Jean Sibelius: Finlandia op. 26



Finlandia is one of the best known works of Jean Sibelius. It is a favourite with audiences all over the world, yet not very highly respected among music scholars and critics. It has been completely overshadowed by the symphonies in Sibelius scholarship. To be fair, the composer himself was amazed at how popular the work became, because, as he put it, it was “completely made of themes received from above, pure inspiration”.

The importance of Finlandia is usually seen in its programme, the depiction of national awakening and the hopes and desires for freedom of a small nation. Originally titled Suomi herää (Finland awakens), it was part of a series of tableaux at an entertainment in support of the press; the composer subsequently adapted it into an independent tone poem.

A closer look at Finlandia reveals highly interesting structural features that appear almost throughout Sibelius’s entire output. The most important observation is that Finlandia is from start to finish based on variations of a single motif. Traditionally, the work has been considered a rhapsodic collection of themes. Though the presence of the core motif is not always overt, it is very clear. This insight opens up a new viewpoint on Sibelius’s symphonic writing.

The motif is a four-note cell consisting of three adjacent tones. It is most apparent in the opening of the hymn section: a step down from the central note and back, and a step up.
The motif also appears without its first note. At first sight, this may seem too simple a figure to be considered a motif proper, let alone a major element in Sibelius’s output as a whole, but he uses it with a logic that is quite unparalleled. It opens the First Symphony, it can be found in each and every one of his symphonies, and it concludes the Seventh. Its endless variations obscure its presence; one does not really notice it until one understands the principle. Perhaps it is part of what makes us recognize the music as ‘Sibelian’. In some cases, such as in the Third and Fourth Symphonies, Sibelius uses the motif with intervals other than a second, i.e. more than a step up and down from the central note. The hymn section generated from this motif has touched people around the world so profoundly that it has even been adopted as a national anthem (though sadly not in Finland) and a religious hymn, which was sung for instance at memorial services for the victims of the 9/11 attacks in New York. And, of course, there are innumerable other arrangements of Finlandia.

This organic variation technique, which was characteristic for Sibelius and perhaps partly subconscious, stems from the tradition of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala, in the sense that, as in Kalevala singing or chanting, the endlessly changing variations are based on a single motif. In this way, Sibelius’s music is rooted deep in the ancient tradition of Finnish folk music. But on the other hand this particular motif is also related to the European tradition through its resemblance to the ancient La Folia melody (known in Finland as Lampaan polska, or Lamb polska) and the 16th-century passamezzo.

One form of the motif is identical to the ornament known as the gruppetto, which has its own symbol, very similar to a supine letter S or its mirror image, depending on which way the gruppetto is to be played. Could this be Sibelius's musical signature, akin to B-A-C-H (B flat, A, C, B natural) or D-Es-C-H (D, E flat, C, B natural)?



Finlandia is one of the manifestations of Sibelius’s core motif


“It may be possible that you will find thematic affinities in my symphonies once you study them. I myself call them ‘symphonic necessities’, since I am more of a medium than a brain person. My first symphonies in particular, I hardly think that rational research will yield a key to them. It requires a ‘boyish spirit’, as Rydberg would say.” (Harold E. Johnson: Jean Sibelius, p. 189)

Finlandia (1899), originally titled Suomi herää (Finland awakens), has not really been discussed in Sibelius literature, apart from being mentioned as something self-evident or even something of negligible artistic worth. Its popularity and its function in spurring national self-esteem have presumably been considered not to be consistent with artistic merit. To be fair, the composer himself was amazed at how popular the work became, because, as he put it, it was “completely made of themes received from above, pure inspiration”. (Erik Tawaststjerna: Jean Sibelius, Vol. 2, p. 165)

I was amazed, then, to make a startling observation after playing in several performances of the work for a TV series in 1996: Finlandia is made up of a single motif, equal to the first four notes of the hymn section. Astonishing as it may seem, this does not seem to have occurred to anyone else.

The motif, featuring stepwise deviations up and down from a central note, is the same as in Tapiola, which is well known for being constructed around a single motif. The analysis by Erkki Salmenhaara (1970) is well worth reading. Finlandia is constructed in the same way, even if the presence of the motif is not overt at all times. The opening brass section is based on the motif, and in the Allegro section the horns play it in diminution. The motif has the interesting property that any of its notes can be chosen as the starting point, and the result will be a symmetrical inversion of it. The first seven notes of the hymn section contain all of these.

Knowing all this, listening to Sibelius’s symphonies is a completely different experience. The motif identified above opens the First Symphony, forms the nucleus of the third movement of the Second Symphony and is the germ of the famous tritone motif in the Fourth Symphony, the two halves of the motif being separated by a whole tone. In the final movement of the Fourth, the motif sounds out on the glockenspiel like a professor lecturing his class. The presence of the core motif in the Seventh Symphony has been discussed in the literature.

Motif-building and the process of evolving entire structures from them was typical for Sibelius, but it did not begin with Finlandia. A particularly common Sibelian figure, the ‘Sibelius triplet’ and its following note, constitute an inversion of the core motif. The First Symphony was written before Finlandia; its opening clarinet solo begins with the core motif and is restated at the opening of the fourth movement. In the Lemminkäinen suite (1893-1896), the motif is almost omnipresent, culminating with Lemminkäisen kotiinpaluu (Lemminkäinen’s return), which opens with a chopped-up version of the same motif that opens the Seventh Symphony on woodwind, apart from the fourth note: the concluding leap is a fourth instead of a fifth. The rest of the piece is very obviously constructed around the four-note core motif. Beginning at figure D, the motif is present in almost every measure. Its notes may be rearranged, as before figure Q, where the notes in the latter half of the motif swap places. The first movement of the suite also begins with the gesture that reappears in the Seventh Symphony, with the concluding descending fifth replaced by an ascending fourth.

In the well-known Musette from the incidental music to the play Kuningas Kristian II (King Christian II, 1898), the core motif is present in retrograde in the first figure of the melody.
In the Kullervo Symphony (1892), the motif appears at the first entry of the choir in the third movement, on the words “Kullervo, Kalervon poika” (Kullervo, son of Kalervo).

The early G minor quintet, which dates from Sibelius’s stay in Berlin (1890), also contains the core motif. Adolf Paul described the genesis of the piece thus: “He began to improvise softly, dreamily, searchingly. Gradually the indistinct texture began to take shape around a decisive musical figure. It took control, and everything developed organically; Sibelius became more and more excited. The music washed over me with increasing intensity. The old piano was literally trembling. I had never heard him improvise so beautifully. This was how I heard, in embryo, his clavier quintet.” (Erik Tawaststjerna: Jean Sibelius, Vol. 1, p. 151)

What about the Third Symphony? Towards the end of the Seventh Symphony, at figure Ö, there is a motif that is repeated several times and varied, containing not only seconds but also thirds, as well as the downwards leap. The woodwind utterances at the opening of the Third Symphony contain very similar figures, and the same material is then taken over by the strings for some time. As if to reinforce that the motif can consist of other intervals than seconds, Sibelius concludes the work with the notes G-E-C.

The Fourth Symphony contains, in addition to the opening tritone motif, a variation of the core motif in the following cello solo. Here, the first two notes of the motif have been swapped, as indeed happened towards the end of Lemminkäisen kotiinpaluu. These motifs appear, with variations, throughout the movement. Appearances in the third, fourth and fifth measures from figure C correspond with the appearances in measures 38-39 of Finlandia, among other places, and they constitute the germ of the third movement of the Fourth Symphony, Il tempo largo. The sixth measure from figure C is a retrograde inversion of the motif principle familiar from the Seventh Symphony. Thus, the entire first movement consists of variations of the core motif.

In the opening movement of the Fifth Symphony, the four notes of the core motif first appear in measure 7. At the fifth measure from figure B, a leap is added. At figure D, the notes in the motif swap places just as before figure Q in Lemminkäisen kotiinpaluu. Until figure E, the woodwind, horns and violins carry subjects that contain instances of the core motif. At figure F, the string figures correspond to the motif as presented in the first six notes of the hymn section in Finlandia. The bassoon solo after figure J is based on the same idea. In the third measure, the familiar downward leap (as in Lemminkäisen kotiinpaluu) is turned upward instead, as in the first movement of the Lemminkäinen suite. The four-note theme that is present throughout the first movement of the Fifth Symphony contains the leap idea twice. Its first three notes are the same as the retrograde inversion of its last three notes. This, and the same phenomenon at the sixth measure from figure C in the Fourth Symphony, can easily be seen by turning the score upside down.

In the Sixth Symphony, in addition to the usual forms of the core motif we find an important phenomenon in that the central-note structure expands from four notes to eight. Or, to put it another way, the focus of the four-note motif moves from its centre to its extremity, which is then repeated instead of the central note (e.g. at figure H in the first movement).

Variations of the motif are sometimes accompanied by a syncopated rhythm, as in Finlandia and the first movement of the Fourth Symphony. It is because of this that the scale passage opening the Seventh Symphony acquires motivic relevance: the bass scale forms a syncopated rhythm.

The hymn section in Finlandia is one of many manifestations of the core motif in Sibelius’s output, both before and after Finlandia. Around Independence Day in 2003, there was an article in the Aamulehti, Kaleva and Helsingin Sanomat newspapers reporting that Sibelius had borrowed the opening of the hymn melody from the song Herää Suomi (Awake, O Finland, 1881) by Emil Genetz. This had been noted as early as in the 1950s by Harold E. Johnson in his book on Sibelius, which was duly noted in the article.

Indeed, the opening of the hymn section and a motif that appears towards the middle of Genetz’s song are very similar, even being in the same key. Even if we take the assumption to be correct and accept that Sibelius borrowed the first notes of the hymn melody, then in any case he had used the same figure before. Is Sibelius’s entire output thus borrowed from Genetz?

Obviously, the mere existence of the core motif cannot explain the genesis of the works where it appears; what is more important is how it is used in their construction. The principles of tonal music are the same wherever one goes, and notes that appear to constitute this particular motif can be found almost anywhere. But the presence of this group of notes in a composition is not the same as their methodical and logical use as in Finlandia.

This core motif, this “rolling impulse”, “rolling melodic figure” or “folk-like melody type oscillating around a central tone” (quotes from Veijo Murtomäki, Sinfoninen ykseys [Symphonic unity]), is no accident despite its simplicity. It bears an interesting affinity with the ancient La Folia tune, which has served as the basis for improvisation for centuries. Liszt and Corelli are among the many composers who have written sets of variations on the tune. Its first recorded occurrence in Finland dates from 1784, and it can be found in a notebook written by fiddler Samuel Rinta-Nikkola in 1809 under the title Lampaan polska (Lamb polska) (Kansanmusiikki, 1981). Toivo Kuula wrote a well-known piano adaptation under the same title. However, Kuula’s variations are tied to the harmonic ground underlying the tune and is thus very different from Sibelius’s variation technique, which may owe something to ancient Finnish folk music.

In his test lecture when applying for the post of music teacher at the University of Helsinki on November 25, 1896, Sibelius described the ancient Finnish style of singing known as Kalevala singing: “I believe that quite a false impression has been formed of our runo tunes. It has been assumed that they are brief stanzas consisting of one or two measures. Yet they are more akin to what we would call a ‘theme with variations’. The original stanza is rarely repeated in exactly the same guise. Whoever has heard a runo singer will have noted that as the text becomes more important, these variations become richer.” (Musiikki 2/1980)

This feature in Sibelius’s music thus bears a resemblance to an existing, ancient theme and is combined with the organic variation technique peculiar to him, which in turn bears an affinity with the realm of the Kalevala in that it is very often based on continuous variations of a single motif. Through these features, the ‘basic formula’ of Sibelius’s musical language is tied both to the European tradition and to the ancient Finnish tradition.


The core motif in Finlandia

The motif constitutes the first four notes of the hymn tune. At the end of the piece, the beginning of the hymn tune is repeated. In the Allegro section, beginning at the end of the second measure from figure F, the woodwind and horns play a diminution of the first phrase of the hymn with the first note omitted (the important rising three-note figure in the Second Symphony is related to this). However, the omitted note is given as the last note of the previous phrase. This is a passage that does not readily reveal itself as being based on the same motif as the hymn tune, even though the material is all but identical. These are the only places where the opening of the hymn tune can be easily identified. Elsewhere, the presence of phrases derived from the motif is less evident though perfectly clear, as a detailed measure-by-measure study shows.

The opening brass section hints at the opening of the hymn three times, and in the following section the three-note form of the motif is already being distinguished from the four-note form, which is particularly apparent if there is a clear break after the first note. The ominous opening gestures each contain the first and second notes of the motif.

At figure A, the woodwind enter with a motif where the first note of the motif is omitted (although the first four notes here are an inverted retrograde of the motif). The cell with three rising notes is repeated two measures before figure D. The strings pick this up, and from here to D the melodic material is based directly or indirectly on the motif.
Two measures before figure D, the bass line E flat – F – G is the three-note form of the motif, and when the note C is added to this (in measure 74 = figure D), we have the cell that will later become the bass line in the Allegro section (measure 95).
Measures 74 to 81 (the pedal point) correspond to the very first note of the piece, and measures 74-81-82-89 (figure E) correspond to the opening of the piece.
Measures 90 to 93 correspond to the beginning (measures 1-4).
Measure 94: Pedal point.
Allegro
Measures 95 to 98: Motif as at two measures before figure D.
Measures 99 (figure F) to 106: Bass motif and diminution of the first phrase of the hymn alternate; the string and woodwind figure with dotted rhythm is a development of the figure in measures 39-40, 41, 43 and 51.
Measures 107 to 110: The strings play a figure that stems from the Allegro bass line.
Measures 111 (figure G) to 120: As at figure F, but instead of the hymn phrase there is development, a syncopated scale passage against the bass line F – F flat – E flat beginning in measure 115, corresponding to the stepwise progress of the motif.
Measures 121 to 124: Correspond to the opening of the piece (measures 1-4).
Measures 125 to 128: Correspond to the first and second measures of the piece.
Measures 129 to 132 (figure I): First chord of the hymn section
Measures 132 (figure I) to 178: Hymn section.
Measures 179 (figure M) to 189: As at figure G, with variations.
Measures 190 (figure N) to 191: Motif variation in the bass.
Measures 192 to 193: Syncopated stepwise motion.
Measures 194 to 195: Correspond to measure 1.
Measure 196: Corresponds to measure 2.
Measures 197 to 202 (figure O): Harmonic movement corresponds to opening of the piece, while the stepwise movement in measures 200-201 reflect the stepwise motion in the motif.
Measures 202 to 209: Syncopation corresponding to previous syncopated passages; repeat of the hymn tune begins in measure 203.
Measures 210 to 214: The bass motif (from measure 95 in the Allegro, which in turn goes back to two measures before figure D) concludes the piece: A flat – B flat – C on trombone, and E flat – A flat on timpani and tuba.

Translation: Jaakko Mäntyjärvi 2006