. All the same, the picture that he conjures up of the sea and of the lonely swan (!) flying over it are truly wondrous. The piece slacks a little in the middle as the swan picks up resolve and tries to find its flock again, but comes to a grand conslusion.

Worth a listen.

If you happen to get a recording that is paired with his "Slovácká suita", it is quite a naive work and unfortunately the one that carries his (small) reputation in the Czech Republic.

Thanks, Maestro Kurki, the Novák is now on my list.

Meanwhile, I had my

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-- reminded me more of Shostakovich, as was certainly his influence and inspiration, but to me

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. One must choose their derivations wisely.

Sibelius is certainly inimitable in Finnish music and indeed in any other music. I wonder if Moldyoldie is familier with the Fourth Symphony of Franz Schmidt [1934] This is one of the few 20th Century symphonies that is in my view worthy of comparison with Sibelius. Everything is derived from the opening theme on the trumpet which also closes the work. The symphony was written as a Requiem for Schmidts daughter shortly after her death. It contains one of the most beautiful 'Elegy's in music with a deeply moving solo cello and the funeral march is remarkably similar in atmosphere to Sibelius's 'Swan of Tuonela'.--kp

How about the music of Edmund Rubbra? I haven't really heard his symphonies, but having heard his viola concerto (of course) and having read a decent enough amount about his symphonies (including that he drew influence from Sibelius in part), I think this might be a good place to start other than Sibelius... not to mention that the last of his eleven symphonies is also in one movement.

His way of composition was, from what I've read, very different from the trend of the time; he rejected atonalism and formed his own style, whereby one statement would grow - the music would "discover itself" (sounds familiar, eh?). His is not the sensitive, pastoral music of Vaughan Williams nor anything like Elgar; rather something entirely his own.

Just thought I'd throw this out there and see what the reaction is.