Syksky-sarja Op.68 (1919–26)

Syksy

Lähtö

Luulit, ma katselin sua

Ilta

Lntu sininen

Ijät hyrskyjä päin

Though a great Finnish song-composer, Sibelius was not a great composer of Finnish song. Of all his songs, not far short of ninety are in Swedish, which was his first language, and only a handful are in Finnish. So, while he dominated most of areas of Finnish music in the early years of the twentieth century, it was his younger contemporaries – not least his pupils Toivo Kuula and Leevi Madetoja – who were responsible for the early development of the Finnish song repertoire. Sadly, following a shooting incident in Helsinki at the end of the Finish Civil War, Kuula died before he was able to fulfill his potential – although, of the more than twenty songs he did write, a high proportion are still popular items in the repertoire. Madetoja lived not far short of twice as long and produced three times as many songs.

Madetoja’s favourite poet was Hilja Onerva Lehtinen, who wrote under the name of L.Onerva and who became his wife in 1913. The first of his 21 Onerva settings, the Five Songs Op.9 of 1911, include the rapturous spring-time Tule kanssani (Take my hand) which is one of the most inspired of Finnish songs. There is nothing like Tule kanssani, from early on in their relationshiip, in the Syksy (Autumn) cycle, which was written during the course of a chaotic marriage. The music itself, however, which is composed with the sophisticated technique and emotional discretion characteristic of Madetoja, is anything but chaotic.

While it is not always easy to determine the state of Orneva’s mind from the words alone, the precise settings invariably clarify it. The ostinato figures rolling through the piano part of the opening Syksy – alluding perhaps to the flying leaves, blowing winds and succeeding seasons – are stilled on only one line, where cold tears are reflected in dramatically icy chords. The chordal texture is resumed for the loneliness of Lähtö, to be replaced by an echo of the ostinato only with the implied activity at the beginning of the second stanza. The lyrical line of Luulit, ma katselin sua, on the other hand, is lovingly expressive, even if the joy remembered at the end of each stanza is now a matter for nostalgia. The modal harmonies and wide keyboard spaces of Ilta are a cold contrast to both the preceding Luulit and the following similarly economical but tender Lintu sininen. Most passionate of all, Ijät hyrskyjä päin is driven by a whirring piano ostinato, its desperate urgency offset by a static passage of monotone recitative before flight is resumed in the last stanza and finally brought to a halt.