''En saga'' (in
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
: '; occasionally translated to English as, variously, ''A Fairy Tale'', ''A Saga'', or ''A Legend''),
Op. 9, is a single-
movement tone poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...
for
orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
written from 1891 to 1892 by the Finnish composer
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often ...
. The piece, which likely began as a
septet
A septet is a formation containing exactly seven members. It is commonly associated with musical groups but can be applied to any situation where seven similar or related objects are considered a single unit, such as a seven-line stanza of poetry. ...
or
octet
Octet may refer to:
Music
* Octet (music), ensemble consisting of eight instruments or voices, or composition written for such an ensemble
** String octet, a piece of music written for eight string instruments
*** Octet (Mendelssohn), 1825 compos ...
for flute, clarinet, and string ensemble before evolving into an orchestral tone poem, premiered on 16 February 1893 in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
with Sibelius conducting the
Helsinki Orchestral Association. A decade later in 1902, Sibelius substantially revised ''En saga'' in response to an invitation from
Ferruccio Busoni to conduct the piece in Berlin. It thus stands alongside ''
The Lemminkäinen Suite'' (Op. 22), the
Violin Concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...
(Op. 47), ''
The Oceanides'' (Op. 73), and the
Fifth Symphony (Op. 82) as one of the most overhauled works in his . The Berlin concert, which occurred a fortnight after
Robert Kajanus
Robert Kajanus (2 December 1856 – 6 July 1933) was a Finnish conductor, composer, and teacher. In 1882, he founded the Helsinki Orchestral Society, Finland's first professional orchestra. As a conductor, he was also a notable champion and in ...
had premiered the revised version in Helsinki on 2 November, finally brought Sibelius the German breakthrough he had long desired.
''En saga'' is without program or literary source. Nevertheless, the adventurous, evocative character of the music has encouraged many listeners to offer their own interpretations, among them a fantasy landscape (such as that by the Finnish painter
Akseli Gallen-Kallela), a hunting expedition, a
bard's storytelling, and the essence of
Finnish people
Finns or Finnish people ( fi, suomalaiset, ) are a Baltic Finnic ethnic group native to Finland.
Finns are traditionally divided into smaller regional groups that span several countries adjacent to Finland, both those who are native to these ...
. Sibelius routinely declined to state a program, although in the 1930s, he conceded that, if one must find an inspiration, the tone poem owed its nature not to ''
The Kalevala
The ''Kalevala'' ( fi, Kalevala, ) is a 19th-century work of epic poetry compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling an epic story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and ...
'', the
national epic of Finland, but rather to Iceland's ''
Eddas
"Edda" (; Old Norse ''Edda'', plural ''Eddur'') is an Old Norse term that has been attributed by modern scholars to the collective of two Medieval Icelandic literary works: what is now known as the ''Prose Edda'' and an older collection of poems ...
''. By the 1940s, however, Sibelius had reverted to his previous position, describing the work instead as "the expression of a certain state of mind"—one with an unspecified, "painful" autobiographical component—for which "all literary interpretations
ere thereforetotally alien".
Critics have largely praised ''En saga'' as a masterpiece of "astonishing power and originality" that, stylistically, exhibits Sibelius's "personal brand of musical primitivism". Moreover, the revised version of the tone poem is often described as being of superior craftsmanship relative to the youthful rawness of its predecessor. The first (and to date only) recording of the original version was made in 1995 by
Osmo Vänskä
Osmo Antero Vänskä (born 28 February 1953) is a Finnish conductor, clarinetist, and composer.
Biography
Vänskä started his musical career as an orchestral clarinetist with the Turku Philharmonic (1971–76). He then became the principal cla ...
and the
Lahti Symphony Orchestra The Lahti Symphony Orchestra (''Sinfonia Lahti'') is a Finnish orchestra, based in the city of Lahti. The orchestra is resident at the Sibelius Hall. The orchestra was founded in 1910, and placed under the control of the Lahti municipality in 194 ...
. A typical performance of the final version of the piece lasts about 18 minutes, some 4 minutes fewer than its predecessor.
History
Composition
Although the creative origins of ''En saga'' remain somewhat uncertain, it appears as though the material that would become ''En saga'' may have begun as, and thus evolved from, a septet or octet for flute, clarinet, and string ensemble that the composer had begun in 1890–91, during which time he was a student in Vienna under
Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs (15 February 1847 – 19 February 1927) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in ...
and
Karl Goldmark
Karl Goldmark (born Károly Goldmark, Keszthely, 18 May 1830 – Vienna, 2 January 1915) was a Hungarian-born Viennese composer.Peter Revers, Michael Cherlin, Halina Filipowicz, Richard L. Rudolph The Great Tradition and Its Legacy 2004; , p. ...
. (This chamber piece, however, has never been found.) Following the success of the
choral symphony
A choral symphony is a musical composition for orchestra, choir, and sometimes solo vocalists that, in its internal workings and overall musical architecture, adheres broadly to symphonic musical form. The term "choral symphony" in this contex ...
''Kullervo'' in 1891, Robert Kajanus, founder and chief conductor of the
Helsinki Orchestral Association, requested from Sibelius a purely orchestral piece, albeit one "in a more popular style" that would not make "too great demands on
he general public'spowers of concentration and comprehension"; in the 1930s, Sibelius told his biographer, Karl Ekman, that the result of this invitation was the orchestral tone poem ''En saga''.
Later in life, however, Sibelius dismissed Kajanus's influence, telling a second biographer, Eric Ringbom, in the 1950s that ''En saga'' actually had not been the result Kajanus's offer: "... Nothing came of it. Instead I completed the orchestral work I had already started and to which I gave the name ''En saga'' ... I did not comply with his request ... to write 'a short ''Da capo'' piece'". That Sibelius's statements to Ekman and to Ringbom are inconsistent is, perhaps, a sign either that Sibelius wished to downplay the influence of his on-again-off-again friend/rival decades after the latter's death (Kajanus had died in 1933) or that he was eager to dispel any notion that ''En saga'' was of less seriousness than his other compositions.
The autograph manuscript of the original 1892 version of ''En saga'' does not survive, although a manuscript and complete set of orchestral parts are preserved in the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (in Finnish: ; in Swedish: ; literal English translation: Helsinki City Orchestra; commonly abbreviated as HPO) is an orchestra based in Helsinki, Finland. Founded in 1882 by Robert Kajanus, the Philharmonic ...
collection. The copyist for these documents remains unknown; although surviving invoices indicate that two copyists Sibelius typically employed, August Österberg and Ernst Röllig, each copied the score, in July 1895 and December 1898, respectively, neither the surviving manuscript nor the orchestral parts are in the hand of either man. Most likely the documents were produced in 1901 by an unidentified copyist for the conductor
Georg Schnéevoigt
Georg Lennart Schnéevoigt (8 November 1872 – 28 November 1947) was a Finnish conductor and cellist, born in Vyborg, Grand Duchy of Finland, which is now in Russia, to Ernst Schnéevoigt and Rosa Willandt.
Career
Schnéevoigt began his ...
, who conducted the original version of the tone poem during his concert tour of
Riga.
Revision
In 1902, the Italian composer, conductor, and pianist, Ferruccio Busoni, began a series of concerts (eventually 12 in all, from 1902 to 1909) with the
Berlin Philharmonic
The Berlin Philharmonic (german: Berliner Philharmoniker, links=no, italic=no) is a German orchestra based in Berlin. It is one of the most popular, acclaimed and well-respected orchestras in the world.
History
The Berlin Philharmonic was fo ...
at the Philharmonie's Beethovensaal (Beethoven Hall). According to Della Couling, Busoni's biographer, the concerts courted controversy from the beginning: Busoni's decision to feature new, modern (largely non-German/Austrian) music in a city famous for its devotion to celebrated homegrown talent only reinforced the perception in Berlin that Busoni was a bit of a "maverick". In June, Busoni invited Sibelius, his longtime friend, to conduct ''En saga'' (he also suggested as substitutes both the
Second Symphony and the tone poem ''
The Wood Nymph'') at the beginning of November:
Sibelius seems to have countered with a choral work (possibly the recently completed
cantata ''
The Origin of Fire''), since Busoni later replied, "Unfortunately I cannot give myself up to the uncertainty and inconvenience caused by singers ... Therefore, I believe we had better stick to the 'pure' orchestra". Although Sibelius remained undecided between the Second Symphony and ''En saga'' until October, he eventually opted for the tone poem in revised form. Sibelius took the decision to revise ''En saga'' while summering in
Tvärminne (Hanko), as evidenced by a July 28 letter Axel Carpelan, Sibelius's friend and patron, wrote to his cousin after having visited the composer in Tvärminne. Nevertheless, delay ensued: Sibelius did not receive the manuscript in Tvärminne until (at least) September 24. Up against the November deadline, Sibelius raced to complete the revisions in a month, and to save time, he likely reused pages from the original manuscript that required little alteration. According to Wicklund, it is this technique that probably accounts for the fact that the autograph manuscript of the original version does not survive.
Performances
![Ferruccio Busoni (circa 1911)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/Ferruccio_Busoni_%28circa_1911%29.jpg)
The original version of the tone poem premiered on 16 February 1893 at Solemnity Hall of the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Orchestral Association; the concert program also included
Edvard Grieg's ''Peer Gynt Suite II'' and
Robert Schumann's ''
Manfred
''Manfred: A dramatic poem'' is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Gothic fiction.
Byr ...
'', as well as songs by various composers, all of which Kajanus conducted. As noted above, both Kajanus and Schnéevoigt included ''En saga'' on various subsequent concert tours.
German breakthrough
Although Sibelius had overhauled ''En saga'' expressly for the Busoni concert, the premiere of the revised version of the tone poem fell not to Berlin but to Helsinki on 2 November 1902, with Kajanus conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society; the program also included
Svendsen's Second Symphony and
Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1. While Finnish critics praised ''En saga'', there was a palpable sense the Helsinki concert was merely a dress rehearsal for the big Berlin unveiling. The Berlin concert was indeed an important event for Sibelius: not only would it mark just the second time he had conducted abroad, but it would also give him the opportunity to present personally his art to a discerning Central European audience. Finnish critics sought to buoy Sibelius by writing that, in their opinion, ''En saga'' was worthy of performance abroad, while the Finnish newspapers promoted the forthcoming concert heavily. A few days later, the stakes became even clearer: the Berlin critics savaged the first of Busoni's concerts on 8 November, the program of which included selections from
Edward Elgar's ''
The Dream of Gerontius
''The Dream of Gerontius'', Op. 38, is a work for voices and orchestra in two parts composed by Edward Elgar in 1900, to text from the poem by John Henry Newman. It relates the journey of a pious man's soul from his deathbed to his judgment b ...
'', the Overture to
Camille Saint-Saëns's opera ''Les Barbares'', and
Christian Sinding's ''Rondo Infinito''.
This was the environment into which Sibelius stepped as second on Busoni's 15 November program, which also included
Frederick Delius's orchestral nocturne ''Paris'',
Théophile Ysaÿe's Piano Concerto, and
Ödön Mihalovich's ballad ''The Death of Pan'' ("my fellow competitors", as Sibelius referred to them in a 12–13 November letter to his wife,
Aino). Sibelius was under constant stress: during the journey to Germany, he labored over the orchestral parts, many of which contained copy errors; upon arrival, he fumed over being second on the program and was annoyed that the promised rehearsals had both been scheduled for 13 November. Nevertheless, the rehearsals went well and the players reacted favorably to the tone poem: as Sibelius told Aino, "It is so beautiful... Busoni even embraced me".
![Berlin-Kreuzberg Postkarte 067 cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Berlin-Kreuzberg_Postkarte_067_cropped.jpg)
The Berlin critics' reaction to the second concert, however, was hostile. Otto Lessmann of ''Allgemeine Musik-Zeitung'' described the performance as "painful", noting acerbically, "If steps forward in art should be illustrated in such works, the muse would viel her head"; while, Rudolph Buck opined in ''Berliner Neueste Nachrichten'', "After the complete fiasco of the second concert, the announcement that these orchestral concerts would be continued in the autumn of 1903 sounded little short of blasphemous". Nonetheless, it appears as though Sibelius emerged more or less unscathed; indeed, the consensus opinion was that ''En saga'' was "the only valuable work" on the program. The positive reviews in the wake of the concert clearly lifted Sibelius's spirits. Following the concert, a confident Sibelius recounted for his wife the quality of both his art and his conducting:
As
Tawaststjerna notes, thanks to ''En saga'', at last the "ice had been broken for Sibelius in Germany", a success for which he had long hoped. Sibelius celebrated as Busoni's guest at a "lavish" dinner party.
Instrumentation
![Akseli Gallen-Kallela - Sibelius as the Composer of En saga](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/Akseli_Gallen-Kallela_-_Sibelius_as_the_Composer_of_En_saga.jpg)
''En saga'' is scored for the following instruments:
*
Woodwind
Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and re ...
: 2
flutes (2nd doubling
piccolo), 2
oboe
The oboe ( ) is a type of double reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common oboe plays in the treble or soprano range.
...
s, 2
clarinets (in B), 2
bassoons
*
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
: 4
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
s (in F), 3
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
s (in F), 3
trombone
The trombone (german: Posaune, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate ...
s,
tuba
The tuba (; ) is the lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece. It first appeared in the mid-19th century, making it one of the ne ...
*
Percussion
A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
:
bass drum,
cymbals,
triangle
A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC.
In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...
*
Strings:
violin
The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...
s,
viola
; german: Bratsche
, alt=Viola shown from the front and the side
, image=Bratsche.jpg
, caption=
, background=string
, hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71
, hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow
, range=
, related=
*Violin family ...
s,
cello
The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...
s,
double bass
The double bass (), also known simply as the bass () (or by other names), is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed (or plucked) string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra (excluding unorthodox additions such as the octobass). Similar i ...
es
Arrangement for septet
The creative origins of ''En saga'' remain somewhat uncertain, although Sibelius's statements to Ekman and Furuhjelm indicate the piece may have evolved from sketches for a septet or octet the composer had begun in 1890–91. To date, however, researchers have been unable to recover the pre-''En saga'' chamber piece, either as a completed manuscript or unfinished sketches (again, if such a composition ever existed). Gregory Barrett, professor of clarinet at the
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University (NIU) is a public research university in DeKalb, Illinois. It was founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895, by Illinois Governor John P. Altgeld as part of an expansion of the state's system ...
School of Music, has nonetheless sought to reclaim this (purported) "lost chamber masterpiece", arranging in 2003 the original 1892 orchestral tone poem for flute, clarinet, two violins, viola, cello, and string bass.
Contemporary accounts that describe the Barrett septet as a "reconstruction" are inaccurate; because Sibelius's 1890–91 sketches do not survive, there is no way to know how similar Sibelius's own chamber piece was to the first orchestral version of ''En saga'' and, by extension, to Barrett's chamber arrangement. It is for this reason that the Barrett septet is not included on the 13-volum
BIS Complete Sibelius Edition a 2007–11 project billed as having recorded every note Sibelius ever penned.
On 14 June 2003, six musicians from the Lahti Symphony Orchestra joined Barrett (on clarinet) to premiere the septet at the Brahmssaal (Brahms Hall) of the
Musikverein in
Vienna
en, Viennese
, iso_code = AT-9
, registration_plate = W
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code =
, timezone = CET
, utc_offset = +1
, timezone_DST ...
, the city where Sibelius claimed to have composed his own (lost) pre-''En saga'' septet/octet; the Austrian-Finnish Friendship Society sponsored the performance, while the Finnish Embassy hosted a reception after the concert. The Barrett septet was first recorded in May 2008 at the Sigyn Hall in
Turku
Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a city and former capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River, in the region of Finland Proper (''Varsinais-Suomi'') and the former Turku and Pori Province (''Turun ja Porin lääni''; ...
, Finland, by the Turku Ensemble and released on 12 July 2011 by Pilfink Records. Many reviews note the conspicuous absence of the tone poem's brass and percussion, although one of the performers, flautist Ilari Lehtinen, has argued the septet compensates by making "the intimate aspects of the work sound more personal and more heart-rending". Writing for ''
Fanfare'', Steven Ritter has praised the septet as "remarkable", noting that although "acute listeners will miss the brass and all the pomp and beauty of orchestral majesty that we associate with Sibelius", Barrett's arrangement "has much to offer and loses little atmosphere". Carl Bauman, writing for the ''
American Record Guide
The ''American Record Guide'' (''ARG'') is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935.
History and profile
The magazine was founded by Peter Hugh Reed in May 1935 as the ''American Music Lover''. It chang ...
'', on the other hand, has argued the musical material "doesn’t fare nearly as well here as it does in its orchestration".
Discography
''En saga'' is one of Sibelius's more commonly recorded tone poems, although it trails more famous compositions such as ''
The Swan of Tuonela
''The Swan of Tuonela'' (') is an 1895 tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It is part of the '' (Four Legends from the Kalevala)'', Op. 22, based on the Finnish mythological epic the ''Kalevala''.
''The Swan of Tuonela'' was orig ...
'' and ''
Finlandia
''Finlandia'', Op. 26, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in 1899 and revised in 1900. The piece was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian ...
''. The first recording was made in 1938 with
Sir Thomas Beecham
Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet, CH (29 April 18798 March 1961) was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with th ...
conducting the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's Hall Orc ...
. To date, the only recording of the original 1892 version (22:23) is by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under the BIS label
BIS-CD-800; it was recorded in May 1995 and appears on the album with the original 1915 version of the Fifth Symphony. The album premiered to considerable acclaim. ''
Gramophone's'' James McCarthy characterized the record as perspective-changing, noting that the original versions of the pieces provided "fascinating material for comparison" and allowed "a glimpse of two familiar masterpieces in the making". Kurt Moses, writing in the ''
American Record Guide
The ''American Record Guide'' (''ARG'') is a classical music magazine. It has reviewed classical music recordings since 1935.
History and profile
The magazine was founded by Peter Hugh Reed in May 1935 as the ''American Music Lover''. It chang ...
'', similarly commended the record for providing "rare insight into a composer's creative process", but cautioned that "while Sibelius enthusiasts will love it
... this is not a 'must buy' for everyone ...
ndis not a substitute for ... the final versions of these works".
Notes, references, and sources
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Saga, En
Symphonic poems by Jean Sibelius
1892 compositions
1902 compositions