Sibelius’ “Luonnotar”: A Mythic Tone Poem for Soprano and Orchestra

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In Finnish mythology, Luonnotar is the female spirit of nature, and the daughter of the heavens. Also known as Ilmatar, she is at the center of the creation story which is told in Cantos 1 of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Lonely and bored, Luonnotar floats aimlessly for centuries in a vast, celestial void, before dropping into the primal ocean. Following a mighty tempest, the goddess’ boredom is alleviated when a …

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Sibelius’ Second Symphony: The Creation of a Divine Mosaic

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The famous 1907 meeting between Jean Sibelius and Gustav Mahler in Helsinki revealed two opposing, yet equally compelling, conceptions of the symphony. Mahler insisted that “the symphony must be like the world. It must embrace everything.” In contrast, Sibelius expressed admiration for the symphony’s “style and severity of form, as well as the profound logic creating an inner connection among all of the motives.” On another occasion, Sibelius observed, similarly, Music is, …

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Bach’s Viola da Gamba Sonata in G Major, BWV 1027: “The Loveliest, the Purest Idyll Conceivable”

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The popularity of the viola da gamba was already fading when J.S. Bach composed three sonatas for the instrument (BWV 1027–1029) in the late 1730s. A predecessor to the cello, the bowed, fretted string instrument evolved from the Spanish vihuela in the late 15th century, and flourished during the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Evidence suggests that Bach wrote the Viola da Gamba Sonatas in Leipzig. During this period, in addition to his …

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Eugène Ysaÿe’s Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, “Ballade”: Shunsuke Sato

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At the turn of the twentieth century, the Belgian violinist, Eugène Ysaÿe (1858-1931), was regarded as “The King of the Violin.” The conductor, Sir Henry Wood said, “The quality of tone was ravishingly beautiful…He seemed to get more color out of a violin than any of his contemporaries.” Commenting on the naturalness and flow of Ysaÿe’s rubato, Wood said, “Whenever he stole time from one note, he faithfully paid it back within …

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Debussy’s “Feuilles Mortes”: A Desolate Landscape

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Feuilles mortes (“Dead Leaves”) is the second piece in Book II of Claude Debussy’s Préludes for solo piano. Composed in 1913, the music suggests the vivid colors and atmosphere of an impressionistic painting. It evokes a bleak and desolate late autumn landscape—perhaps one in which a frost has already descended. Debussy’s interpretive marking is Lent et mélancolique. Filled with jazzy parallel chords, the music inhabits a haunting dreamscape. Quiet, ghostly ostinatos emerge …

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Bach’s Violin Concerto in D Minor, BWV 1052R: Virtuosity and Fire

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Bach was a master of adaptation and reuse. He made a habit of crafting harpsichord concerti out of previously written concerti for other instruments. Such is the case with the Harpsichord Concerto in D minor, BWV 1052, which is believed to be a transcription of a long-lost Bach violin concerto. The score is filled with passages which fit neatly into the violin as bariolage, “the alternation of notes on adjacent strings, one …

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Duke Ellington’s “The Mooche”: Three Classic Recordings

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The Mooche was one of Duke Ellington’s signature pieces. Composed in 1928 by Ellington and the jazz promoter Irving Mills, it is an example of the Duke’s characteristic “jungle style,” with its exotic, pseudo-African undercurrents. These are the jazz age sounds which filled Harlem’s Cotton Club in the late 1920s. According to Ellington, the title, underscored by the infectiously languid rhythm, refers to “a certain lazy gait peculiar to some of the …

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