Tapiola, tone poem, Op.112

By the time he wrote Tapiola, his last major work, Sibelius was so well versed in the poetry of Finnish mythology that he didn’t need to turn to the Kalevala or the Kantelatar for inspiration. He could write it himself:

Wide-spread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests

Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams

Within them dwells the Forest’s mighty god,

And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.

These lines stand at the head of the score of Tapiola, a work dedicated to Finland’s forests, the realm of the great god Tapio. It is all one needs to know of the poetic background to the work - if, indeed, one needs to know any background at all. It is an absolutely coherent construction with all the melodic material in it derived with masterly thoroughness from the short motif firmly shaped by first violins in the opening bars.

Perhaps it adds something to the experience to associate the line “Wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets” with the very lightly scored, rapidly articulated scherzando section towards the middle of the work. Flutters of woodwind sound (one of them in Debussyan whole tones) pass through the orchestral texture like wind through the trees. Twice there is a short but crushing assertion of strength by the whole brass section, which could be an image of the “Forest’s mighty god” himself. On the other hand, it might not.

Whatever the poetic conjecture, the structural facts remain the same. There is a comparatively long introduction which so memorably fixes the main theme in the consciousness that Sibelius has no need to present it again in its original form. The first main section begins with a woodwind chorale - later to be varied and fragmented - against a delicately coloured ostinato background on the strings. Then there is the scherzo section, followed by a transition into a passage of string counterpoint which is bustled out of its timeless serenity by a change of tempo and the most dramatic succession of events in the whole work. The chorale section is recalled, other ideas are briefly echoed or developed, and the serenity is finally re-established.

Commissioned by Walter Damrosch for the new York Symphony Society, Tapiola is dedicated to Damrosch and was first performed under his direction in New York in December 1926. It was first heard in Finland four months later.

Rupert Avis

Tapiola, tone poem, Op.112

By the time he wrote Tapiola, his last major work, Sibelius was so well versed in the poetry of Finnish mythology that he didn’t need to turn to the Kalevala or the Kantelatar for inspiration. He could write it himself:

Wide-spread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests

Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams

Within them dwells the Forest’s mighty god,

And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.

These lines stand at the head of the score of Tapiola, a work dedicated to Finland’s forests, the realm of the great god Tapio. It is all one needs to know of the poetic background to the work - if, indeed, one needs to know any background at all. It is an absolutely coherent construction with all the melodic material in it derived with masterly thoroughness from the short motif firmly shaped by first violins in the opening bars.

Perhaps it adds something to the experience to associate the line “Wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets” with the very lightly scored, rapidly articulated scherzando section towards the middle of the work. Flutters of woodwind sound (one of them in Debussyan whole tones) pass through the orchestral texture like wind through the trees. Twice there is a short but crushing assertion of strength by the whole brass section, which could be an image of the “Forest’s mighty god” himself. On the other hand, it might not.

Whatever the poetic conjecture, the structural facts remain the same. There is a comparatively long introduction which so memorably fixes the main the the consciousness that Sibelius has no need to present it again in its original form. The first main section begins with a woodwind chorale - later to be varied and fragmented - against a delicately coloured ostinato background on the strings. There there is the scherzo section, followed by a transition into a passage of string counterpoint which is bustled out of its timeless serenity by a change of tempo and the most dramatic succession of events in the whole work. The chorale section is recalled, other ideas are briefly echoed or developed, and the serenity is finally re-established.

Commissioned by Walter Damrosch for the new York Symphony Society, Tapiola is dedicated to Damrosch and was first performed under his direction in New York in December 1926. It was first heard in Finland four months later.

Rupert Avis