Sibelius: Kullervo
Vesa Matteo Piludu,
Kalevala Suite
31.10.2011
Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Arts
Musicology
University of Helsinki
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
Barbaric and raw
 Jean Sibelius started to think up ideas for Kullervo in Vienna
 Spring 1891
 According to his teacher Fuchs the ideas were "barbaric and raw".
Folk music
 Sibelius was fascinated by Kalevala and Finnish folk music:
 "that melodious, strangely melancholic monotony which is in
all Finnish melodies".
The story
 Plot in a nutshell
 Kullervo seduces a woman without knowing that she is his long-lost
sister.
 Both end up committing suicide.
Difficulties
 In a letter to his girlfriend Aino, Sibelius wrote that he had initially
discarded at least 50 themes
 "I am trying to find out what my symphony is all about. It is so
different from everything that I have written so far”
Sibelius and Larin Paraske (1891)
 Right at the end of the year Sibelius acquainted himself with the art
of Larin Paraske, a Finnish singer of runes, in Porvoo. Yrjö Hirn later
recollected the meeting.
 "I was travelling with Jean Sibelius from Loviisa via Porvoo to
Hämeenlinna. At that time my travelling companion, who was five
years my senior, was developing plans that would result in the
symphonic poem Kullervo, which was completed and performed the
following year.
 He was very eager to hear what Karelian runes sounded like when
they were sung by a genuine Karelian singer, and I was of course
glad to be able to witness this encounter between the new and the
old.
 I dare not speculate what it meant for the compositions the master
based on Kalevala, the fact that he could listen to Paraske just then. I
just remember how he followed the song attentively and wrote down
the melody and the rhythms."
Eero Järnefelt: Larin Paraske.
The clothes are not the right ones
Sibelius and Lauri Paraske
 There was not much snow on the ground but it was already very
cold. At the time I had no idea what a celebrity was sitting in front of
me.
 In her singing I mainly paid attention to how such a 'rune singer' uses
Finnish: 'murehiaa-aa-aa', 'musta lintuu-uu-uu', in other words,
especially the way they prolong and stress the last syllables of a
word.
 To my ears the stress that Paraske used sounded very strange,
and I had no idea that I was dealing with such a great master,
since I did not find her such an extraordinary rune singer.
 In 'Kullervo' I had used a natural stressing of syllables. Later I
followed Paraske's way in poems with the Kalevala metre, e.g. in
'Väinämöisen venematka' (Väinämöinen's Boat-ride)."
Male choir
 From the end of January 1892 the composing continued in Helsinki,
at the Kaivopuisto bathing establishment. At the beginning of March
Sibelius decided that the choir should be a male choir.
 According to Sibelius
 the third movement depicting sexual intercourse would embarrass
female singers.
 "You, my dear, will understand," Sibelius wrote to Aino
 Problem:
 the 'official' language of the orchestra was German, most of the
musicians being foreigners.
Sibeliuksen Kullervo 1892
Kullervo: hybrid
 Kullervo
 Mix between
 A symphony, a symphonic poem and opera.
First movement: fate and destiny
 Introduction (Allegro moderato)
 The clarinets and the French horns play a kind of destiny theme:
inevitability of fate
 sonata form
 References:
 Finnish rune singing
 Bruckner
Different opinions about the first movement
 Oskar Merikanto: the introduction is fragmentary
 Robert Layton: Sibelius showed an "inborn talent for symphony“
 Salmenhaara: the composer "paints with broad strokes the dark,
ominous background of the Kullervo drama".
The second movement, Kullervo's Youth
 Unusual , a kind of second instrumental "introduction"
 Strings: lullaby motif that become violent
 Sibelius: a lullaby whose "intensity is increased through variation"


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Erkki Salmenhaara:
a lullaby theme
a rune-singing theme
shepherd theme.
 Layton: Tchaikovskian influences
 Like the rune singers Sibelius varies his themes rhythmically and
melodically, combining ideas from each one
Kullervo
 CD: Kullervo Op. 7
 Track 3: Kullervo and his Sister
 Texts
 Chapter XXXV del Kalevala,
verses 69-286
Kullervo persuades a young woman (his sister) to enter his sleigh
and induces her to yield herself to him in exchange for material
goods
This is followed by an episode of unrestrained love-making, shown
by orchestral means
incest
Third movement
 Rhythm: 5/4
 Kullervo, Kalervon poika / sinisukka äijön lapsi…
 The time signature in the movement Kullervo and his Sister is the
typically Finnish 5/4.
 The orchestra creates the atmosphere and finally the choir begins
the story: Kullervo, son of Kalervo, son of an old man, wearing
blue stockings.
 The archaic atmosphere is accentuated by male voice choir, which
sings in unison.
 Best version:
 Soloists: Karita Mattila (soprano, Sister)
 Jorma Hynninen (baritone, Kullervo)
Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7
1892
Chorus:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJI
EC_j840
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7
III. Kullervo and His Sister
Part 1 of 3
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen
Marianne Rorholm, mezzo-soprano
Peter Mattei, baritone
Helsinki University Men's Chorus
Berwaldhallen, Stockholm, Sweden
January 1995
CHORUS.
Kullervo, Kalervo's offspring,
With the very bluest stockings,
And with yellow hair the finest,
And with shoes of finest leather,
Went his way to pay the taxes,
And he went to pay the land-dues.
When he now had paid the taxes,
And had also paid the land-dues,
In his sledge he quickly bounded,
And upon the sledge he mounted,
And began tojourney homeward,
And to travel to his country.
Kullervo, third movement
Kullervo and his sister
 Kullervo:
 Nouse, neito, korjahani,
taaksi maata taljoilleni!
 Sisko:
 Surma sulle korjahani, taaksi
maata taljoilleni
 Kullervo:
 Come into my sledge, my
dear,
 Relax on the fur inside
 Sister:
 May death enter your sledge,
may sickness rest upon the
furs
Third movement: the revelation
 It is revealed that Kullervo has unknowingly seduced his long-lost
sister.
 This is followed by the sister's song of lamentation
Fourth movement
Kullervo goes to War (Alla marcia).
 Strange
 Its cheerfulness and heroism seem to come from an entirely different
world, even if the piccolo trills at the very beginning do give some
sense of violence.
 "went off piping to the war, went rejoicing to the battle".
 Tawaststjerna and Salmenhaara:
 Karelian and Russian tones
 The movement anticipated Stravinsky's Petrushka
Fifth movement:
Kullervo's Death (Andante)
 Most of the musical material comes from the introduction
 Circle of fate
Final part:
Kullervo and the sword
 the choir presents a dialogue between a sword and a swordsman:
”Would it please this blade to eat guilty flesh and to drink sinful
blood?”
 The sword answers:
 Why should it not please me to eat guilty flesh and to drink sinful
blood? Since I eat the flesh of the guiltless and I drink the blood of
the innocent."
Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, op. 7 1892
 Video- Orchestra sinfonica di Lahti
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROm9C7rUxwg&feature=related
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (1/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2b4ph5rDg4&feature=related
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (2/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Knv-cza1nzY&feature=related
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (3/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-dr4JcWG6c&feature=related
Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (4/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0nWHCeus9E&feature=related
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (5/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye-GUqbFIXg&feature=related
 Jean Sibelius - Kullervo, Op. 7 (6/7)
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyGva3RBczw&feature=related
Robert Kajanus: Kullervo
 Robert Kajanus was enthusiast:
 Saloilta kuului valtava kohina.
…
 Suomalaisten sävelten mahtava kevätvirta vyöryi esiin.
 From the forest grows a majestic wash
 The mighty spring stream of the Finnish music billows
The Vulcam
 It was like a volcanic eruption," Axel Törnudd recollected. "Most of
the listeners considered it complete chaos."
Fennoman´s vs Svennomans
 For Fennomans, Sibelius was “one of us”
 The svennomans considered Sibelius a “traitor”
Oskar Merikanto
 The Finnish-speaking composer and critic Oskar Merikanto wrote of
his uncertainty about the work (in Päivälehti, 29th April). He
conceded, however, that the composer had "taken a long step
forward with this work and, at the same time, taken Finnish art
towards a highly promising future." He continued: "The whole
composition is, due to its Finnish content, the most impressive and
powerful work ever to come from a Finnish pen."
Karl Flodin
 The Swedish-speaking critic Karl Flodin praised the work with
reservations: "Jean Sibelius has a tune of his own, it is a gift
originating from great abilities, and with it he writes his own, our own
music."
Kullervo: ancient and modern
 Kullervo: strong protagonist
 Kullervo is archaic in his tragic elements
 Similarieties with Greek and Germanic Heroes
 Has the caracteristics of a modern hero:
 Doesn’k know his origins, identity and destiny
Kullervo and Finnish politics
 Kullervo is a slave, but he knows that he is an hero, he could not
accept slavery, rebellion against Untamo and the Wife of Ilmarinen
 Kullervo doesn’t know exactly who he is
 He is searching for his identity
=
 Finland under the Tzars
 Many Finnish were pursuing national independence

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
The Finns were searching for
their national identity
their national language (Finnish or Swedish?)
Their national arts
Kullervo according to Eero Tarasti
Myths and Music
 Symphony as a complicate text
 Synthesis between
 Karelianism
 Western, European classical and romantic musical tradition
 Codes
 Mythic
 Musical
 Public
 Karelianists, nationalists
 Music lovers, musicians, critics
Kullervo and Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet
 Both symphonies with chorus
 Choruses with different functions:
 In Berlioz: the chorus remember a Renaissance’s court
 In Sibelius: the chorus is the voice of the primitive, of the ancienty
Finnish communinies
Kullervo, Wagner, Bruckner
 Sibelius avoided Wagner’s style
 Some indirect influence:
 In the seduction: use of passionate descendent scales used
sometimes by Wagner in some opera’s dramatic climax
 Bruckner’s influence (Third Symphonyt)
 Use of the pauses to introduce a new theme
 In Sibelius: a way to pass from one phase of the mythical saga to
another
 A way to express mythical variety
 Kullervo has some typic features of Sibelius’ style: use of óbscure
tonal fields
Tarasti:
Myth and music
 Kullervo’s mythical structure is well expressed by arcaicisms
Sibelius and Kullervo:
a dificult relation
 Sibelius directed Kullervo only some times
 Last concerts in 1893
 Hard critics: even Merikanto admitted that the orchestral parts were
boring
 The composer was shoked
 he never conducted the work again – nor did he let anyone else
conduct the entire work during his lifetime.
 But "Kullervo was a treasure house," he said in his old age
Late critics:
”the King Kong of orchestral composition”
 In the 1990s there was a flood of
Kullervo recordings
 massive size
 megalomaniac ambitions
 Absolutely romantic work