 by Salura (creative commons via wikipedia commons) | Today at ten to eleven I saw sixteen swans. One of my greatest experiences! Lord God, what beauty! They circled over me for a long time. Disappeared into the solar haze like a gleaming silver ribbon. Their call the same woodwind type as that of cranes, but without tremolo… Words written almost exactly a hundred years ago, by a composer whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year. We can be sure, from this diary entry, of three things: of the three species of swans in Europe, Sibelius had seen the whooper swan, whose call he describes perfectly; that they were arriving from their migration, possibly from Britain, since the date, 21 April, is exactly right; and that Sibelius paid close, detailed attention to the sounds of nature. |
This morning, on Radio 4’s Tweet of the Day, Chris Packham presented the whooper swan, and you can hear the broadcast again by clicking the button below.
Sibelius’s diary note goes on: ...a low-pitched refrain reminiscent of a small child crying. Nature mysticism and life’s angst! The Fifth Symphony’s finale-theme: legato in the trumpets!
Sibelius had found the inspiration for what was to become one of the most celebrated features of his most popular symphony: the so-called swan theme. It appears in the third and final movement, and is hinted at elsewhere. This movement begins with a rapid melody in the strings, followed by a swaying, triple-time motif in the horns, the swan-theme, inspired by the sound of their calls, and the sight of those sixteen whoopers.
Sibelius’s love of nature is well documented. The Finnish landscape often served as material for his music. His biographer, Erik Tawaststjerna, noted that "Even by Nordic standards, Sibelius responded with exceptional intensity to the moods of nature and the changes in the seasons: he scanned the skies with his binoculars for the geese flying over the lake ice, listened to the screech of the cranes, and heard the cries of the curlew echo over the marshy grounds just below Ainola. He savoured the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal scents and colours”
Sibelius had found the inspiration for what was to become one of the most celebrated features of his most popular symphony: the so-called swan theme. It appears in the third and final movement, and is hinted at elsewhere. This movement begins with a rapid melody in the strings, followed by a swaying, triple-time motif in the horns, the swan-theme, inspired by the sound of their calls, and the sight of those sixteen whoopers.
Sibelius’s love of nature is well documented. The Finnish landscape often served as material for his music. His biographer, Erik Tawaststjerna, noted that "Even by Nordic standards, Sibelius responded with exceptional intensity to the moods of nature and the changes in the seasons: he scanned the skies with his binoculars for the geese flying over the lake ice, listened to the screech of the cranes, and heard the cries of the curlew echo over the marshy grounds just below Ainola. He savoured the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal scents and colours”
Two generations on, and Finland’s current Grand Old Man of music, Einojuhani Rautavaara (b. 1928), has his own special relationship with the sound-world of birds, and that of whoopers in particular. His Cantus Arcticus of 1972 is probably his best-known work, and incorporates his own tape recordings of birds made in the Arctic and in the bogs of Liminka region. The third movement, Swans Migrating, is a long orchestral crescendo that starts with an approaching flock of whooper swans and ends with both recording and orchestra fading into the distance.
There seems to be something of the naturalist in how Rautavaara views his own music. In a 1997 interview he said:
“I like different points of view, different aspects on the same work. For instance, Cantus Arcticus, the Concerto for Birds and Orchestra has been recorded many, many times, and the recording in Ondine by Pommer is very, very good indeed. I like it very much. But there is also a recording by BIS, the Swedish company, where the birds really are a soloist of the concerto. They are much more in foreground, so it sounds really different, entirely different in the basic attitude to the music. And that I love very much, too!"
There seems to be something of the naturalist in how Rautavaara views his own music. In a 1997 interview he said:
“I like different points of view, different aspects on the same work. For instance, Cantus Arcticus, the Concerto for Birds and Orchestra has been recorded many, many times, and the recording in Ondine by Pommer is very, very good indeed. I like it very much. But there is also a recording by BIS, the Swedish company, where the birds really are a soloist of the concerto. They are much more in foreground, so it sounds really different, entirely different in the basic attitude to the music. And that I love very much, too!"
Last week the National Orchestra of Wales played the whole of Cantus Arcticus, with its first movement depicting the curlews, cranes and other birds of the bog; and its peculiar second movement, Melenkolia, based on the slowed-down call of the shore lark. It is available to hear for the next three weeks by clicking the left hand button below. Finally, on the right-hand button, is Swedish composer Klas Torstensson's swan-inspired soundscape, Fastlandet, also played by NOW.
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