Tapiola (Sibelius)

History#

When asked by the publisher to clarify the work’s program, Sibelius responded with a prose explanation converted by his publisher (Breitkopf & Härtel) into a quatrain prefixed to English language editions of the score: Wide-spread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests, Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams; Within them dwells the Forest’s mighty God, And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets. Tapiola was premiered by Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphonic Society on 26 December 1926. The original publisher was Breitkopf & Härtel, who published most of the composer’s works. Tapiola was Sibelius’s last major work, though he lived for another thirty years. He began working on an Eighth Symphony, but he is said to have burned the sketches after becoming unhappy with the work.

Instrumentation#

Tapiola is scored for the following instruments, organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings): *3 flutes (the third doubling on piccolo), 2 oboes, 1 cor anglais, 2 clarinets (in A), 1 bass clarinet (in B), 2 bassoons, and 1 contrabassoon *4 horns (in E), 3 trumpets (in B), and 3 trombones *Timpani *Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, and double basses

Music#

A typical performance of Tapiola lasts between fifteen and twenty minutes. The opening gesture from which the whole piece develops is: : \relative c \clef treble \key b \minor \numericTimeSignature \time 2/2 \tempo “Largamente” r4 2\f 8–\ – !– – 4 > ! \slashedGrace gis,8( gis'4)-. Karl Ekman wrote in the Hufvudstadsbladet: “Indeed, Tapiola is a monothematic whole – although there has been disagreement as to whether the core motif can actually be considered a theme. Erkki Salmenhaara argues that it is not. In his view, the ‘core’ motif gives rise to at least four central, interconnected basic motifs. These, in their turn, produce ‘around thirty highly characteristic, original and inimitably Sibelian musical motifs’.”

Discography#

The Finnish conductor Robert Kajanus and the London Symphony Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of Tapiola in June 1932, which appeared on Volume 1 of HMV’s The Sibelius Society series (C 507, 1933). Since Kanajus’s pioneering example, three conductors—in terms of superlatives—have made four recordings each: Sir Thomas Beecham (1946, 1954, 1955, and 1955); Herbert von Karajan (1953, 1964, 1976, and 1984); and Paavo Berglund (1968, 1972, 1982, and 1987). The table below lists these and other commercially available recordings:

Further reading#

• Grimley, Daniel M. (Summer 2011). “Music, Landscape, Attunement: Listening to Sibelius’s Tapiola,” Journal of the American Musicological Society, vol. 64, no. 2, pp. 394–398.
• Mellers, Wilfrid (2001). “Tapiolas Search for Oneness and Cunning Little Vixen as a Parable of Redemption.” In Singing in the Wilderness: Music and Ecology in the Twentieth Century (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press), pp. 37–52.

External links#

• Inkpot review of Tapiola
• (audio no longer available)
• , Berlin Philharmonic, Herbert von Karajan