Today, Jean Sibelius’s fame resets almost entirely upon his symphonic and orchestral compositions, despite the numerous smaller chamber, piano, and vocal works that he composed. Furthermore, it is curious that while he is considered the father of Finnish classical music, very few of the plentiful number of songs he composed are actually based on Finnish texts. Instead, many are based on Swedish poetry, the language of Sibelius’s youth.
The five songs of opus 37 were composed in 1904, making them roughly contemporaneous with the Violin Concerto and the Symphony No. 3. Each based on a Swedish poem, the collection is, in essence, a set of love songs. While much of Sibelius’s music was characterized by his native Finland and its folk music, the Germanic tradition he encountered and learned while studying in Vienna during the early 1890s under Robert Fuchs (the teacher of Mahler and Wolf) left its mark, particularly upon the style of his opus 37 songs.
Closing the set is “Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings mote”(“The Girl Came From Meeting Her Lover”). Along with “Var det en drom,” it is one of Sibelius’s most oft-performed songs. On a text by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the poem tells of a girl who returns home with her hands all red from being between those of her lover’s. Confronted by her mother, she hides the truth from her. She then returns home a second time, this time with her lips all red. Again, she hides the cause from her mother. Lastly, she comes home with pale cheeks, having caught her lover being unfaithful. Finally, she confides the truth to her mother in a dramatic self-composed epitaph. Sibelius provides a lush piano accompaniment beneath Runeberg’s poem. In D-flat major, syncopated chords create a fervent energy that persists through much of the song, and accompany the affectionate piano motif that appears a bar before the voice’s entrance. The first two stanzas are heart-warming, brimming with affectionate and requited love. However, in the third stanza, when the girl returns home flushed from the revelation of her lover’s infidelity, the music turns towards the parallel minor, and the accompaniment becomes suddenly more dramatic by the stark contrast of long-sustained chords. The fourth stanza returns to the affectionate music of before as the girl confides in her mother the blissful encounters she experienced, yet comes to a dark and heartbroken close. Joseph DuBose
Classical Music | Baritone
Jean Sibelius
Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings mote, Op. 37 No. 5 Play
Recorded on 08/03/2011, uploaded on 12/13/2011
Musician's or Publisher's Notes
Today, Jean Sibelius’s fame resets almost entirely upon his symphonic and orchestral compositions, despite the numerous smaller chamber, piano, and vocal works that he composed. Furthermore, it is curious that while he is considered the father of Finnish classical music, very few of the plentiful number of songs he composed are actually based on Finnish texts. Instead, many are based on Swedish poetry, the language of Sibelius’s youth.
The five songs of opus 37 were composed in 1904, making them roughly contemporaneous with the Violin Concerto and the Symphony No. 3. Each based on a Swedish poem, the collection is, in essence, a set of love songs. While much of Sibelius’s music was characterized by his native Finland and its folk music, the Germanic tradition he encountered and learned while studying in Vienna during the early 1890s under Robert Fuchs (the teacher of Mahler and Wolf) left its mark, particularly upon the style of his opus 37 songs.
Closing the set is “Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings mote” (“The Girl Came From Meeting Her Lover”). Along with “Var det en drom,” it is one of Sibelius’s most oft-performed songs. On a text by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, the poem tells of a girl who returns home with her hands all red from being between those of her lover’s. Confronted by her mother, she hides the truth from her. She then returns home a second time, this time with her lips all red. Again, she hides the cause from her mother. Lastly, she comes home with pale cheeks, having caught her lover being unfaithful. Finally, she confides the truth to her mother in a dramatic self-composed epitaph. Sibelius provides a lush piano accompaniment beneath Runeberg’s poem. In D-flat major, syncopated chords create a fervent energy that persists through much of the song, and accompany the affectionate piano motif that appears a bar before the voice’s entrance. The first two stanzas are heart-warming, brimming with affectionate and requited love. However, in the third stanza, when the girl returns home flushed from the revelation of her lover’s infidelity, the music turns towards the parallel minor, and the accompaniment becomes suddenly more dramatic by the stark contrast of long-sustained chords. The fourth stanza returns to the affectionate music of before as the girl confides in her mother the blissful encounters she experienced, yet comes to a dark and heartbroken close. Joseph DuBose
More music by Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 1 (Allegro)
Violin Concerto
The Spruce, Op. 75, No. 5
Symphony no. 5
Intermezzo, from the Karelia Suite Op. 11
Ballade, from Romantic Pieces, Op. 115
Norden Op. 90 No. 1
Violin Concerto - Allegro, ma non tanto
Four Pieces, Op. 78
Nocturne Op. 51, No. 3
Performances by same musician(s)
Norden Op. 90 No. 1
La Passeggiata
Zion’s Walls, from Old American Songs
Hjärtats morgon Op. 13 No. 3
The Dodger, from Old American Songs
Simple Gifts, from Old American Songs
The Little Horses, from Old American Songs
At the River, from Old American Songs
Old American Songs
Das ist ein Brausen und Heulen
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