THE REST Is LISTENING TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURYtitle fom some lines in A Midbinmer Nights Dram, and they nicely sum tp Elington’ aesthetic never heard /So mae! a cond, such sweet thunder! Tn the 1967 eleviion documentary On the Roa wth Duke Elgin, {Ge geand old man ofjacz was asked why he sil oured the couney with his band, Siting inthe ack ofa imousine on the way tothe next date ington replied: “Anyone who writes music har goe to hear hi mate "There used co be days years ago when people would come out of| Conservatory, aier inciting the grester part of eis lives, maybe fen yeas ad any times more, and... mastered all the devices of the mat {ers and they've writen symphonies, concerto, shapsodes, and never got to hear cher.” When he sid tis Elington might have been thinking of Will Marion Cook, or of Wall Vodery, oF ofthe “ex-colored” compose Maurice Araol, or of any ofthe other invisible men. Cook dreamed of 2 “blick Beethoven”; Eligton carved out his own beand of eminence, redefining composition ae a colecve art. Carnepie Hall was a hoot, but he didnt need i ‘Once, when the crite Winthrop Sangean expressed the hope that jaz compouct night rte elaical eminence, dhe Duk sued «gent dev= ating poste saying in esence, thanks But no Ehanks: "Twas struc By Me. Sargeant} concladig statement, that given a chance to study, the [Negro will soon turn from boogie woogie to Beethoven. Maybe s0, but ‘what a sham 1ON FROM THE WOODS The Lonelin n Sibelius of Composing dtc business, “Desperately dics” say the devil ia ar Fest, Is laborious taverl ofan imaginary landscape, What emerges isan artwork in code, which other miscans must be persuaded to uneavel, Unlike a novel or a psnting, «sore gives up fall meaning, only when i it performed in font af an audience ic isa child ofloel- new that lives of etowds. Nameless teeots ceep into te limbo berween composition and performance, during which the score sts mutely on the desk. Hans Pfitence drmtized that moment of panie and doubt in Palins, bis “mosical legend” about the He ofthe laan Renaisance composer, The charcter of Paleurina speaks for colleges across he centuries when he sope his work to cry, "What isthe poine of al eis? deh wha i for? Wht i” ‘Jean Sibelius may have aed that question once too ofen. The exss point of hi carer arrived inthe lae 1920s and eh ealy "3s, when he wa Being lonized as 3 new Beethoven in England and America and di mised ssa kitch composer inthe tase-muking Avsto-German msc center The contrat i the reception of his musie matched the manic~ deprasive extremes of his penonalty—an alcoholic oscillrion between ‘gindiouty and selosthing. Sometimes he beloved that he was in d ect communication with che Almighty—'For an instant God opens his188 THE REST Is NOISE. door” he wrote in a leer, “and His orchesta phys the Fifth Syme phomy——and sometimes he fle worthless. a 1927, when he was sity- fone years od he wrote in his dir, "Iolaton and loneles are driving me to despair... In order to survive Ihave to have alcohol». = At buted lone nd ll ny rel fiend are dead. My prestige here at pee cars rock-bouom. Impossible to work, only there were away ott Selusspen the ln part of his if a Aina,» rastc house ouside Hebink, Fink On his desk for many yeas by the Bight Symphony. ‘which promised to be his summary maserpiece. He had been working ‘om since 1924, and had indicated several ines tha it was almost eeady fr performance. A copyist transcribed eweny-thee pages of the score, and aa later date Sibelius publisher may have bound the maawerpt in 1 set of seven volume There were reportedly pars for chorus, a in Beethoven’ Ninth. But the Eighth never sw the light of day The com oter finally gave in ro the seduction of despair “I suppote one hence forth takes me a¢—yesI—a "it accompli” he wrote in 1943, “Lifes oon ‘over. Others will come and surpass me in the eyes ofthe woe, We ae fixed to die forgotten. I mus tar economiing [tea go on like this” ‘Aino Sites, dhe compote’ wile, for whom che howe was named recalled what happened next: "Inthe 1940s there wat a great aa da at ‘Ainola. My husband collected 2 number of manssrits in 4 lundy bas Jet and burned them on the open fre in the dining room. Pats ofthe Karla Suite were desoyed Iter eae semis of the pages which had been torn out—and many othe things. {didnot have the stent to be present and left the room. I therefore dono know what he thew on to the ire. Bu ae ht my husband besameealmer and gradually lighter in aod” ‘Alnola sands mac 2 Sibelis left i, The atmosphere ofthe hows s hesey and musty, af the composer sii were sl pent up inside. But You get diferent feeling when you walk int the ors that stretches out ‘on one side ofthe howe, The tects meetin an endles curving canopy tendeils of sunlight dangling down, The ground is uncatered: many pts fork among the runks. Venering aie farther into the wood, you Jose sight ofall human habaton. profound anes descends, The light begins tol, dhe mists rll in, After while, you may begin to won- der if you wil ever find your way back, Many times in Silas mic APPARITION FROM THE WOODS 50 the exaltation of natal sublimiey gives way to inchoate fess, which has les todo with dhe outer landscape than withthe inner ene, the forest oF ‘he mind In his 1999 esay collection Testaments Benaye, Milan Kundera anato- mites the more petphenl of dhe Eeropean cults, taking his native (Czechoslovakia 2 specimen, “The small nations form another Europe!” the novels writes. "An abserer con be fined by the oft asonith- ing intensiy of thei coeur ie. Ths the advantage of smn: the ‘wealth in ultra events ¢om a “human scale’; everyone an encompass wealth” Kunde wares, however, tha he finial fling ean farm tense and constricting a « moments notice, “Within tha warm inc nary” hey, “each envies ich, everyone watches everyone” Ifan att ignores the rales, he ejetion can be crcl, the lnelines crashing. Even ‘hove eho rise ro fie may experience elation a the sammit—she bu den of being 3 mations her. Eich ofthe “small nstiont"—a eategory into which Wester Buro- pean music experts have fended to dipote ot only Seandinavian and Easeen European countries but ako Great Briain, Gemetly known to Germans asthe “land without mosie"—had i retinue of laeally famous composers. A few of them broke out to wider renowen, becoming san= dar-bearecs of patioic feeling. Edvid Grieg, inthe lve nineteen century, wrote che “song of Norway” Karol Seyinanowski exablihed a Polish modernist endency. Edward Elgar, Gutsy Holt, Ralph Vaughan Willams, Arold Bax, and Wiliam Walton built up a modern British repercory just as the glory of empite wat fading. And Cael Nien, in Denmark, wrested music of brilliance and violence fom soul hewn folk meloties. Sibel, the great compter ofthe smal nation of Fila, see the pace for many other, not omly becute he forged val ration ship with his nave Ind bue Because he suceeded in amping his wn ice on seemingly worn-out, aniquated symphonic forms. Both Bax tnd Vaughan Willams revered the Finnith mister and dedicated works to im; Walton opened his Fis Syznphoey with nod to Sibelius Fh ‘Aste twentieth century rumbled on, composers with tong national ties were haunted by Felings of obsolescence. Many twenteth-centarysymphony, concertos, oratoros, and chamber works of the so-called conservative type were eich in lamentations fora lout world, legis for the golden ag, foreboding of dinster. Some found it dial e keep writing lg, who ded in 193, fled to fnith another large-xcle piece Mier his supremely elegiae Cello Concerto of 1918-19, and Rachmani~ not, whom Tehakovsky had anointed his her apparent, produced only five major wotks fom 1917 un his death in 1943, fe! like 2 ghost wandering ina world grown alien” Rachmaninow ‘wrote in 1939, “I cannot cat out the od way of writing, and I canno®3c= gue the new U have made intense effort to fel the used manner of today, but it will not come tae, Unlike Madame Burertiy with ber {sick sigious conversions—this ie presomabiy Senvimky—"t cannot ‘stout my mil gods a moment and bend she knee wo new ones” Sibel leche sae pang of lo. “Not everyone can be an ‘innovating ipenius” he woote one day in his ary. “Asa personaley and ‘eine Enc tug ans den Wilden’ lappaiion fom the woods) you will ave your seul, nodes place ‘And yee dhe so-called regional composer>—for whom Sibelns speaks fn this book at sepreseneative—left behind an imposing body of work, hich is itera to the century as a Whole. Their music may lck the ‘anguaed credentials of Schoenberg or Suavinsk, atleast on the surfice, but some wots fom Nien book Lit Mic make 2 good counter sngunent "The simplest dhe hards, dhe universal dhe mest lsting, the tightest the aonges, ike ehe pil that suppor the dome” Precisely cae these comporerscomminicaed genera feelings of mourning for 2 prosechnogical pat, or, more simply, yearning for vanubed youth, they remained acutely relevant for «broad public Mainsweam audiaces may lag bebind the intelectual cls in ape citing the more adventirous composer, bu sometimes they ae quicker to perecve the value of music thatthe politicians of syle fl to compre- herd Nicole Slonimhy once pu gether 3 delights book tiled Lex con of Musil Ina, ahologizing wrongheaded music crisis in whic now canonical maierpieces were compared ro fine caterwaulng, tuenyard notes, ands0 on, Slonimmky should sho have writen 3 Leon of Muss! Condocesion, gathering high-minded esys in which now Canonical masterpieces were dismissed as kisch, with 2 long section re- served for Sibi ‘Born in 1965, Sibelius wit not metely the most famous composer Fin= land ever prodaced but the country chief celebrity in any field. He plyed a symbolic bur active role in the drive towa Finnish indepen dence, which wae finaly achieved in 1917, Asked to charsceeize thee cake, Fina imvarisbly mension, alongside mich national cases the Fbkeside sina, Fuku scisor, and the Nokia cellular phone, “oor Sibelius” Before the advent of the eum, Shelve moumensal head traced every hundred-maka banknote. Mow because of him, cic ‘musi hat retained a ena oe in modern Finnish culere. The country’ goverement inves enormous ri in orchestras, opera house, new ‘musi programs, and msi schools. The anual Finish expendiare on the ars s roughly two hundred tne per capita what the USS. govern= ‘ment spends on the National Endowment forthe Ar. Ina certs sense, Finns are stranger inthe Europese family. Belong- ing to the Fino-Ugeian category, they speak a langnage lrgelynelized to the Indo-European group, For centres they were governed by the ingdom of Sweden; then, is 1809, they became 2 semi-autonomous and duchy of ait Rusia, la the ae nineteenth century, he Swedish Influence remained stong, with 3 minority of Swedish speakers forming. the upper crst of scien Sibelius belonged 2 this Swe ete is fx ther spoke no Finnish, and he himself eared it ata second language. Ye, like many of his generation, heavily joined inthe independence cam- aig, whose coral appara Blended traces of ancien il seal with inented mythologies in she Romnsc vein. The nationale movement became more urgene afer Tar Nicholas It introduced measures designed te suppress Finland autonomy “The national legends of Finkind ae contained i che Kells, a poetic ple compiled in 1935 by a country doctor named Elis Lanne, Cantos 31 rough 36 ofthe Kelwale ell of the Bloodthiney young fighter Kuler, ‘who “could not grap ings / not aequite the mind af a man” Whale callcting ese for hi father, Kullevo has his way witha young woman ‘who suns out ro be hit sister. She commits suicide, he goes aff to war ‘One day he finds hin again in the forse where che rape occurred, and strikes up a conversation with his sword, aking it what kind of blood i Wises eo este The sword demands the Blood ofa uiky man instead oF182 THE REST IS NOISE an innocent one, whereupon Kullervo rams his body on the bade. In 1891 and 189, Sibi wed thie rather dal ale as the bass fo his ine major work, Killono, an cighty-minate symphonic drama for men's cho- rs solo, anid orcas ‘Kale anticipates te fll ream of Soavinsky and Bart in vay it heeds the rhythm and tone of 2 Kawa reciation, In 189, shortly aifer completing sw yens of study in Berlin and Vienna Sibelia eaveled {o the old town of Borvoo to hea ric songs chanted by the folisinge Lain Parake, The Finnish epic has a mtr all sown: each line contains four main trochaie beats, but vowels ae ofen stretched out for dramatic cffect, 40 that each line hat ise own pattern. Instead of smoothing ovt the poetry into a fouriuareeythm, Sibelius bent his msc language in sympsthee respon, In the senting of the passe below—Som, “Keller and His Sie" the thd movement of Kallewo—the orchescea maintains a pate of five bess in 2 hae while the chorus elongates is Tiesto phates of Ficen ten, eight, and rele beats, respectively Kulens, Kaew pike, Kallervo, Kaleo’ ofpring, Sins dijn lap, With he very Her stockings toons btn, Koes, And with yellow bai the Best eng kos howwkainen And with shoes of finest leather “The harmony, meanobile, die sway fom major and minor-key tonal iy. The runic melas, with chords that le Benes chem at omens, the accompaniment amounts heir overlapping mode, rine around he co a romblingchste, masing together of the avilable melodic tones Kullino had a decisively sccenfil fist performance in Hekinki in 1892. For the remainder ofthe decade, Sibelios worked msiniy ia the tone-poem ene, consoidasing his fame with such works a En Sige, The Suan of Tune (pare ofthe symphosie Lonmin Suite), the Karls Site, ane Feld, Sibelis’ mastery ofthe orchestra, steady ‘obvious in Killeny, became prodigious. The Suwon of Taenl, which was, inially conceived st the overtre to an unfinished Kalewle oper, begins With che mirge-like sound of Acminor string chords blended one into the next over a span of four octave, Sibel early works, ke contem- poraneous work! of Suaus, obey a kind of cinematic Jogi that places, Ginpante images in. clove. proximity But where Suaus—and later APPARITION FROW THE WOODS 12 Sravinsky—ued rapid cus, Sibelius prefered to work in long takes Sibel fnised hist to smphonis in 4899 and 1902, espectively a the suc, hese were typical onthe deamas ofthe etic soul, ak ‘though Sibelss habit of besking down themes into murmuring eur sounded ange so many eat iene, Finns sickly appropriated the Sec fond at an emblem of nasonal Ubeaon; the conductor Robert Kanes hod ini the mont broken-hearted protest against all dhe injustice eat theta the pesen time” together with “content prospec for the fk ture” In other words, the symphony wat undestood a a gear of defiance in the face of theta: Although Sibi rejected hi izerpretation, images of Finnish sroggle may wel hive played 3 role in his thinking In the frle ofthe Second slowly craving, rhingand-Glling puter in the wor and cellos show 4 disinct ikenes 10 a figure in the second scene of Mus soggy Bos Gafunor—the scene in which Pimen the monk records the ‘ins of Tar Bors ‘At a cine when verbal declarations of national feling were censored by sarist versote—at one performance Finland had co be presented lander the te Imprmptr—the Second served s the focus of eandestine prtriote demonstrations. Ie was his cof polticaly ‘charged swentith-censary works; secret programs woul, of couse, later be tached to Shorskovich symphonies [No sock menages were detected in Sibelius ocher “bie score of| the period, the brilliantly moody Violin Concerto and the aflectingly maudlin Vale st, bu hey cemented bis international repucon and fi a therefore increased his stature at home. Ie was around tht sme eat Sibelue aleoholim became an isue. He would fortify himseif with liquor before condacting engagement nd afterward diappent for days. A widely discussed printing bythe Finish artist Akselt Gallen-Kalels, The Probie, showed Sibelius in che middle of a drinking bout with ends, his eyes rolled back in is head. Although the composer was now sup- ported by a sate pension, he ran op lange debe, He was sho beset by il rneses, some real and some imagined, Cracks were appearing in the foeade tht “Pink's hero” prevented 29 Be word In 1908 Sibelius tried to escape the mleplying emburasments of his Hekink lieuyle by moving with his family to Aino. There he set so86 TE REST 15 MOISE ‘work on his Third Symphony, which was incl kind of mascal eespe In contrast to the muscular chetore of Kalle and the frat cw0 aye phonies, the Thi speaks in a selconsciously cleus, pure Lnguage. At the sme time, it 2 ruined decontmacton of symphonic form. The final movemen begin 32 quicker Scherzo, butt amos impercep Dy eves ito a marchlke finale: the lstener may have the feling ofthe ground sifing underfoot Te was in the wake of composing this terse, clusve work chat Sibelius ot into a debate with Gusav Mahler on the nature of the symphons. Mahler came to Helsinki in 1907 to condac some concerts, and Sibelius presented his tet ideas about “severity of fom" about che “profound logic” that should connece symphonic themes. “No! Mabler replied “The symphony muse be ke the world, Ie mae be all-embracing”| Sibelss hep» clove eye on she Inte development a European mu- sie. On vsis to Germany, he aade the aequsiaance of Stust® Salome and Ble and Schoenberg ees atonal scores, He was varity in- ‘wiged, alemed, ad bored by these Auto. German experiments: mote to his este wns the sensuous radicalism of Debussy. whose Pred © "The Afiomoon of «Faun Nocturne, and La Mer revealed new pour i ‘modal harmony and diaphanous orchestral colo. In general, hough, he {Geil a exe inthe Fst-moving environs of Belin and Pats. He eslved to stay true to his Allene, his fecing of alonenest, 0 play his oe a ‘apparition from the woods” In hic next symphony, the Fourth, Sibelius presented is Useeners with music as forbidding as anything ftom the European continent athe time He wrote it inthe wake of ever risky persons on hie throat, where 3 ‘omor was growing. His doctors inserted him to give up drinking ‘which he agreed to do, although e would resume in 1915. The tempo- ‘ry los of alcohol—"eny mor fifa companion," he Iter led — may have coniboted t0 the claserophobic geimness of the musi ‘which, athe same ine, bespoke aiberated intellect, The fit few bart ‘of the sphony extrapolate a new dimension in musical time. The ‘pening notes, scored darkly for cellos, bases, and basoons, ae C. D, Fsharp and E—a harmonically ambiguous whole-rone collection, Ie fes ike te begining of 2 major themarc eaement, batt ges stuck on the notes Fsharp and E, which owilate and fade sway Mean, the dara APPARITION FROM THE WOODS is tions ofthe notes lengthen by degses fom quater notes to doted quar- ters and then to hal nots ea i foreign body were exersing grat dona force on dhe msc, lowing i down ‘The marae of the Fourth i citcla ater than Hinar it heeps revit- ining the sme unneoived conflicts, An efor at esablishing F major a 3c key of the intl sniersounding second movement founders on sn immovable obaacle in dhe form of the note B-aatral, fier which there i palpable shrug of deft. The third movernentdeamatizes an 2 temp to build, nore by ote, a solemn sibar theme of finery charac- ter; the first stem Blters afer two bus, the second afer fv, the third afer fous, the fourth ater thre. The fit asempe proceeds with vigor but seems eo go on fe long, sprawling through seven bas without com- fing to 3 logis] conclsion. Finally, with an audible grinding ofthe teeth, fll orchestra plays che theme ina rchly harmonized guise. Then wn cetingy steal buck in The ile thins out 3 goes long, 8 if tandom page ofthe omchestal pts have own off the music stands, Tht it mie Ficing extinction, a premonition ofthe sence thie would erelop the composer two decades Tater. rik Taam, Sibel’ biographer, reveal thatthe mide we tion ofthe movement is based on sketches tat Sibeliss made for vocal seting of Edgar Allan Poek “The Raven” in a Geman tansation. 1 is feasy fo se why asadent ofthe Kall would have savored Poo mesmer- ‘ning repetition of images and alo eiy rose how a an of Sibel y= chological makeup would have been drawn ro relat Leave my loins wrong the bust ahve my door! ‘ake thy ek io ut my ar, ad tke ty for om my dor” (Quote Res, “Nowra” ‘The German version duplicates the thythm of Poe’ origina, so che eur The Raven” with cortesponding mate ou itener can correlate eso sil in Ghe Fourth’ finale. A sof crying ote-and-oboe line in the coda clly fies the wordk “Quoth the Raven, “Nevermore!” The symphony closes with blink faced chon hat are given the dynamic marking me=zo- forte or halload. Tha instaction is surprising in el. Most of he great ‘Romantic symphonies end with fori afirmtions. Wagner opens2nd Sera tone poems often close pioisino, whether in blisful or eagic mood. Sibelis endr not with a bang or 2 whimper but with a laden ‘hud ‘When the Four Symphony had i ft performace, in Apel 1911, Finnish audiences wore taken aback. “People avoided our eyes, shook their head” Aino Sibelius recaled, “Thee smiles were embacrased fare or ionic. Noe many people came backs ay thee respec" This was a Skandilnee in Seandinavian syle, 2 tot of ence "A symphony is ot jus + composition in the ontinary seme of the wor” Sibelius wre in 1910, "Ie is more a canon of faith ac ier cent sager of one’ if” If the Fourth ix conesion, its composer might hve been on the verge of sicde, Yet, ke so many Romantis before him, Sibelios cook 2 perverse pleasure in surrendering to melancholy, Finding joy in darcness, “Froud nd hil” he wrote in his dey “Jol andsoorowful” In his next symphony, he set himself the goal of ringing tothe surface che joy inherent in cretion, Joy snot the same thing as simplicity. The FiBh begins and ends in rsalline majr-bey tonality, bu it i an unconventional and saggetingly foviginal work. The schemata of sonst form disolve before de litener ats in ple of methodical development of wel-defined themes there isa gradual, incremental evolution of material through tanclike repet- tions. The musicologist James Hepokns, in a monograph onthe sym- ‘homy cals it “rotor fore: che principal ideas of the work come ound aguin and again, each time eansormed in ways both small and Inge. The themes ell sume their re shape el tthe end of the 1o- ‘aon —what Hepokoski cll the “il” she epiphanic goal. The method s similar 0 the one that. Peter Burkholder, in his states of ve, ells “alae fo Music becomes arate for meaning within an open ended sesetare—a microcosm ofthe spirit ie At the beginsing of the Fi, the horns preient 2 sofily glowing theme, the fst nots of which well out «symmetrical, buteriy-like set of interval: fourth, major second, fourth again. (Fify yea ate, Jokn CColtane used the mime configurton in hi jazz masterpiece A Love Appanurion FROM THE WooDS ‘7 Supreme) Sielaes key is heroic E- majo, bat the melody tues out bes rather flighty thing, nver gute touching the groan. chythase trick a o che sense of weighlesnes. At fst sound af were in a standard 4/4 meter, bot afer» syncopated sidestep it tures out that wee in 12/8, A rotation proces begins: the materiale broken into fragment snd rehaped. In the fourth rotation an electing change occurs: the tempo accelerates by increments anil the nase i suddenly hording for~ war, Sibelias achieved this etec by way of an exceptional feat of Sle dng. Aer the premiere of the fi version ofthe synphony in 1915, he decided to rework it completely, snd one ofthe things he did was to cat off the ending ofthe fist movement, ct off the beginning ofthe see ‘aid eplice them together ‘The acclersing pastage becomes a cine- sate “aisolve” fom one movement to another ‘The second movement ofthe Filth provides «spl of eal, hough benesth the surface 4 significant new ides i coming to f—a swaying motif of sing and fling interval, which the horas pic wp in the isle ‘nd tensor into the grandest of al ibelin themes. The composer tilled it his “evan hymn’: he recorded i n his notebook next ro a de- Scription of seen swans fying in formation over bit Ainols home “One of my grates experiences!" he wrote “Lord God that beauty! “They circled over me for a ong ime. Disappesed at dhe solar haze ike 4 gleaming, ler ribbon ... That this should have happened ro me, who fave 50 long been she outsider” The swane reappeared thee days Iter The was ace always in my thoughts ad give plendor 2 [ey] [5] seange to learn that nothing inthe whole world fleets me—nochig in tre, erature, or maiein the sane way at da thete swans and cranes and will geese Theit woices and being “The evan hymn transcends the depiction of mature: tis Uke a spiced force in animal fora, When the horns inode i in the midst of a Arey of action inthe rings, they seem always to have been playing it and we have only begun 9 hear it A momeat ter, a reduced version of the theme i heard i ehe bass sgiter of th orchesrs at one-thied the temp erating another lypnosc Sibelian eft of layered tine, Then the wins lanch ino theie own melod}—a wistflly cicling figure that eae an odd resemblance to Satis Grapes. This isnot “masculine” bersism on the onde of Beethoven's Eni,168 THE REST IS NOISE sls in he key of Eat major. As Hepokoski sogyess, Sibelias eer ma- sic implies 2 maternal rather than 4 paternal logie—God-given themes testatng in syaphonie form. Only by way of wrenching disonances push to- does the music break love of endlesly rocking metion an ‘wanda final cadence. The sven yi, now carried by the erompes, engoes convulive transformations and i reborn 25 2 fearsome new being ft inervals pit wie ope, shatter spat, orm, The symphony ens with sx e-fungchord, though which the main theme shoots He 2 puke of exngy The san becomes the sm Sibelius was athe height of is power. Yet he had precious ite msc lef in him: che Sinth and Seventh symphonies, the rone poem Tapia, n= cidenral music for Shakespeat’s Tonge, smattering of minor pees, ane the phantom Eight, His parse of x final symphonic sates made the proces of composition almost impossibly anluous. Suddenly dst ‘sed withthe fluid form tha he bad evolved in the Fh, he Began to dieam of 4 continoss thot of sound wichout formal divisions— symphonies without movements, opera without words, Iniead of wie jing the music of bis imagination, he wanted to transcribe the very noe ‘of natuce. He thought he could hear chords in dhe armas of the forests and te lapping ofthe lakes: he once balled 2 group of Finnish students by giving a letare on she overtone serie of a meadow: Whatever her ceeded inputting on paper seemed pully an inadequate. As she revisions fof the Fh show he looked at his own crestions wih a merciless eye lishing aay 2 thera a they were dhe seribbtings ofan inep tude Hasbinges of silence prolifer in Sibelius ne work. As Hepokosk writs, he teleological narnsves end notin a bte of victory inthe Fith Symphony. but in “solution,” “deeay” “liquidason.” The Sixt Symphony echoes the sober, teolasica prt ofthe Third, with antique nodes undezpinning the harmony; is ithe composer were trying £9 fee into a mythic past. Ve brutal choise of bate keep icing into the os samer ring textures and tough the nes ranks of dancing winds. The final movements stopped in it tracks by 2 waumatic episode: in Hepo- oki account, nature mosives representing the pine tees and the wind rip the stately rotational design to pieces. The proces continues for an- APPARITION FROM THE WOODS. 168 other minate or two, but dhe motives eramble before one’ ets, nd the ric retest int che shin, antes string music with which ie began ‘The Seventh Symphony expands on the formal innovation of the Fi, the telescoping of ewe movement into one. Conerting episodes ae fixed into one couiavowssructre, so thit Adagio hymns Become Scherao dunces by imperepubledegees. In emotional tems, the syme phony enites the dik and the light sdes of the compose’ pewsonality the words ofthe Fourth and the Fifth, The piece is anchored ona grand theme for solo trombone, which sounds thee ies agsinat a mereurilly clanging background, Like Stavass Zarathustra modifi is made up of “natural buling blocks, third and fhe and octaves. On i fist 3p pearance, tt couched in nummery C mujor. The second time, the hat ‘mony sips ince the minor, and a geim, nocturnal mood descends. (One carly sketch forthe theme is marked “Where the sare dell”) Final the theme returns to the major, generating such a heat of eltion that i teeters on the edge of chaos. Growling runs in the lw stings and winds recill the faneralsmarch movement of Beethoven’ Eris, and the ex pected catastrophe looms. It takes the form of a metic smear of dotsinaat-seventh chords in chromatic rquence followed by «high, ex posed line inthe viling. When the main key of C revues in the co, i Comes by way of halting, ambivalent cadence that manages to sound at ed. Inthe Ist ats, the nore B aces fr sx slow ‘hand outaretched fom a fig- ‘ce radian and ei beste aint the fina C-major chor, tre dsappering into ght Taps, wenty-minute tone poem picturing the Finnish fret, wat Sibelius le big orchesal work, atleast that the res of the worl goe to hear, an hie mos severe aatemen in any form. The connection 1 eadi- ‘ional tonaisy grows ever more tenuous, although the wark is anchored fon hal-diminshed seventh, 4 andand Wignerian chord. The Brish ‘compoter Jun Anderson hos highlighted pase in Tile in which 2 ‘whole-toe interval in mille registers generates “docp acoustic throb- bing”; hiss disonance ofa deeper order, che kind that alters your con- ‘ciousnes without asking your ears. In 3 cent section depicting 2 physical or mental ssorm, whole-cone harmony crumbles into nea-toeal chromatic, upvard- and dowmard-slthring pers of notes. Like 2 wandete lot in the woods, the litenerstrogges to find » path dough170 TE REST 15 MOISE the thicket of sound, When the home choed of B minor finally ‘verted in te bs, it hi «hollow ring, i= mide note pushed deep into the bass, We ate apparently back where we started, no ex in sigh. Finally came the mas for The TEmpet wisten on convaision foe the Danish Royal Teste in 1925, As libersted fom the burden of syen- ‘Phonic thought, Sibelius sbandons his Gmiiar Nordic austeety and in- dhlgs the more plafl side of it pertnaltg Some section of dhe core are delibertely acai in sve, partaking ofthe rarefied manner ofthe ‘Sach Symphony. Others are sweety nostalgic ance and song pieces, ti loved to the nocd ofthe sage. The "Storm" Overture takes up where the mort adventurous actions of Tiple let of the strings play reslesly ‘wig nes while the Brae carve out whole-one chowds. The seeing of the ines “Full fithom five” sugges al roo rica the image ofa body ‘owing gently inthe dep, An A-msinor chord ie gradually deformed and transformed by the whole-one sale with which ic pardy oveaps, in 3 ind of msc pale dhe “eaechange”of Ariel song al fo fe thy father es Cf is ones areal mae; Tha are per ha wees es Peshaps Sibetins felt some conscious oF unconscious densification wth the figure of Proper, who, atthe end ofthe pay, decides to set a semblance of normale: ssid hi magie powers and resus 1 have bene es, led fort the musinns winds 1h oa Ana tthe gre se and the azure Set warn war Toth dad rang dander Haw [given fi, an ified Joe stot oak Wit iso bl he songz promontory Have Lae she, ad by ee sp plucked The pine and ede, ges at my commend lve ved thr epee a tem fr ‘By my so potent a. But thi gh magic 1 here aie. And wo I have equi Some snl moar v0 now Fdo— APPARITION FROM THE WOODS am 1 work ine end p00 Ths iy char io cr sos that Freak my tf Bryce fthos in the eth, And dope thn idee pm ound 1 drown my book, Sibetive wrote no msc foe this tremendous speech, bu is thetoric cs- Fes ovr into the cue for "slema mie” the fellows. The harmony at the ouset rece the submersion mic of "Full fathom fv" except that the disonances now sound a eapliting volume, semitone ches i all ery. Then the chaos mes sway Ineo clan open fh, which sounds alien in context. All his evokes Prospero dimming the sun, seting sea and sky at var, waking the dead. A quiet hymn for srngs flows, in ‘which the chromatic of the storm in woven back into. clasial har- mony, eis “heavenly misc” but also weet, eninary muse, dipeling ‘the rage and pain that fel Prospero’ art. Did Sibel, ke Prowpero, chink about abjuring hit magic and drowning his book? Iso, he gave no sgn o iin she ate 19205 ad ea "SOx. The Eighth Symphony wae under way, aad the composer seemed Inppy wth ic He is known to have worked on the piece ithe spring of 1931, while staying alone in Helin. Writing home to Aino, he sid that she symphony was “making great rides” although he was pualed by the form ie wat taking. “Tes sang, thie works conception” he sold tis wile. That all we know about i Fame can conf ay att, and stad an especialy duoriening eet on Sibelius. Since the turn of the century he had enjoyed nterational Eelebrigs, but in the twenties and thirties he became something like a pop-culture phenomenon. Why his symiphonies rack sch 3 chord with haz Age audiences is dificle to explain. Pehaps they achieved mass pop ity precisely becsuee they were foreign tthe neon light and tafe noite of contemporary trbun fe. In any cate, no composer ofthe time caused such mass excitement, especial in America. Ceebriey conductors vied for sigs of favor from Ainola. New York Philharmonic listeners went 4 fra to voreSibeis ther favorite living symphonist, His name ‘ven cropped up a6 plot poine in Hollywood movies. In Ort Premine1 THE RESTS NOISE. eth chic 1944 trier Laut, a detective played by Dana Ancewsintes- togate a shady Southern gentleman poruayed by Vincent Pic: bana axes: You now lot about music? vincent rnice:[ dant know alot abost anything, But | know 3 lie sbour practialy everything Dasa aves: Yeah? Then why did you sey shey pled Brahms’ First and Beethoven's Ninth at the concert Friday night? They changed she program at the lve minwte and plyed nothing but Sibel “Nothing but Sibelius” comes clove to suring up orcheseal program: ming of the period. Sexe Kowseiaky, the conductor of the Boston Symphony, presented a complete eycle ofthe Sibelss symphonies inthe 1952-33 season, and he hoped to cap the series with the world premiere ofthe Eighth, Crucial to Sibelius’ American repunition vas Olin Downes, who fiom 1924 to 1958 served a6 misc crite of the New Yrk Times. The son of Louie Corson Downes, a crusading feminist and Prohibitions, ‘Downes belived tha lsc mas shold appeal not jus to elites bu fo common people, and fiom the bully papi ofthe Times he loaly con- dened she obscura of modern musc—in parila, the artificial fy, capriiousnes, and snobbery that he percied in the music of Sevinuy, Sibelios was dfleent; he wat “the bt of the heroes" “a new prophet” who would rescue msc fom cerebral modernism, At heart, Downess motives were good; he wished co celebrate the music ofthe present and saw in Sibelioe 2 aris fire of mast appeal But his snacks fn Stravinsky were merely tendentous Is would have Been more produc- tive to show what the two composers had in common, rather chan wing fone aa tick to beat the ode, ‘Downes traveled to Finland in 1927 «0 meet Sibelius on his naive ground. The composer had fllen into one of his periodic bows of de- ression it wos at this time tat he wrote, “Lolaton and loneliness ze {ving me to despair” Meeting Downes temporarily hited his spits, though, in dhe long teem, Downe’ devotion my have had a deleteri= ts effect Glenda Dawn Goss, ina book-length study of this singular compose-citic selationhip, suggest st Sibelius var in rome way rushed by the atenton that Downes heaped on him, In he carly hits, jus as Kostevitaky was expecting to conde the premiere ofthe Eighth Symphoay in Bescon, Downes pestered the om pote forthe completed sore in 1937 the tte wrote a fllow-up eer Jn which he pased slong the sonsments of none other than Louite Cor on Doves: "My mother and I often speak of you and she asked me gsin aboot hie Eighth Symphony ... “Tell Mr Sibiu eit Tam noe concemed or anxious 39 mich about his Eighth Symphony, which [ kenow he will complete in his own good dase, a about his Ninth He ‘st crown his eres of works in thi form with a ninth symphony which wil rpretent the summit and the synthesis of his whole achievement and leave usa work which wall be worthy of one of the elected few who are the tue artistic descendants and inheritors of Beethoven” [Asif rene fom mae critic’ mothers were not enough, Sibi as ao brooding over the reception he encountered in Europe. Pai had no time for him. Bedi, before Hie came ro power, viewed him with condescension bordering on coneempt In neither city did expansive m= phonies and evocative tone poems have much inellectul market vale ‘The critic Heinrich Stobe, future impresario of che Donaueschingen Festiva, refered to Sibeises Violin Concerto a “boring Nordic deari- es” Sibelins was tormented by thse charcteriestion, and ako annoyed by the clt of Stavinsky. He happened to be in Bein a dete of «perfomance of Osis Resin 1928, but decided that he “could nota feed eo tow vay tee oF four hundred marks” He biter sid of Savinsky: "When one compares my symphonies with his silborn aff In Americs, Downes’ pusilstic pre of Sitios aronsed rexentment among Americen Stvasky admires. [x 1940, Viegil Thomson became the misic crite ofthe Niw York Howl Tine, and in he debut review he tre las into the Sibelius myth, cling the Second Symphony *vel- fi selPindalgen, and provincial beyond all description” Equally ven fomous attacks emanated fom the Schoenberg camp. Theodor Adorno prepared a dice analyst of the Sibelos phenomenon fora rciologicl think nk called the Princeton Radio Reseurch Project “The work of Sibelius is not only incredibly overtaced, bu i fandamenlly cks any good quale. [Sibelius musics good music, then all ee categoriesm {THE REST 1S NOISE by which musical standards can be messured—standads which reach fom a master ike Bach to mos advanced composers lke Schoenberg— ‘ust be completely abalthed” Adorao sent his esay to Thomson, who, ttle agreeing with ts sentiment, sgely advied thr “the tone i mote {pt to crete antagonism toward yourself than toward Sibelos” Sibel’ confidence was by that time already gone. You can se it slip~ ping sway in his conespondence with Kousevitaky, which s preserved at the Library of Congres. The condactr sends lees and telegrams on an tlmost monthly bat, pleading forthe Eighe,Sibeis eplis in an ele fan, slanting hand on parchmen-ike paper, enaiingly mentioning 2 Symphony thas almost Gnshed but not quit. Tr January 1930 Sibeins repors, "My new work & aot neafly ready and Teamot say when it wil be ready” In August he 1s more sre Teooks as though [an send you a new work this season” But he i worried about American copyright, which do not protect hit mai Koussevieky ressures him thst the symphony will be safe from pirates In the end, ie does not apgeie Then, in Augast 1931, in the wake of his productive stay in Betin, Sbebus weites, “you wish co perform ray new Symphonia in che sping. it wil I belive, be ready” In Decem- ber the information i leaked t the Boon Eeosing Tiansp, which pub= Iries an item: “Symphony Hall har received an important Iter fom Sibelus, the composer, about his sew Symphony the Eighth. Ki com. pleted, and the score wil soon be on the way t0 Boston” A telegram fiom Finland arrives wo weeks liter, ying thatthe curent season ‘woulde't work Sibelius probably got wind of the Trp’ ace snd panicked Te following June, he Eighth is back on is et: “Ie would be good if you could condact my sew symphony atthe end of October” Then coms a fesh panic "Unfortunately Ihave named October for my new Symphony,” the composer writes jut one week later. “This isnot certain, Tam very dsuarbed about it, Plate do not announce the performance” ‘Eventual, it promised for December 1952. Kouseviay sends 3 "ret Jen” telegram on New Yer Eve, ihe has been checking the malbox very day tht month, Two weeks ler he receives yet another tere telegram, yet another poxponement. There are 9 couple more tentative ‘mentions ofthe Eighth in subsequent correspondence, then nothing. Tn the ate thir, Sibelius agun hoped co set the Eighth fee fom is APPARITION FROM THE wOUDS s forest prison. By that time he knew beter than to sy anything t the gat= rulous Kousevitay. Then, in.1989, Hie imaded Pond, and Fnkind Deeame part of 2 ches gume berween Nazi Germany and the Soviet, Union. Ely in the war, Finland was applauded inthe Were fr is hardy stand agaist the Sovies, and Sibelias wa more popule than ever ‘Toxanini took his up with a pasion, In 1981, Finland aligned isl with, the Germans, pally to a0id undergoing hoe occupation and party to regain territory lox 0 the Soviet Union in the previous conic, Sibelius went from being 2 symbol of fedom to serving 3528 apparent Nazi stooge. As 2 Nowe, “Aryan” compoter, he had enjoyed glowing notices in Nazi Germany, and won the Goethe Prie in 1935. Now he became slot an oficial German ari, rcesing as many pexoraunces 4 Richard Strauss. The Sbeias Society held a gaa concert ache Betin Piltarmonic in Apel 1942. Ins message to Nasi woop in che sme year he alegaly ssid: “T wish with all my heat that you may enjoy a speedy Privately, Sibelias wat tormented by promulgation of ice laws in Nani Germany. In 1943 he vented in his diny, “How can you, Jean Sibelius, possibly take thee "Aryan paragraphs seriously? That i great sévanage for an arts. You ate a cultural aristocrat znd ca make 3 stand against stupid prejudice” But he mide no stand, Ae che clre god ofthe nish sate he had lang since cened co see a difference berwen tse and history, and sith the world in aes his music seemed destined for ruin. AC the same time, obscure agonies consumed him. The dary apn The mgedy bins. My burdensome though pay me. The cause? ‘Alone, alone. [eer allow the great disresta pas my lps, Aino mu Be spared” The final page of the dary, Som 1944, contain 2 shopping le for champagne, cognac and gi, ‘Sibelius lived eo the age of in one. Like hit contemporary Ses, he made wry jokes about his iabitty w die. "All the doctors who ‘wanted to frbid me fo enike and to drink ae dead" he once sid. In 3 more serious mood, he observed, “It i very paint ro be eighty. The public love aris who fll by the wayside in eis fe. Arve ase mt be down and out or die of hanger. In youth he should at lee die of com sumion” One September morning in 1957, he wont for hit el walk in the elds and forest aouod Ainoa, scanning the skies for cranes ying south forthe inte, They were pat of his ritual of autuma; back whenad IWe REST IS NOISE the was writing the Fifth Symphony, he had noted in his dary, “Every day have sem the crane. Flying south ie fll cry with thet music. Have ben yet agin their mors stdcus pup. Their cries echo throughout ry being” When, of the thind-to-bst diy of his i, the eranes daly ap- peared, he old his wit, “Heteehey come, he bird of my youth!” One (fem broke fom the Hock, ctled the howe, xed out, and Hew aw. “Ther iss curiously moving photograph of Igor Savinsky kneeling ver Sieluss grave which tikes the form of 2 horizontal metal sab on the rounds at Aiola, The vs took pice in 1961, four years ater Sibelius death The master of modem music had prctica wasn for making {Oe pilgrimage: the Finish government had promised him the Wiha Sibel Prize, which ea y-fvethow- ‘snd dollars. Bue the gestare had certain gallanry. fn the pst, Servinsky ‘had belied Sibsus, and on the accion ofthe old mans death he bad slammed down dhe phone when reporter ealled for comment fn his ist year, though, Stavinsky warmed tO few Sibelius scores and made an trraagement for octet ofthe Canzoneta fr sing “The notion that these might be something "modern about Sibi yas ible to salyed progressives ofthe immediate postwar en. The Schoenbegion pedagogue René Leibowie summed up the feings of many new-music connoiseurs when he published 2 pamphlet with the tle Stel: The Hl Comparer the Tel. Surveys of twentieth century mute labeled the composer a peripheral figure in the cena ‘dana ofthe march toward atonality and other iellectuallendmarks. At least ewo fex—Joun Reyer’ The Now Masicand Glenn Watkins's Sound jfile to mention hime at ll. Yer performances of Sibeloss mosic consinued unabated; conductct and audiences had i ight al along ne in the generous amount of Inthe lve decades of the century, the politics of style changed in Sibeue! Gvor. The comporer began to be understood in terms of what Milan Kunder called, in another meditsion on the culture of small rnimodern modeenisn”—a penoual syle chat sands outside the status quo of perpen! progres. Sudden twee paying hee to Sibi’ effecrs of thematic dliguescence, his ever= 7 componers and scholars colving forms, hit unearthly rimbre, New-rusic laminaies sock at Brian Ferneyhough, Wolfgang ibm, Tritan Mural, Gérard Grisey, Pet Apraaition FaaM THE WOODS 7 NNongir, Peter Maxwell Davies, John Adams, and Thomar Adsl cited him a @ model. A generation of upstate Finns—Magaus Lindberg, Kai Surisho, and Es-Pekka Salonen—found new eespect for ehe national theo afer having rejected him in their punks youth, Lindberg made his same with 2 gripping piece called Kr (1983-85), whore orcher i sugested by srap-metl pecuson and 3 conductor Bowing a whistle, [Av any given poine, sounds nothing lke Sibelius—Lindberg. cites the fnflence of noie-rock bands such at Einsturzende Neubatten but the accumltion of ring proceses fom micrcopic material fel ike a computr-age reprise of Tia, In 1984, che great American sant-garde composer Morton Feldman fave a lecture atthe relendely up-to-date Sommer Courses for New Masic in Darmstadt, Germany “The people who you think ae radia right relly be conservatives,” Feldman said on that occasion. "The peo= le who you think are conservative might eelly be eaicl” And he be ‘an to hums the Sibelis Fit