JEAN SIBELIUS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19472, 6 May 1925, Page 8

JEAN SIBELIUS.

THE VOICE OP FINLAND. The Finns are an unfamiliar people to fh« British-speaking race, end yet to ■understand their characteristics and the work of their great artists it is necessary to know something of Finnish history, something concerning the racial and oppressive influences which have affected them. Professor Hoad, of the Helsingfors University, has supplied illuminating information in his bock " Finland and the Finns ” regarding this unconquerable race—a race that lias been sorely tried and hampered for centuries, through wars carried on between Russia and Sweden. " The Kalevala,” the great epic of the Finns, supplies traditional information respecting the Finns that history fails to supplv. Tins great work was not 1 given to the world till 1835, and when printed this wonderful collection of folk lore was declared to he worth a place beside the great epics of Homer and “The Nibelung” of the Germans. It is rich in suggestion for musicians, and should Finland develop modern opera, it is held that "The Kalevala” will supply the heroes and heroines. Centuries of hard discipline under Russian dominion have moulded the Finnish peoples into a grave, serious-minded self-reliant race. Straggles and continual oppression whilst fightinv for their freedom has arrested the Finnish race from great artistic development. Only „in recent years have they been able to cast off the shackles which bound them, develop their civilisation, and put forth any artistic expression, which is the true flowering of any people, and the inmost expression of all they have felt and suffered. The Finns are akin in race and speech to the Esthonians and Hungarians, and, like the Esthonians, who have suffered oppression for centuries under Russian rule, it is only within recent years that they have scughi to find world recognition among the nations, and to make their voice heard in many lands which have liitherto scarcely recognised their existence. In 1920 Finland held a world's fair to mark this desire for recognition among the family of nations; and abundant evidence was then shown of her determination to keep her independence and to remain unconquerable. One who visited that Finnish world’s fair, from a land remote, and whose mind had been developed under, alien stars, was quick to recognise that the ultimate expression of the ideals of Finland, indeed, "the very voice of Finland,” was heard at a great concert given at the unive.-sity, where was heard the music of the greatest of Finnish composers, Jean Sibelius, conducted by the great man himself. There are other Finnish composers whose music is widely known, among them Tamefelt, Robert Kajanus, Palmgren, Merikante, Ilmari, Krohn, and Melartin; but the music of Sibelius is potent of the earthly paradise of woodlands and water, and of the Finnish heaven, under which it vas inspired. The music of Sibelius is full of power and gloom, and reflects the dark history of its people, and its tremendous struggles for freedom. His individually is but the shape of soul given his race by its century-long adjustment He comes from a world of sagas, and his music, " with its Viking blows and wild, crying accents, with its harsh and uncouth speech, sets us without circumstance, in that sunken world, sets us in the very midst of the stark men and grave, savage women for whom the sagas were made, so that we can see them in all their hurtling strength and rank barbarity.” Music as a fine art had no existence in Finland till 1835, and that was the year of the great national awakening. Thirty years later, in 1865, Jean Sibelius was born, and in due time he was to express the immemorial need of his race in his great musical utterances, for as Remain Holland has somewhere said, music is the flowering of an eternal spirit; it is the song of centuries ; its growth pushes upwards from the griefs as well as from the joys of humanity. At the outset of his career Sibelius studied law, but soon he found that his talents were for' music, and the urge of genius led him to the Helsingfors University. Afterwards he travelled to Germany k and studied under Becker at Berlin and Goldmark at Vienna. On his return to Finland Sibelius accepted the principalship of the conservatorium. Fortunately for his art, the Senate granted him a substantial annuity. Thus, unfettered by financial cares, he has been able to devote himself to creative output. A long list of diversified compositions stand to his credit. Symphonies, symphonic poems, overtures and suites, the violin concerto in D minor (which has been described as ‘‘imnossibly difficult,” but full of beauty and depth), orchestral pieces, such as Eomar.ze (for strings), Valse-Triste, Finlandia (his glorious epic of national freedom), Pan Und Echo. Then there are his numerous short numbers. for the pianoforte, besides his sonata in F and some important chamber music. His vocal works comprise part songs for men and women’s voices, and some 50 ox more striking songs, which are among the finest of modern times and axe a wonderful expression of his strong, intense personality. . - ; For his songs Silhelius has .received, world-wide praise. In them he has revealed his strong patriotism, and they . recapture the dark and melancholy accents of the Scandinavian folk song. He sought inspiration for many of his songs not alone in ‘‘The Kalevala,” hut also, from the poems of Runeberg, which are so expressive of national feeling. The songs, though full of dramatic power and modern feeling, are strangely unlike the conventional songs of other lands. In them Sibelius often uses the old simple scale and the uneven rhythm of the folk songs. Sibelius composed the first Finnish opera, "The Maid In the Tower," given at Helsingfors in 1896. To this work the composer attaches no importance. “The Kalevala,” so rich in musical suggestion, yet awaits its great interpreter, who may set it gloriously to music, oven as Wagner found inspiration in “ The Nibelung.” Although Australians have little opportunity of hearing the symphonies of Sibelius, it is conceded that perhaps in these works his real richness of expression most truly lies. Enormous power, a Viking strength, is one of the igreat characteristics of Sibelius. He seems ever to need some great liberating medium to dissipate the passionate, pent-up feeling struggling within him; and in the sweep of symphonic musical form he may best find the liberation of spirit. “If these ■ symphonies prove anything,” says Rosa. Newmarch. "it is that the vision of Ezekiel in the Valley can be perpetually re-enacted in the world; that the forms which appear to each succeeding generation as the dry bones of academic tradition can be rearticnlatecl and live again, in beauty and flexibility, if only the breath of genius passes through them.”