Here's an interesting excercise.

We all love Sibelius for various reasons. But is there one over-riding factor why you are devoted to the work of this master?

In ONE SENTENCE, state the most important reason (to you) that you listen to this composer.

It would be too easy to say "I like this about him, and I like this..." etc.

So, here it goes:

I listen to Sibelius because his music opens portals to ancient, mythical lands of strange darkness, and these are places I like to be.




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--- Moderation --- (by Kurkikohtaus)

As this thread seems to be growing exponentially, with Tapkaara's permission (ah hell, even without it...) I will keep a running account of the actual sentences that people have posted here, so that we get a nice overview.

The discussion can of course continue below.
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--- Tapkaara ---

I listen to Sibelius because his music opens portals to ancient, mythical lands of strange darkness, and these are places I like to be.

--- World Violist ---

I listen to Sibelius because he encapsulates many emotions and such so uniquely; namely the dark and brooding side, as that's how I was when I began listening to Sibelius.

--- kullervopete ---

But when I listen to Sibelius, I feel that I have come home, that this music is where I ultimatly belong. In some inexplicable way Sibelius's art seems to reflect my own inner being.

--- Kurkikohtaus ---

I listen to Sibelius because when I hear his music, I feel he is listening to me.

--- Ainola ---

When I listen to Sibelius, there is no emotional 'trigger' as those listed above; in its place is an emotion that has not occured yet and therefore remains internal, waiting, in a liquid core.

--- Moldyoldie ---

Like climbing Everest or reaching the North Pole, I listen to Sibelius because it's there.

Haha... Tapkaara, we must be thinking quite alike!

I listen to Sibelius because he encapsulates many emotions and such so uniquely; namely the dark and brooding side, as that's how I was when I began listening to Sibelius.

Mine is a rather long one... huh.

Facinating question.

I enjoy music as diverse as Albinoni and Handel to Shostakovitch and Stravinsky--quite a musical journey.

But when I listen to Sibelius, I feel that I have come home, that this music is where I ultimatly belong. In some inexplicable way Sibelius's art seems to reflect my own inner being--kp

Tapkaara seems to be pushing for moderator status... hehe, a very good topic.

In my sentence I am tempted to refer to a certain "liquid core" but that phrase is not my own so I will await Ainola's return and contribution.

I listen to Sibelius because when I hear his music, I feel he is listening to me.

Just like Pete, I feel evry much at home...even comforted by Sibelius's music. Since he was one of the first composers that I really cam to be fanatical about, he's a benchmark by which I judge other composers.

Recently, on a night I wasn't feeling so well, I cam home and blasted Tapiola. Being in the forest with Sibelius's sinister musings was all I needed. At the end, I felt great; the music lifted my mood, even though this is not typically mood-lifting music!

Anyway, I felt as if I had come home, and this made me feel very good. I see Pete's point completely.

My inherent culture takes me furthest from the music of Sibelius but it is that very aspect that makes it all the more powerful for me. In my Italian nature of being, music has immediate effect on my dramatic emotions..........love, excitement, happiness, anger, death, etc.

However, when I listen to Sibelius, there is no emotional 'trigger' as those listed above.

In its place is an emotion that has not occured yet and therefore remains internal, waiting, in a liquid core.

Tapkaara wrote:

Just like Pete, I feel evry much at home...even comforted by Sibelius's music. Since he was one of the first composers that I really cam to be fanatical about, he's a benchmark by which I judge other composers. Recently, on a night I wasn't feeling so well, I cam home and blasted Tapiola. Being in the forest with Sibelius's sinister musings was all I needed. At the end, I felt great; the music lifted my mood, even though this is not typically mood-lifting music! Anyway, I felt as if I had come home, and this made me feel very good. I see Pete's point completely.

I remember I used to feel this way somewhat about Brahms... until Sibelius came along. And I suppose it somewhat makes sense. I was born in Minnesota, actually, and lived there for about 7 years, I think. Despite the short time, I think the chill remained and I was always looking for it; the winters in Kentucky are never cold enough. So I think after the revelation of the Andante Festivo (which I think is very pure, cold water in itself) and then the major one of Pohjola's Daughter, everything fell into place somewhat because it was what I was always looking for.

Now, of course, my interest in Sibelius has grown past the cold purity of the middle-later works, but like Tapkaara I will sometimes listen to Tapiola and be totally immersed and at one with the dark forest Sibelius so perfectly immortalized.

Ainola wrote:

My inherent culture takes me furthest from the music of Sibelius but it is that very aspect that makes it all the more powerful for me. In my Italian nature of being, music has immediate effect on my dramatic emotions..........love, excitement, happiness, anger, death, etc. However, when I listen to Sibelius, there is no emotional 'trigger' as those listed above. In its place is an emotion that has not occured yet and therefore remains internal, waiting, in a liquid core.

This is a great quote. And it hits the nail on the head as to the power of Sibelius's music.

To me, Sibelius is different that overtly "emotional" composers. Beethoven and Mahler come to mind almost immediately. Sibelius does not seem (most of the time) to wear his heart on his sleeve and compose musical diaries in the vein of Mahler. Instead, we have music that is much like a planet...a hard, perhaps cold outer crust but somewhere below the surface there is a seething core of liquid magma that boils and churns with latent rage.

Oh, the planet/world/universe analogies again...

At any rate, though there may be a certain amount of aloofness or perhaps coldness in Sibelius's music, this is indeed only on the surface. Sibelius was an emotional man, but the way he expresses emotion in music is very mysterious. This aspect of his music appeals to me greatly.

I've often tried to describe in words the difference between Sibelius and those like Mahler and Beethoven, and I have a concept of it, just not in words. I think it's in how the emotions are conveyed. Beethoven and Mahler sorta shove it down your throat (such as the beginnings of Beethoven's Fifth, Mahler's Sixth) or, as is the case sometimes with Mahler, draws you into his sound-world so convincingly that you can't help but be swept along with the emotional power that's obvious in the music itself (the second part of Mahler's Eighth really springs to mind).

Sibelius I could see as a composer who isn't blatantly emotional, but as Tapkaara says, it is only unemotional on the surface. It's like the sound-world itself contains the emotions, all you have to do is find them. With Sibelius, every symphony is a separate entity completely, and one must become more a part of it than just listening to it in order to get what emotions there are. It's much more voluntary, more inviting.

Tapkaara wrote:

Ainola wrote: In its place is an emotion that has not occured yet and therefore remains internal, waiting, in a liquid core. This is a great quote. And it hits the nail on the head as to the power of Sibelius's music.

Damn right it's a great quote, it has been enshrined in the QotM's

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.

Leave it to Ainola to go missing for several... months and then come back with a real good one. Also, swing to the top of the page for a nice running account of all the actual defining sentences.

This is gonna sound disingenuous as hell, but think about it...

Like climbing Everest or reaching the North Pole, I listen to Sibelius because it's there.

Good point Moldyoldie, but I suppose that Mr. Stockhausen and Mr. Schoenberg are also 'there'.

Mind you that would be like jumping off Mount Everest into a cesspit of dung.--kp

kullervopete wrote:

Good point Moldyoldie, but I suppose that Mr. Stockhausen and Mr. Schoenberg are also 'there'. Mind you that would be like jumping off Mount Everest into a cesspit of dung.--kp

I hear ya, but there's only one Everest and only one North Pole - both represent the "top" or "ultimate" of something. Stockhausen and Schoenberg may rate a Tropic of Cancer...at best. (Work with me here, folks.)

FWIW, I like three works of Stockhausen's very much -- Gesange der Junglinge, Stimmung, and Hymnen. I'm also a fan of Schoenberg's Verklärte Nacht.

Perhaps a better way of putting it is that I "listen" to Sibelius because it's there, and "return" to it for much the same reason.

I can tell you unequivocally that the music of Sibelius didn't "click" with me until I lived over twenty years in Northern Michigan with its two seasons of winter and July. Only then did its appeal become obvious. There's no use in explaining it. Age? Experience? Geography? Local culture? Also FWIW, there's a measurable Finnish ancestral component to Northern Michigan's history and demography, though I doubt that has anything to do with it. (No, I'm not of Finnish descent.)

Moldyoldie, I am intrigued that you admire a number of Stockhausen pieces, perhaps you could reveal what you see in these works.--kp

kullervopete wrote:

Moldyoldie, I am intrigued that you admire a number of Stockhausen pieces, perhaps you could reveal what you see in these works.--kp

Pete, allow me some time to revisit those works (two of 'em are quite lengthy) and to write something halfway coherent -- I promise to be succinct. I'll post it in the

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so as to not hijack this one.

Briefly, Gesange der Junglinge is strangely moving and elicits a keen nostalgia. Stimmung is the ultimate a capella mantra music -- great fun! Hymnen, probably what I'd consider to be his, uh, er, "conceptual masterpiece", combines samplings of several familiar national anthems with the random sounds from shortwave radios and intermittent studio voices to make for a fascinating two-hour journey into the Zen of worldwide electronic communication -- it's quite a trip! I like to think it's metaphorical to a sort of "world anthem".