Classical Music | Baritone

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.

One such example is the opening song, Norden, of the Six Songs, op. 90. Composed in 1917, the text of the song is a poem by Johan Ludvig Runeberg, one of the most famous of Finland’s poets, yet nevertheless wrote in the Swedish language. It depicts the coming of winter in the northland—the leaves are falling, the lakes are frozen, and the graceful swans are mournfully migrating south, leaving their majestic home until spring should return. Sibelius’s setting opens softly with a pulsating accompaniment in the piano. The icy discords that make up much of the accompaniment capture the frozen landscape, while the graceful, yet sombre vocal melody, effortlessly gliding atop the piano’s pulsating chords, portrays the sad flight of the swans. At the close of the final line of text, the discords of the accompaniment dissipate, and the music comes to a majestic close on sonorous C major chords.      Joseph DuBose

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.