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Jean Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence by Daniel M. Grimley

2022; Music Library Association; Volume: 79; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/not.2022.0108

1534-150X

Carl Rahkonen,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

Reviewed by: Jean Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence by Daniel M. Grimley Carl Rahkonen Jean Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence. By Daniel M. Grimley. London: Reaktion Books, 2021. [248 p. ISBN 9781789144659 (hardback), $35; ISBN 978179144666 (e-book), $35.] Illustrations, select discography, references, select bibliography, index. Daniel M. Grimley, professor of music at the University of Oxford, is one of the foremost authorities on Jean Sibelius, serving previously as editor of the Cambridge Companion to Sibelius (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) and of the anthology Sibelius and His World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011). This new book is his first solo work on Sibelius and was written as a pandemic project, largely from his knowledge of Sibelius’s music and the literature written about him. The book is true to its title, offering a concise biography that concentrates on musical style. He uses detailed descriptions and analyses of individual compositions, both familiar and obscure, to explain why Sibelius sounds the way he does. He also masterfully compares Sibelius’s works with those of his contemporaries and places his music in the context of the artistic climate of the times. The book is arranged chronologically, with each of the nine chapters covering a specific period of Sibelius’s life as well as describing the music he composed. In the first chapter, “Town and Country,” Grimley relates Sibelius’s early life both in the town of Hämeenlinna (Tavastehus), where he was born in 1865, and in Helsinki, where he went to study from 1885 to 1888. From the time he started playing violin, Sibelius was also composing. His early pieces were chamber music for strings, including piano trios, a string quartet, and a violin sonata. While studying in Helsinki, he met Ferruccio Busoni, who became one of the most important influences on his career. Chapter 2, “Young Romantics,” covers 1888 to 1891, when he continued his studies in Berlin and Vienna and cultivated a growing circle of artistic friends. The Järnefelts were particularly significant, since his future wife, Aino, came from that family. During his year in Berlin, he composed his Piano Quintet in G Minor. The following year in Vienna, inspired by the artistic climate, he wrote his first orchestral compositions and songs set to the poetry of Johan Ludvig Runeberg. He became more deeply interested in the Finnish epic Kalevala and, upon his return to Finland, continued to study Finnish folk traditions. This interest led him to compose Kullervo, for orchestra and chorus, based on a story from the Kalevala, which marked a significant early success in his career, though he soon withdrew the score, and it was not performed again in his lifetime. Chapter 3, “Saga, Swans, and Symphonic Dreams,” covers 1891 to 1899, when Sibelius composed such well-known works as En Saga, the Lemminkainen Legends, and his First Symphony. We also learn that Sibelius wrote songs and a great deal of incidental music for theater. He did not compose any full-length operas, and Grimley explains that the reasons were complex. Despite having excellent singers, Finland had no professional opera company, and it was difficult to break into the international scene. Also, it was the height of Wagner’s legacy. The incidental music was significant, since certain pieces rose to prominence, such as Suomi herää (Finland Awakens), later performed under various titles, the best-known being Finlandia. Chapter 4, “New Dawns,” covers 1900 to 1904, when Sibelius began to be recognized internationally. His compositions were featured as part of the Finnish presence at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1900. Sibelius [End Page 245] was inspired by his travels and, at the suggestion of and with help from his friend Axel Carpelan, he took his family to Italy, where he wrote his Second Symphony. Other significant works from this time included his Violin Concerto and incidental music to Maurice Maeterlinck’s play Pelléas et Mélisande. He also composed songs, piano music, and incidental music for a play by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt, Kuolema (Death), which included one of his most popular pieces, “Valse Triste.” Ironically, Sibelius did not realize commercial rewards with that piece, since he sold his rights to the publisher...