{"id":866,"date":"2008-04-15T02:16:31","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T06:16:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=866"},"modified":"2018-08-14T13:14:57","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T17:14:57","slug":"sibelius-kullervo-op-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=866","title":{"rendered":"Sibelius\u2019 Kullervo, Op.7"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kuller\u00advo is the dark\u00adest char\u00adac\u00adter in the Kale\u00advala<\/em>, the epic of Finnish mythol\u00ado\u00adgy that had a pro\u00adfound effect on me in child\u00adhood. His sto\u00adry is told in runos<\/em> 31 through 36 of the epic. Enslaved and abused as a child, Kuller\u00advo\u2019s life is dom\u00adi\u00adnat\u00aded by the quest for revenge, which leads him to com\u00admit hor\u00adri\u00adfy\u00ading crimes, includ\u00ading the rape of his own sis\u00adter. The most strik\u00ading part of the sto\u00adry is his death, where he asks his sword if he should kill him\u00adself, and the sword bursts into song:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"08-04-15<\/a>\u201c<\/span>Mieks\u2019en s\u00f6isi mielell\u00e4ni,<\/em>
\n<\/em>s\u00f6isi syylist\u00e4 lihoa,<\/em>
\n<\/em>vial\u00adlista ver\u00adta joisi?<\/em>
\n<\/em>Sy\u00f6n lihoa syytt\u00f6m\u00e4nki,<\/em>
\n<\/em>juon ver\u00adta viat\u00adtoman\u00adki.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Why, if I desire it,<\/span>
\n should I not kill you,<\/span>
\n swal\u00adlow up your wicked blood?<\/span>
\n I have con\u00adsumed inno\u00adcent flesh,<\/span>
\n and swal\u00adlowed up guilt\u00adless blood.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This lit\u00adtle sequence was bor\u00adrowed by Poul Ander\u00adson in The Bro\u00adken Sword<\/em>, and by Michael Moor\u00adcock in one of his Elric<\/em> tales. V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6i\u00adnen, the wise cen\u00adtral char\u00adac\u00adter of the Kale\u00advala, remarks that Kuller\u00advo\u2019s fate proves that chil\u00addren should nev\u00ader be mis\u00adtreat\u00aded, since an abused child will grow up with\u00adout wis\u00addom or honour.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 1892, the young and unproven com\u00adpos\u00ader Jean Sibelius com\u00adposed Kuller\u00advo, a sym\u00adphon\u00adic poem for soloists, cho\u00adrus and orches\u00adtra,<\/em> Op.7. Fin\u00adland was still a provin\u00adcial place, an unwill\u00ading depen\u00adden\u00adcy of the Russ\u00adian Empire, iso\u00adlat\u00aded from the main\u00adstream of Euro\u00adpean cul\u00adture by its remote loca\u00adtion and bizarre, non-Indo-Euro\u00adpean lan\u00adguage. It could bare\u00adly put togeth\u00ader an orches\u00adtra and cho\u00adrus capa\u00adble of han\u00addling a work on this scale, and Sibelius demon\u00adstrat\u00aded extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary ambi\u00adtion and chutz\u00adpah<\/em> to get it per\u00adformed. The Finns were just begin\u00adning to assert their inde\u00adpen\u00addence and pride. The work had strong nation\u00adal\u00adist (i.e. sub\u00adver\u00adsive, to the Russ\u00adian author\u00adi\u00adties) overtones.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Sibelius was lat\u00ader embar\u00adrassed by the work, which he regard\u00aded as an ama\u00adteur\u00adish youth\u00adful effort. It was not often per\u00adformed in his life\u00adtime. But after his death, it was revived, as peo\u00adple dis\u00adcov\u00adered its extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnary vital\u00adi\u00adty. Yes, it has some ama\u00adteur\u00adish awk\u00adward\u00adness, but it is a hell of a spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar show, and for a work by a young com\u00adpos\u00ader, it showed amaz\u00ading com\u00admand of orches\u00adtral forces. There are obvi\u00adous bor\u00adrow\u00adings from the com\u00adposers that influ\u00adenced him as a stu\u00addent, espe\u00adcial\u00adly Tchaikovsky, but Sibelius\u2019 unique voice is already there. The choral pas\u00adsages are mag\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcent, and unlike most choral inter\u00adpre\u00adta\u00adtions of epic verse, they are right-sound\u00ading. It is as if the runos<\/em> of the Kale\u00advala were intend\u00aded, all along, to be sung this way.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I pos\u00adsess two ver\u00adsions, one direct\u00aded by Paa\u00advo Berglund, which I first heard when I was dis\u00adcov\u00ader\u00ading Sibelius, as a teenag\u00ader. Anoth\u00ader ver\u00adsion, direct\u00aded by Jor\u00adma Pan\u00adu\u00adla, is not quite as good, but quite accept\u00adable, and avail\u00adable on a bar\u00adgain Nax\u00ados cd. I regret that I haven\u2019t heard the ver\u00adsion by Juk\u00adka-Pekka Saraste, the bril\u00adliant con\u00adduc\u00adtor who led the Toron\u00adto Sym\u00adpho\u00adny dur\u00ading the unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate peri\u00adod when its finances were trou\u00adbled and labour rela\u00adtions went sour. I once heard him per\u00adform Sibelius\u2019 Fifth in a mes\u00admer\u00adiz\u00ading, almost super\u00adnat\u00adur\u00adal per\u00adfor\u00admance. This is not a deep work, like the Fifth, but I imag\u00adine that Saraste would inter\u00adpret it per\u00adfect\u00adly. Col\u00adin Davis, per\u00adhaps the best non-Finnish inter\u00adpreter of Sibelius, also has a version.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kuller\u00advo is the dark\u00adest char\u00adac\u00adter in the Kale\u00advala, the epic of Finnish mythol\u00ado\u00adgy that had a pro\u00adfound effect on me in child\u00adhood. His sto\u00adry is told in runos 31 through 36 of the epic. Enslaved and abused as a child, \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16,947,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008","category-c-listening","category-cs-listening-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=866"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8591,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/866\/revisions\/8591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}