5th Symphony (Sibelius)

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The Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82, is a great work for orchestra in three movements by Jean Sibelius .

history

Sibelius was commissioned by the Finnish government to write a symphony on the occasion of his 50th birthday, which has been declared a national holiday. The symphony was originally composed in 1915, revised in 1916 and then again in 1919.

The original version was premiered on December 8, 1915 in Helsinki by the Helsinki Symphony Orchestra under Sibelius' direction, following the example of the previous symphonies. The second version, only part of which has survived, was first performed exactly one year later by the Turun Soitannollinen Seura orchestra in Turku . The third version, which is mostly played today, was premiered again on November 24, 1919 in Helsinki by the Helsinki Symphonic Orchestra under Sibelius' direction.

The decade from 1910 to 1920 was marked by a general change in the symphonic form that had been preserved for over a century. In 1909, in his Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 16 , Arnold Schönberg pushed the development towards more dissonant and chromatic harmonies. From 1910 to 1912 Igor Stravinsky published three revolutionary ballets: The Firebird , Petrushka and Le sacre du printemps . Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy were in the process of developing their new Impressionist music. In 1911 the premiere of Richard Strauss ' opera Der Rosenkavalier took place.

Although Sibelius had been popular for over 20 years by the time, he regretted that his previous symphony, the 4th Symphony , premiered in 1911 , had received little public recognition. James Hepokoski thinks that Sibelius began to see himself as not being equally recognized in the competition of modernizers in music.

At the time, Sibelius was undecided whether to change his style more towards the current modernism desired by the audience, or to continue with what suited him best. The first version of the fifth symphony stuck to its orchestral style of harmonious sonority, woodwind melodies in parallel lines and a rich melodic development. The structural style has been changed. James Hepokoski calls this change "sonata deformation". The success of this method is reflected in the popularity that the Fifth Symphony has retained to this day.

The first version of the Fifth has a lot in common with the more modernist 4th Symphony in that it contains some bitonal passages; the 1919 version, on the other hand, is more goal-oriented and classicistic. Sibelius commented on his revisions as follows: "I wanted to give my symphony a different - more humane - form, more earth-related, more lively."

instrumentation

The symphony is set for 2 flutes , 2 oboes , 2 clarinets , 2 bassoons , 4 French horns , 3 trumpets , 3 trombones , timpani and strings .

structure

The sentence structure of the symphony is unusual:

  1. Tempo molto moderato - Allegro moderato (ma poco a poco stretto) - Vivace molto - Presto - Più Presto
  2. Andante mosso, quasi allegretto - Poco a poco stretto - Tranquillo - Poco a poco stretto - Ritenuto al tempo I
  3. Allegro molto - Misterioso - Un pochettino largamente - Largamente assai - Un pochettino stretto

The first movement starts slowly but ends with a quick scherzo. The second movement has neither a slow nor a fast tempo, but rather in the form of a calm intermezzo. Then comes the third movement, which starts quickly but ends slowly. The entire symphony takes about 32 minutes.

First sentence

Sibelius actually intended to compose two separate movements, but then combined the slow introduction with the faster waltz-shaped scherzo into one unit. The movement begins with a horn call, which already contains much of the musical material.

Although the movement is written in sonata form, Sibelius's students Cecil Gray (1935), Gerald Abraham (1947), Simon Parmet (1955), Robert Layton (1965) and James Hepokoski (1993) have very different views on its formal division. They argue with the separation into actually two parts, with the presence of actually two expositions , they differ in the description of the scherzo and the trio, and they disagree about the exact beginning of the recapitulation and the coda .

Different analytical perspectives

Cecil Gray, the first musicologist to study the structure of the 5th symphony, did not mention the sonata form at all in his discussion , but analyzed the two musical themes as if he were automatically assuming that it was a sonata form.

Gerald Abraham was one of the first to explain the work in sonata terms. He clearly states where he believes each section begins and why. The work start with a double exposure , each with significantly distinct groups A and B material, then into the carrying pass this material. Abraham describes the melodic section that begins with the Allegro moderato as a scherzo and trio and as a substitute for the second half of the development.

Robert Layton, however, contradicts Abraham, claiming that the Scherzo is the beginning of the recapitulation.

Most musicologists agreed with this analysis until James Hepokoski's study appeared in 1993 ( Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 ), which offers a completely different interpretation. In his opinion, the symphony can only be described in terms of a "rotational form". Hepokoski sticks to the usual division of the movement into double exposition, scherzo and recapitulation, but develops a new vocabulary to describe the musical development. In many of his works, Sibelius allows the musical material to choose a form for itself, based on the necessity of the music itself and not according to the pre-formed norms of the 18th or 19th centuries. He uses a circular form of rotation or stanza that pervades the various sections of the material and evolves as it goes. In his analysis, Hepokoski sticks to the general localization of the section transitions as described by earlier authors, and agrees with them that the first movement can in principle be described in terms of a sonata form.

Second sentence

This calm movement is characterized by several variations on a theme that is first performed by the strings in pizzicato and then taken up by the flutes. Together with the woodwinds, the mood of the music is lovely and warm.

Third sentence

The movement begins with a fast melody played in sixteenths in the fourfold divided second violins. After the exposition of this theme begins a new dominant motif in the horns, for which Sibelius noted in his diaries that he had seen 16 swans fly over the lake at Ainola ; this section with its elegiac melody in strings and woodwinds is therefore also known as the swan hymn. After an abrupt transition, the first theme is varied in a short development before the melody of the swan theme returns in E flat minor and is slowly increased together with the ostinato motif of the brass. In doing so, Sibelius uses strong dissonances and uses the long organ points that are typical for him with great effect, first over D, then over C, until triumphantly the starting key in E flat major is reached again.

The symphony ends as simple as it is unusual: the six chords of the final cadence are played individually, interrupted by irregular, long pauses. To many interpreters committed to late Romanticism, this conclusion appeared to be too torn; For example, on Herbert von Karajan's recording , the pauses are significantly shortened.

The symphony in popular culture

The swan call motif has been used in a number of pop songs, for example "Popsicles and Icicles" by the Murmaids (1963), "Beach Baby" by The First Class (1974), "Since Yesterday" by Strawberry Switchblade (1984 ) and "Oh What A Life" by Play People (2008). The beginning of the first sentence is quoted at the beginning of John Coltrane 's A Love Supreme ; it is assumed, however, that Coltrane did not use Sibelius directly, but rather Leonard Bernstein's musical On the Town , which in turn quotes the symphony.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Baldini: Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 . Univ. of California, Davis, Dept. of Music
  2. ↑ Cf. Kari Kilpeläinen, supplement to the BIS recording of the original version from 1919 ( Osmo Vänskä , Sinfonia Lahti )
  3. ^ Cecil Gray: Sibelius: The Symphonies. London: Oxford University Press, 1935.
  4. ↑ Gerald Abraham: The Music of Sibelius. WW Norton, New York 1947.
  5. ^ Simon Parmet: The Symphonies of Sibelius: a Study in Musical Appreciation. Translated by Kingsley A. Hart, Cassell, London 1959.
  6. ^ Robert Layton: Sibelius. London: JM Dent and Sons Ltd .; New York: Rarrar, Straus and Giroux, Inc., 1965.
  7. ↑ James Hepokoski: Sibelius, Symphony No. 5. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
  8. ↑ BARR over-over, BARR over-over . July 8, 2008. Retrieved October 6, 2010.
  9. ↑ therestisnoise.com