5 Songs

Den första kyssen Op.37 No.1 (1900)

Var det en dröm? Op.37, No.4 (1902)

Våren flyktar hastigt Op.13 No.4 (1891)

Säv, säv susa Op36 No.4 (1890)

Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte Op.37 No.5 (1901)

Sibelius’s first language, like that of many Finns of his generation, was Swedish. Although he started learning Finnish when he went to school at the age of eight and although the rhythms of the Kalevala echo unmistakably through much of his instrumental music, as a song composer he was far happier with Swedish poetry than with Finnish. Indeed, he wrote only five songs in Finnish and not far short of ninety in Swedish - many of them settings of poems by a Swede-Finn of an earlier generation, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is clear from the opening of the Runeberg setting Den första kyssen that Swedish verse translated easily into melodic terms for Sibelius. The lyrical simplicity of the Swedish romans was not for him, however, as the changes of vocal colour, the emphatic piano entries and the harmonically tortured last line of the same song demonstrate. Var det en dröm? flows more uniformly on its initial impulse until the change of harmony introduced in the third stanza to heighten the effect of the impassioned return of the opening material. With its witty characterisation, Våren flyktar hastigt, the second Runeberg setting in this group, is one of the more subtle of Sibelius’s songs, while Säv, säv, susa with its tragically expressive middle section is one of the saddest. Developing in style from from romans to opera by way of a chilling change of harmony in the third stanza, Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte is an outstandingly dramatic inspiration.

Våren flyktar hastigt Op.13 No.4 (1891)

En slända Op. 17 No. 5 (1904)

Illalle Op. 17 No. 6 (1898)

Vänskapens blomma Op. 57 No. 7 (1909)

Den första kyssen Op.37 No.1 (1900)

Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte Op.37 No.5 (1901)

Sibelius’s first language, like that of many Finns of his generation, was Swedish. Although he started learning Finnish when he went to school at the age of eight and although the rhythms of the Kalevala echo unmistakably through much of his instrumental music, as a song composer he was far happier with Swedish poetry than with Finnish. Indeed, he wrote only five songs in Finnish and not far short of ninety in Swedish, many of them settings of poems by a Swede-Finn of an earlier generation, Johan Ludvig Runeberg. It is clear from one of the earliest of the Runeberg setting Våren flyktar hastigt that his verse translated easily into melodic terms for Sibelius - whose characterisation, incidentally, is even more imaginative in the orchestral version he made 24 years later. There is also an orchestral version of En slända, although just about all the interest of the song is in the extraordinarily liberated, largely unaccompanied vocal line.

The Finnish words of Illalle, from the same set as En slända, induced a quite different kind of vocal rhythm, and to such thrilling effect that it seems a pity that Sibelius turned to Finnish so rarely - even if it had meant less time to devote to such Swedish verse as Vänskapens blomma, the staunch sentiment of which is so faithfully reflected in the Op.57 Josephson set. Den första kyssen, on the other hand, is a characteristic Runeberg setting in the melodic line derived so naturally from the first line and the expressive variety secured by its broad contrasts in vocal colour, its emphatic piano entries and its harmonically tortured last line. Developing in style from from romans to opera by way of a chilling change of harmony in the third stanza, the other Runeberg song in Op.37, Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte, is an outstandingly dramatic inspiration.

The Finnish words of Illalle, from the same set as En slända, induced a quite different kind of vocal rhythm, and to such thrilling effect that it seems a pity that Sibelius turned to Finnish so rarely - even if it had meant less time to devote to such Swedish verse as

Illalle Op. 17 No. 6 (1898)

Var det en dröm? Op.37 No.4 (1902)

Demanten på marssnön Op.36 No.6 (1900)

Våren flyktar hastigt Op.13 No.4 (1891)

Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte Op.37 No.5 (1901)

Sibelius’s first language, like that of many Finns of his generation, was Swedish. Although he started learning Finnish when he went to school at the age of eight and although the rhythms of the Kalevala echo unmistakably through much of his instrumental music, as a song composer he was far happier with Swedish poetry than with Finnish. Indeed, he wrote only five songs in Finnish and not far short of ninety in Swedish, many of them settings of poems by a Swede-Finn of an earlier generation, Johan Ludvig Runeberg.

Two of the Finnish songs, Illalle and Lastu lainehilla, were published along with settings of Swedish texts by Runeberg and Tavaststjerna in a comparatively early collection, the Seven Songs Op.17. Written for the poet’s fiancée Ilta Bergroth, whose first name means “evening”, Koskimies’s Illalle inspired in Sibelius a quite different kind of vocal rhythm, and to such thrilling effect that it seems a pity that he turned to Finnish so rarely – even if it had meant less time to devote to such Swedish verse as Wecksell’s Var det en dröm? “Here you have my most beautiful song,” said Sibelius when he presented the manuscript of Var det en dröm to his favourite soprano Ida Ekman in 1902. Certainly, although he had more than twenty years of composing life still to go, he wrote no song more thrilling than this, the rhythmic impulse of which is so judiciously suspended by a change of pace before the impassioned return of the opening material at the end. There are two more Wecksell settings in the Six Songs Op.36, the sparkling March-snow imagery common to both of them finding an appropriate reflection in the piano part of Demanten på marsnön.

It is clear from one of the earliest of the Runeberg settings, Våren flyktar hastigt, that his verse translated easily into melodic terms for Sibelius – whose characterisation here, incidentally, is even more imaginative in the orchestral version he made 24 years later. The last song in this group, Flickan kom ifrån sin älsklings möte, is a particularly impressive illustration of the inspiration the composer found in Runeberg’s verse: the ballad style of the first two stanzas is perfectly matched in a setting that hints at the truth of the situation from the piano’s passionate opening bars; the explicit reversal of fortune in the third stanza is registered by chilling changes in harmony and keyboard figuration; the closing account of the events leading up to it is reflected in an even more passionate recall of the opening.