Soundhound

Sibelius and the Call of the Wild

Two sides of Sibelius, probably not a good idea to pick a fight with him...

 

I recently had to play and introduce the only original work Sibelius ever wrote for cello and piano "Malinconia" or "Melancoly", a piece he wrote in just three hours, in distressing circumstances. His wife and young family had departed suddenly, leaving him alone in their house "Ainola" He urged them to go as they were fleeing a typhus epidemic, in which his youngest daughter Kirsti, had  tragically died. Kirsti was his favourite and this, his only cello piece, was the result of this time alone. It is hard to associate the speed with which he wrote this piece, with the tortuous writer's block he endured later in life, from the age of sixty until his death,thirty years later. When the family returned to Ainola, he would not allow Kirsti's name to be spoken aloud ever again.

When you read about Sibelius' life, all ninety one years of it, it has an epic quality to it. As his life spanned the last half of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, he witnessed many great events, not least of which was the struggle for Finnish independence from Russia, which was finally won in 1917. Sibelius' music helped support the national cause in all sorts of ways. His Kullervo suite from 1892, was ground breaking in that it set parts of the national epic poem  the Kalevala and used the finnish language for the settings, which was unusual for the time. Sibelius was also proud when his composition teacher in Vienna, Robert Fuchs,described his music as "barbaric and raw" . Sibelius answered his criticism with the declaration " So let's be barbarians!" He was keen to invent a style that  would include "that melodious, strangely melancholic monotony which is in all Finnish melodies" In 1891 he was very inspired after hearing Larin Paraske, a Finnish singer of runes, and studiously noted down the melodies and rhythms of her song.

For me personally, his unique appeal is that of someone who has found a way of translating the natural world  and it's structures into sound.  Sibelius himself said that when he heard the opening of his sixth symphony, he smelt fresh snow. The experience of playing and listening to Sibelius' symphonies for me , is  a bit like being outside in an open landscape and watching weather systems pass over you. How the music is structured is a mystery to me and ideas seem to occur rather than develop but at the same time, it forms a coherent whole. Sibelius was a life long nature lover, and took long walks  to help allieviate his depressions by being outside. He had a special look out built for watching birds around his home. His house is now a museum and you can visit, (which I have actually done ) It feels a bit voyeuristic to be in his carefully preserved kitchen, but interesting nonetheless!

I finish this post with the sound of the outdoors even in the middle of summer.It is one of my favourite recordings, by the master Sibelius interpreter- Paavo Berglund

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX_J7ZSUmts

Link to Sibelius' house now a museum

http://www.ainola.fi/eng_index.php

Castles in the Mind, Music away from the page

 Illustration of The Magic Theatre of memory created by philosopher and magus Giulio Camillo Delmini

Commenting on how the printed page contributed to the demise of ancient memory techniques:

"Perhaps the arrival of the printed book in the scholar’s  library heralds the demise of classical mnemonics. Perhaps the beginning of the era in which cultural memory could find a habitation in the printed word marks the end of the era in which cathedrals, palaces,and theaters could be mirrors of the world and of the mind at once, arraying knowledge in their windows and friezes and sculptures,storing images to be brought back to life by those who passed through their haunted walls."

Julie Stone Peters commenting on a passage from Francis Yates "The Art of Memory"

As made famous by the current BBC series "Sherlock" creating  a"Memory Mind Palace" was a common way of remembering information from ancient times to the mid fifteenth century and the advent of printing in Europe.  Very roughly described, the technique involves creating in your mind a series of places (rooms in a house or larger building.) In each room is a lively scene or image which helps trigger in different ways memories of the knowledge you wish to remember.

After the advent of printing, people continued to develop the art of memory, attaching a magical significance to knowledge that was stored in the mind away from the printed page. They felt it gave people a type of overview, which one does not get from mere reading.

 As a musician it is interesting to hear and see the difference when somebody performs or studies a work until it is memorised. The struggle of intensive work needed by most of us to achieve our goal seems to take us onto a different level of  musical understanding . Performing from memory is also a high risk activity  and for most of us, we do not have the safety net of improvisation. But it is perhaps precisely this stress which releases other qualities in a player. I have seen this transformation many times in students, especially those who are most resistant to playing from memory. The work needed to memorise music, forces the performer to learn the architecture of the piece they are playing and the score as a whole. Key structural points are like a trail of breadcrumbs through the forest of notes, that can lead us through. It is all too easy with a score to have a focus on melody rather than harmony, on magic moments rather than the piece as a whole.  There are also physical differences, as the body can concentrate on  playing rather than looking, often the head frees up and a physical transformation occurs in the player .Memory work helps gives us a physical and intellectual overview, just as the medieval scholars predicted.