Karelia suite

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The Karelia Suite op. 11 is a collection of orchestral pieces by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius . It is one of his earliest works and one of his most popular.

The individual pieces come from various independent works that Sibelius had composed in 1893 for a patriotic parade of the students of the University of Helsinki in Vyborg in Karelia in the southeast corner of Finland . Sibelius always had a special relationship with Karelia. He was initially inspired by folk music there and also spent his honeymoon there . Sibelius had put together a “concert suite” one after the other from three parts of an earlier festival music (an overture had already been published separately as op. 10).

Character, cast and structure

The somewhat rough character of the music was by design. The aesthetic intention was not in sophisticated technology, but rather consciously wanted to preserve the naive, folkloric authenticity. Historical commentaries have emphasized the national character of the music.

In addition to soloists and chorus consisting occupation of the suite of 3 flutes (including piccolo ), 3 oboes (including an English horn ), two clarinets , two bassoons , five French horns in F and E, 3 trumpets in F and E, three trombones , tuba , Timpani , bass drum , cymbals , triangle , tambourine and strings . Ralph Wood pointed out the special role of percussion in this composition.

The suite consists of three movements:

  1. “Intermezzo”: a brisk allegro with a march-like theme that begins muffled in the orchestra and illustrates a procession. The sentence is based on the tableau Duke Narimont from Lithuania collects taxes in the Käkisalmi province in the original Karelia music and describes Karelian hunters who pay taxes in the form of fur. In Great Britain, the piece was used as the theme song for the long-running ITV series "This Week" and was also used as the opening music for the New Zealand news program "TV One" in 1975 . In addition, the ARD used the interlude in the crime scene "Attack on Guard 08" as background music for a robot operation.
  2. "Ballad": sung by a bard (or an English horn ), referring to the Swedish King Charles VIII of the 15th century, how he remembers his former life in his castle while he is entertained by minstrels .
  3. “Alla Marcia”: an exhilarating march, originally a piece from a collection that was supposed to illustrate a castle siege. The main episode of the fifth tableau, i.e. Pontus de la Gardie advances to Käkisalmi (Pontus de la Gardie Käkisalmen edustalla) is in practice the same as Alla marcia , which ends the Karelia suite (Karelia-sarja).

Reconstructions of the complete Karelia music

So far, two attempts have been made to reconstruct the complete Karelia music. A version of Kalevi Aho was recorded on CD in 1997 by Sinfonia Lahti under the direction of Osmo Vänskä . Also in 1997 the Finnish composer Jouni Kaipainen reconstructed the entire "Karelia music"; it was first recorded on CD in 1998 by the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra under Tuomas Ollila. It consists of an overture and 10 pieces and takes about 44 minutes, while the suite lasts only 12 minutes.

  1. overture
  2. Tableau 1: A Home in Karelia - The Runic Song Interrupted by War Music (1293)
  3. Tableau 2 *: The foundation of Wiborg Castle (1293)
  4. Tableau 3 *: Narimont, Duke of Lithuania, levies taxes in the Käkisalmi province (1333)
  5. Intermezzo (I)
  6. Tableau 4: Ballad - Karl Knutsson at Wiborg Castle (1446)
  7. Tableau 5 *: Pontus de la Gardie advances to Käkisalmi (1580)
  8. Intermezzo (II): Alla marcia
  9. Tableau 6 *: The Siege of Wiborg (1710)
  10. Tableau 7/8 *: The union of old Finland [Karelia] with the rest of Finland (1811) - The Finnish national anthem "Our Country".

* Completed and reconstructed by Jouni Kaipainen in 1997

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Watson Lyle: The "Nationalism" of Sibelius . In: The Musical Quarterly . Vol. 13, No. 4 (October 1927), pp. 617-629, doi : 10.1093 / mq / XIII.4.617 .
  2. ^ Ralph W. Wood: Sibelius's Use of Percussion . In: Music & Letters . Vol. 23, No. 1 (January 1942), pp. 10-23, doi : 10.1093 / ml / XXIII.1.10 .
  3. ^ Karelia music. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  4. ^ Karelia music. Retrieved July 4, 2019 .
  5. ^ Sibelius - Karelia, complete score , BIS Records. http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=album&aID=BIS-CD-915 Accessed February 24, 2012.
  6. ^ Sibelius: Karelia Music; Press Celebration Music. Tuomas Ollila, Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra at Allmusic (English)