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The Gaggle Music Club: Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1

This week's selection for The Gaggle is Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39.

Composed between 1898 and 1899, Sibelius’s First Symphony was written in the political and cultural context of growing Finnish nationalism. Sibelius had already garnered fame with works like Kullervo (1892) and the Lemminkäinen Suite (1895), both based on Finnish mythology.

Kullervo, composed in 1892, was a massive choral symphony based on the Kalevala (Finland’s national epic). It consists of five movements, featuring baritone and soprano soloists, male chorus and large orchestra. Though labeled a "symphony," it is closer in spirit to Wagnerian music drama than to a traditional symphony.

Lemminkäinen Suite, composed in 1895, consisted of a cycle of four symphonic tone poems, including the famous The Swan of Tuonela. Like Kullervo, it was based on the Kalevala legends, centered on the roguish figure of Lemminkäinen. The work is rich in exotic orchestration and mood-painting, but episodic in structure. It propelled Sibelius to national fame, though after its premiere it was never again performed during the composer's lifetime.

Both of these works were steeped in Finnish folklore; they were structurally loose, episodic and reflective of the tone-poem traditions of Liszt, say. With his First Symphony, Sibelius turned deliberately toward symphonic structure. Unlike the earlier tone poems, the symphony adopts four-movement classical form. The symphony follows, broadly, the sonata tradition: a dramatic first movement, a lyrical slow movement, a scherzo and a passionate finale.

Though Romantic in feel, it exhibits the concise motivic development and thematic economy that would define Sibelius’s mature symphonies. It superficially resembles Russian symphonic writing (especially that of Tchaikovsky), but Sibelius’s distinctive voice is clearly discernible.

The first movement, Andante, ma non troppo – Allegro energico, opens with a clarinet solo over a timpani roll, establishing a brooding, melancholic mood. This leads into a turbulent Allegro with sweeping string lines and brass outbursts. The development is dramatic, often pulling back into quiet mystery before erupting again.

The second movement, Andante, is lyrical and elegiac, and showcases Sibelius’s gift for long, unfolding melodic lines. There’s a pastoral, Nordic tone, with woodwind solos evoking open landscapes.

The third movement, Scherzo, is filled with irregular phrasing and syncopation. Strings and brass engage in rhythmic interplay, with a contrasting trio section that's more lyrical. The strong rhythmic momentum points toward the rugged energy found in Sibeius's later symphonies.

The fourth movement, Finale, begins like a tone poem, with slow, rhapsodic passages, and concludes with somber reflection—Sibelius avoids the heroic motifs of many Romantic finales.

Sibelius's First Symphony is said to straddle Romanticism and modern nationalism. Hallmarks of Romanticism are readily apparent. There is the lush orchestration, including rich, expressive use of strings, woodwinds and brass. There is also personal emotion: The opening clarinet solo is deeply melancholic, almost confessional.

Modern nationalism--an emphasis on national identity, a distinctive feature of 20th century classical music--is is on display in this symphony in the use of folk-like elements that recall Finnish music traditions. There is also atmospheric orchestration evoking the Nordic landscape.

Sibelius's Symphony No. 1 is Romantic in sound, structure and emotion—but nationalist in spirit, atmosphere and identity. The composition contains more lush orchestration than do his later works, which become increasingly abstract and architectural. The work marks the transition from Sibelius the nationalistic tone-poet to Sibelius, the master symphonist.

In this performance from 2013, the Orchestre de Paris is conducted by Paavo Järvi.

00:40:46
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Join Gagglers for "The Wicker Man"!
The screening starts at 3 p.m. ET sharp.
Share all of your thoughts, comments and criticisms on the Live Chat.

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The Gaggle Music Club: Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements

This week's selection for The Gaggle Music Club is Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements. Completed in 1945, the symphony is one Stravinsky's most important late works. Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, the symphony premiered on Jan. 24, 1946 at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Stravinsky himself.

Often called Stravinsky's “first American symphony,” the composition shows his neoclassical language at its most taut: sharp orchestration, motor-like rhythms, lean textures.

Although Stravinsky often denied overt programmatic meaning in his music, he later admitted that the Symphony in Three Movements was a “war symphony.” The first movement, for example, was inspired by newsreel footage of wartime scorched earth tactics. Its violent rhythms and jagged piano writing reflect mechanized destruction. The final movement was inspired by Allied military advances, including the crossing of the Rhine in 1945. The march rhythms and the relentless drive exude a sense of military ...

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Same old same old. She is already planning her outfit for next press conference .

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They are so full of shit. This plan is just a way for the genocidal maniac to finish the job- it was disgusting- Trump saying this is the greatest day in history of civilization. Really? He is fucking idiot and I am stunned that all Arab states are praising him for this charade. I guarantee that nothing on the ground will change-- it will only get worse.

🇫🇷❌🇷🇺 — The Chief of Staff for the French Army, Gen. Pierre Schill, has stated that forces must be ready “as early as tonight” for high-intensity warfare, warning of a potential direct military confrontation in the near future with Russia over the defense of a NATO Ally in Eastern Europe.

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More Leftie Than Thou
"Jacobin" Magazine Celebrates A Strike Against Ol' Blue Eyes

Here at "The Gaggle" we have very little time for the "more Leftie than thou" school of thought--that's the approach to life according to which the only thing that matters is whether you take the right position on every issue under the sun from Abortion to Zelensky. No one in the world meets the exacting standards of this school of thought; any Leftie leader anywhere is always selling out to the bankers and the capitalists. The perfect exemplar of this is the unreadable Jacobin magazine. 

The other day I came across this article from 2021. It's a celebration of trade union power. And not simply trade union power, but the use of trade union power to secure political goals. Of course (and this is always the case with the "more Leftie than thou" crowd), this glorious, never-to-be-forgotten moment on the history of organized labor took place many years ago--in the summer of 1974 to be exact. Yes, almost half a century has gone by since that thrilling moment when the working-class movement of Australia mobilized and prepared to seize the means of production, distribution and exchange. 

Well, not quite. Organized labor went into action against...Ol' Blue Eyes, the Chairman of the Board, the Voice; yes, Frank Sinatra. Why? What had Sinatra done? Sinatra was certainly very rich, and he owned a variety of properties and businesses. But if the Australian trade union movement were, understandably, searching for the bright, incandescent spark that would finally awaken the working class from its slumber there were surely richer, greedier, more dishonest, more decadent, above all more Australian individuals it could have discovered. Australia was never short of them. Rupert Murdoch immediately springs to mind. Why Sinatra?

 

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