I find the Four Legends so powerful, beautiful and memorable it never occurs to me to doubt their “quality”. Calling them derivative seems to me more of a box-checking exercise. Dutifully noting the Wagnerian or Brucknerian or Berliozian input, it is easy to overlook how original and unusual the complete movements are. (I think the best classification for the work would be: Symphonic Suite).
Draw attention to nature-murmurs here, Parsifalian agonies there, but be careful to note the unusually flowing continuity of the longest Maidens and In Tuonela movements, which have a truly Sibelian approach to motive, development and multiple or double climax (or anti-development… cf Nightride and Sunrise in the light of the Maidens…Largo of the 4th Symphony re. In Tuonela…).
There is more than a hint of minimalism in their rhythmic obsessiveness. They both show a fluidity and elusiveness of form and melody that goes beyond their supposed earlier Romantic models. Try noting down the ideas as they occur, then tracking them through each piece….not so easy!
Looking forward as well as back: Parsifalian agony In Tuonela, but as a new poetical and musical unity, does it sound like anything else beyond Sibelius, really? Until Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead comes along, painting in similar tones.
I trust I don’t need to remind anyone here of the mythical and artistic parallels.
(Even Reger seems to notice The Swan briefly, as he crosses the dark waters of his gentler, less forbidding picture).
Then the shorter, catchier movements create a fine balance, very symphonic to these ears, and - this works well, whether you place the gorgeous, haunting, sad black Swan 2nd or 3rd. Which seems to me another mark of their quality, especially as Lemminkainen’s Homecoming has a distinct finale character about it.
Draw attention to nature-murmurs here, Parsifalian agonies there, but be careful to note the unusually flowing continuity of the longest Maidens and In Tuonela movements, which have a truly Sibelian approach to motive, development and multiple or double climax (or anti-development… cf Nightride and Sunrise in the light of the Maidens…Largo of the 4th Symphony re. In Tuonela…).
There is more than a hint of minimalism in their rhythmic obsessiveness. They both show a fluidity and elusiveness of form and melody that goes beyond their supposed earlier Romantic models. Try noting down the ideas as they occur, then tracking them through each piece….not so easy!
Looking forward as well as back: Parsifalian agony In Tuonela, but as a new poetical and musical unity, does it sound like anything else beyond Sibelius, really? Until Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead comes along, painting in similar tones.
I trust I don’t need to remind anyone here of the mythical and artistic parallels.
(Even Reger seems to notice The Swan briefly, as he crosses the dark waters of his gentler, less forbidding picture).
Then the shorter, catchier movements create a fine balance, very symphonic to these ears, and - this works well, whether you place the gorgeous, haunting, sad black Swan 2nd or 3rd. Which seems to me another mark of their quality, especially as Lemminkainen’s Homecoming has a distinct finale character about it.
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