The Oceanides, Op.73

Most of Sibelius’s symphonic poems are based on episodes in the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. The last-but-one in the series, Oceanides, which was written for an American rather than a Finnish audience, is different. It takes its title from the the Oceanides of ancient Greek mythology, the nymphs of the ocean. Although the work was originally called Rondo of the Waves and was conceived as a seascape rather than as a portrait of the daughters of Oceanus and Tethys, it is not too fanciful to imagine the ocean nymphs frolicking in the waves on the playful entry of the two flutes shortly after the opening bars, where they add their voices to the gently rocking violins and the deep undertow of the timpani and lower strngs.

Whatever images the composer had in mind here, the early events in the score - not only the dancing flutes but also the rustling strings, a plaintive melody for oboe and clarinet and an echoing two-note call on oboe and cor anglais - are of lasting importance. Much of the rest of the work derives from them. The overall construction takes the form of a huge wave which, though it is occasionally becalmed, gathers in strength as it approaches a storm-driven climax. The rougher the sea, the less is heard of the dancing flutes which are eventually swallowed by the waves. But the more serious material remains afloat, above all the two-note call which is taken up by heavy brass and, with the strength of a gale-force wind, provokes a superbly orchestrated display of elemental power. The storm passes and calm is restored among reflective memories of woodwind melody from near the beginning of the work.

Oceanides was commissioned by a rich American patron of the arts, Carl Stoeckel, for performance at the music festival he ran on his estate at Norfolk, Connecticut, in June 1914. Sibelius had to write three versions of the score before he was happy with it, and he was still revising it during the rehearsals, but his efforts were well rewarded - not so much by the $1,000 commission fee together with the $1,200 dollars he was paid for conducting the first performance or even by the quality of the orchestra Stoeckel had assembled for him (“it surpasses anything we have in Europe”) as by his satisfaction with the work itself. “I seem to be finding myself more and more…There are moments in it that send me almost crazy,” he wrote to his wife from Norfolk in 1914 and, although the influence of Debussy’s La Mer is undeniable, it remained one of his favourite compositions.

Rupert Avis ©2005