In every aspect reviewed – harmonic structures, musical space, treatment of dissonance, tonal procedures, contrapuntal devices, Satz and form – some interesting phenomena cropped up.
Thickened lines (see section 2.1.1, Wood) have also been used earlier on occasions.129 In the music of Sibelius doubling voices in thirds or some other
appropriate interval is a very common feature. He shares this characteristic with several composers from the turn of the century.130 Also “close intervals
in the bottom register” (see section 2.1.2, Wood) was a marginal phenomenon earlier,131 not a common one even in the music of the Romantic
126 Cherniavsky 1975:173.
127 Ibid.
128 The term “pedal point” is used by Cherniavsky.
129 See W.A. Mozart: Symphony in E flat KV 543 (no. 39), 2. mvt., bars 39–44 and 76–82; F.
Chopin: Etudes op. 25 no. 6 and op. 25 no. 8.
130 See Mahler: Symphony No. 1 (1888), 1. mvt. between numbers 18 and 19;
Debussy: La Mer (1905), 2. mvt. between numbers 35 and 37;
Schoenberg: Fünf Orchesterstücke (1909), 1. mvt. between numbers 4 and 10; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps (1913), 1. Part between numbers 50 and 54.
(See also Piston 1978: Chapter 30; sub-headings “The Re-evaluation of Counterpoint” pp. 470– 472, “The Independent Vertical Sonority” pp. 472–475 and Chapter 31; sub-heading “Block Chords” pp. 487–488.)
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Era or the contemporary composers,132 but with Sibelius it is an ingredient of
his “northern orchestration”.133
Some phenomena encountered before Sibelius, such as harmonic accumulation (see section 2.1.3, Normet),134 or multiple treatment of
dissonance (see section 2.1.3, Normet),135 were innovations of some geniuses,
which after them did not become part of the standard practice of Romanticism. In these respects Sibelius also parallels his contemporaries.136
Some devices in the music of Sibelius do not differ from the previous music in terms of quantity, but rather of quality. The octatonic symmetric scale already makes appearances in Romantic harmony,137 but Sibelius uses
it in a personal way (see Fig. 2.1.4–2, Tawaststjerna).
It seems that Sibelius found a new approach to some age-old devices, which fell into oblivion at the dawn of the Classic Era. These are polymodality (see section 2.1.4, Wood),138 as well as ambiguity (see section
2.1.4, Furuhjelm).139 These devices were also re-discovered by some of
Sibelius’ contemporaries.140
132 See Berlioz: Fantastic Symphony (1830) 4. mvt. bars 1–16, Tchaikovsky: VI Symphony (1893) 1.
mvt., bars 39–41 (this passage – a wide gap between thickened lines – sounds quite ‘Sibelian’), R. Strauss: Till Eulenspiegel op. 28 (1895), bar 199.
133 See Törne 1937:97, Downes 1945:22, 181. Salmenhaara 1970:33 finds the expression “northern
orchestration” a cliché. His urge to “deromanticize” (ibid.:11) may have led to this notion. Still, the expression may have been used superficially, but it describes the vague observation that the Sibelian sound differs very distinctly from the traditional one. However, the idea remained undeveloped by Törne and Downes.
134 Earlier examples of harmonic accumulation: Berlioz: Fantastic Symphony (1830) 3. mvt. bars
188–190 (the dissonance formed by Timp. II – columnally interpreted as a root of a ninth chord – evaporates), Chopin: Etude in C minor op. 25 no. 12 (1837), bars 57–58 and 61–62.
135 Earlier examples of a multiple treatment of a dissonance: Chopin: Etude in E minor op. 25 no. 5
(1837) bar 60, Barcarolle op. 60 (1846) bars 42 and 46.
136 Contemporary examples of harmonic accumulation: Debussy: Estampes, La soirée dans
Grenade (1903) bars 35–38, Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit, Scarbo (1908) bars 178–182.
137 Octatonic symmetric scale: Liszt: Sonata in B minor (1853), bars 309–310 and 312–313. These
cases however raise a question: is the octatonic scale (formed by parallel diminished 7th chords) only a result of chordal motion, or is the parallel chordal motion instead guided by the octatonic scale?
138 Polymodality can be observed in the modal era. According to Bartók 1976:364–365 (Harvard
Lectures [1943]) its last remnant in the tonal era was the simultaneous using of different forms of minor scale. One well-known occurrence of this practice is in J. S. Bach’s Prelude in C sharp minor (WKL I), bars 29–30; simultaneous harmonic and melodic minor scales in C sharp.
139 Ambiguity was an exceptional phenomenon in the tonal era, but it was common in the modal
era: see O. Strunk 1981 II:19, note 6.
140 The phenomenon as such, though not its name, was proposed by F. Busoni in 1907 in the sixth
chapter of his Sketch of a New Esthetic of Music, [Entwurf einer neuen Ästhetik der Tonkunst] when Busoni suggests the scale C–D flat–E flat–F flat–G flat–A flat–B flat–C to be accompanied by C major triad; see Busoni 1962:92. The concept of polymodality and the term is used by Bartók in his Harvard
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Finally there is a group of composers – previous and contemporary – with whom Sibelius shares many features. We already saw that Tawaststjerna has traced some Russian forerunners of ambiguity (see section 2.1.4). Another trace that connects Sibelius with them is the modal approach. Leaning on scales other than major or minor (cf. Fig. 2.1.4–1, Tawaststjerna) was then a contemporary trend.141
In my opinion the above survey agrees more with the standpoint of Klemperer than with the opposite one (see chapter 1.2). At least it may question the accepted image of Sibelius as a late-romantic composer.
The above observations, especially those of Furuhjelm, Normet, Tolonen and Luyken, may easily lead one to think that there may be a totally new, original world, a new idea of Satz, concerning which the various authors’ remarks – while not providing a comprehensive explanation – at least offer us certain points of view.
Is it possible to trace – on the basis of these hints – the structure of this ‘new world’? In the following, systematic part of this study I will attempt to bind together the various aspects of Sibelian Satz described above.
lectures (1943); see Bartók 1976:364–365 and 367–371. The sharp definition used by Bartók is: “bimodality or polymodality” (ibid.: 370, 376).
141 Bartók says (in 1928): “Rumanian and Slovak folk songs show a highly interesting treatment of
the tritone (the first [Ex. 7] in a sort of Mixolydian mode with minor 6th, the others, in a Lydian mode...” (Bartók 1976:336–337). Later (ibid.:363) he offers another unusual scale that may be regarded as the second mode of the “darkened major” (see chapter 4.2.1).
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