Lemminkäinen Suite

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The Lemminkäinen Suite op. 22 (also called Four Legends or Four Legends of Kalevala ) is a work by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius . Four parts were composed from 1895 to 1896, premiered in 1896, but not fully printed until 1954 and not fully played until 1956 in Germany.

Originally, Sibelius thought of a mythological opera called Veneen luominen (“Building the Boat”) based on the example of Richard Wagner's operas . Sibelius was very interested in the operas Tannhauser , Lohengrin and Die Walküre and was initially very impressed by Parsifal , as he believed he was actually an opera composer. Later his musical goals changed and he not only rejected Wagner's compositional technique, but also turned away from opera as such. He transformed the musical material of the Lemminkäinen theme into four individual legends, the hero of which comes from the Finnish national epic Kalevala .

I. Lemminkäinen and the girls on the island (playing time approx. 17 minutes): based on the 29th song in which Lemminkäinen drives to an island and seduces several women there before he has to flee from the vengeance of the men there.

II. The Swan of Tuonela (playing time approx. 10 minutes): based on the 14th song. It is the most popular of the four pieces and is often played alone. A long solo by an English horn has become famous . What is meant is a mystical swan that swims around the dead island of Tuonela. Lemminkäinen was actually commissioned to kill the holy swan, but he was hit by a poisoned arrow and dies himself, but gets his life back in the next piece. This legend was intended as an overture to the opera in Sibelius' original plans. Sibelius reworked this music twice, first in 1897 and then again in 1900. The German premiere took place in June 1901 in Heidelberg.

III. Lemminkäinen in Tuonela (playing time approx. 15 minutes): is also based on the 14th and 15th song. Lemminkäinen is on the dead island of Tuonela to kill the swan and thereby come into the possession of Louhi's daughter, the mistress of the north country. But a blind man kills Lemminkäinen, whose body is thrown into the river and divided. His mother hears of his death, travels to Tuonela, reassembles the body parts of her son and gives him life again with spells and an ointment.

IV. Lemminkäinen moves home (playing time approx. 7 minutes): based on the 30th song. After all his adventures, Lemminkäinen moves back to his mother's home.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Kalevala - The Finnish epic of Elias Lönnrot. Reclam, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-15-010332-0 , pp. 197-204.
  2. ↑ a b Kalevala - The Finnish epic of Elias Lönnrot. Reclam, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-15-010332-0 , pp. 81-86.
  3. ^ Kalevala - The Finnish epic of Elias Lönnrot. Reclam, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-15-010332-0 , pp. 87-95.
  4. ^ Kalevala - The Finnish epic of Elias Lönnrot. Reclam, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-15-010332-0 , pp. 205-211.