The Raven (Sibelius)

Composition and abandonment#

In the summer of 1909, the Finnish soprano Aino Ackté proposed to Sibelius that the two of them should together embark on a concert tour of central Europe, with stops in Munich, Berlin, Vienna, and Prague. The plan also called for Sibelius to compose a new orchestral song for her to premiere in Germany. By the autumn of 1910, as Ackté and her impresario, Emil Gutmann, were finalizing arrangements for a February 1911 tour, she sought a commitment from Sibelius. In early November, the pair met in Helsinki and Sibelius, agreeing to his role, suggested a setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s macabre narrative poem, The Raven, which he had read via the Swedish-language translation by Viktor Rydberg (1877). The Ackté commission was not without hazard, as it forced Sibelius to divert himself from the Fourth Symphony, with which he was then wrestling. Moreover, each piece was scheduled to premiere in early 1911. He began working on The Raven on 9 November, but he quickly began to have doubts, both about his ability to successfully juggle two simultaneous projects (28 November diary entry: “Struggle with God! The Raven! Happiness and pain! Will I get it finished and perfect by February?”) and the German translation of Poe’s poem (3 December: “Doubts about the text. Words are always a burden in my composing”.).