Natural light
  • News and Blog

Inspired by swans - a hundred years on

21/4/2015

1 Comment

 

21 April 1915, Ainola, Finland

Today at ten to eleven I saw 16 swans. One of my greatest experiences! God, how beautiful! They circled above me for a long time. They disappeared into the haze of the sun like a gleaming silver ribbon. The sounds are like a kind of woodwind, the same as the sound of the cranes, but without the tremolo. The sound of the swans is closer to the trumpet, even if it clearly recalls the timbre of the sarrusophone. A low refrain, which is like the crying of a small child. Nature mysticism and the pain of life! The finale of the fifth symphony -
Picture
Legato in the trumpets!! This had to happen to me, who has been an outsider for so long. So I've been in a holy place today, 21st April 1915.
PictureFredrik Lähnn
Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony underwent the longest, most difficult gestation of all his works. He began composing it during the late summer of 1914 but made slow progress, writing in his diary, “It is as if God had thrown down mosaic pieces from heaven’s floor and asked me to put them back as they were.”

By April 1915 he was struggling with the finale, searching in vain for the theme that would bring the great work to a fitting conclusion.  The problem was solved on the morning of 21st when inspiration finally came with the spring arrival of Finland’s national bird, the whooper swan.

Sibelius 5th
Click the button to hear Stephen Johnson on Sibelius's 5th Symphony in BBC's Discovering Music series.
1 Comment

Sibelius and the swans

11/8/2014

0 Comments

 
PicturePascale Aleixandre, Wikimedia
The third in our feature series Nature at the Proms is on Sibelius, his love of nature, and the swans that inspired his most popular symphony.

Symphony no. 5 and The Swan of Tuonela are at the Proms tomorrow night.  During the interval two academics, Daniel Grimley and Simon Shaw-Miller talk to Martin Handley about Sibelius the nature-lover.  

Sibelius and the swans
0 Comments

    Welcome

    to 
    NATURAL LIGHT
    a site devoted to nature, and artists who are 
    inspired by it

    editor Laurence Rose

    Follow us on 
    Facebook and Twitter
    Email us

    RSS Feed

    Tweets by @Naturemusicpoet

    Archives

    October 2018
    September 2018
    May 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    October 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Australia
    BBC Proms
    Biodiversity
    Birds
    Campaigns
    Cheltenham Festival
    Conversations
    Endangered Species
    Environment
    Fenland
    Festivals
    Flamenco
    Hear And Now
    Iceland
    Landscape
    Literature
    Moth
    Music
    Norfolk Festival Of Nature
    Olivier Messiaen
    Peter Sculthorpe
    Poetry
    Re:Tweet Of The Day
    RSPB
    Sibelius
    Soundscape
    Spain
    Ted Hughes
    The Long Spring
    Uplands
    Wetlands
    Words
    WW1

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.