Five Christmas Songs Op.1

Nu står jul snöig port (1895)

Nu så kommer julen (1895)

Det mörknar ute (1895)

Giv mig ej glans, ej guid, ej prakt (1909)

On hanget korkeat, nietokset (1901)

The fourth of Sibelius’s Five Christmas Songs, Giv mig ej glans, ej guid, ej prakt, is one of Finland’s favourite Christmas carols, and On hanget korkeat, nietokset is not far behind it in popularity. Although they are the two latest in the set, they are scarcely more sophisticated than the other three: all five songs are written in a simple strophic form with plain harmonies and a modest, often harmonium-like accompaniment. The piano part of Giv mig ej glans, ej guid, ej prakt, with its short introduction and postlude, is marginally more ambitious than that of the others but the appeal of all these song is in unpretentious melodic lines which so sincerely reflect the innocent sentiment of the texts. Conceived as separate items, four of them to the Swedish of Zachris Topelius and the last of them to the Finnish of Wikku Joukahainen, the songs were collected together in 1913 and published as (for no good chronological reason) Op.1, apparently in preparation for the composer’s forthcoming trip to the United States.