User:Silence of Järvenpää/Work (t)

Tapiola (literal English translation as The Realm of Tapio), Op. 112, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1926 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which premiered on 26 December 1926 in New York City with Walter Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Society, depicts the mystery and majesty of the Nordic forest. The name 'tapiola' derives from the Kalevala (e.g., Runos XIV and XLVI), Finland's national epic. According to legend, these "thick, dark forests" were the "eerie dwellings" of the titular spirit-deity Tapio. Nevertheless, Sibelius downplayed the tone poem's connection to literature, explaining: "My inspiration for Tapiola came wholly from nature, or even more accurately from something inexpressible in words". Tapiola thus has a kinship with En saga, The Oceanides, and The Bard in that, in each tone poem, Sibelius endeavored to depict a psychological mood rather than to execute a particular narrative.

The most notable feature of the tone poem, in B minor, is that it is monothematic: the entire piece develops "organically" from a simple, 10-note opening motif. Structurally, Sibelius considered Tapiola to be in sonata form; some commentators, however, have preferred to view the piece as consisting of variations on a theme or set of motivic metamorphoses. A typical performance of the piece lasts about 18–20 minutes.

The initial response to Tapiola was tepid, possibly due to a "lamentably uneven" premiere performance by the orchestra. Yet critics faulted Sibelius, too, describing his opening motif as "commonplace" and "unfertile"; devoted Sibelian Olin Downes, for example, ambivalently rejected the piece as a "work of style and manner rather than inspiration". By the early 1930s, however, opinion had warmed due to the advocacy of Serge Koussevitzky, with one commentator proclaiming Tapiola "the culminating point of [Sibelius's] entire creative activity... a consummate masterpiece". Indeed, today it is considered to be the greatest of Sibelius's many tone poems.

Shortly after composing Tapiola, Sibelius would halt most compositional activity (a promised Eighth Symphony, for example, never materialized), a period of inactivity sometimes referred to as the "Silence of Järvenpää". As such, Tapiola represents not only Sibelius's ultimate contribution to the tone poem genre, but also—though not intended as such—the final major, completed composition of his career.

Composition
score In January 1926, Sibelius received a message from the Hungarian-American conductor Walter Damrosch: his orchestra, the New York Symphony Orchestra (then the major rival of the New York Philharmonic Society) wished to commission a new symphonic poem from Sibelius. The piece, not to exceed twenty minutes in length, was to be played in November in New York City. Having recently finished another commission, incidental music to William Shakespeare's tragicomedy The Tempest, Sibelius accepted the Damrosch offer.

Sibelius likely began composing the tone poem in January or February while at Ainola; on 20 March he relocated to Rome, taking his sketches for Tapiola with him.

American premiere


The tone poem premiered on 26 December 1926 at the Mecca Temple in New York City, Damrosch conducting the New York Symphony Orchestra.
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European premiere
In Finland, Kajanus conducted the work on 25th April 1927. On this occasion the overture to The Tempest and the seventh symphony also received their first performances in Finland.
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Orchestration
Tapiola is scored for the following instruments:
 * Woodwind: 3 flutes (the third doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, cor anglais, 2 clarinets (in A), bass clarinet (in B♭), 2 bassoons, contrabassoon
 * Brass: 4 horns (in E♭), 3 trumpets (in B♭), 3 trombones
 * Percussion: timpani
 * Strings: violins, violas, cellos, double basses

Structure
The opening melodic gesture, initially heard from the first violins, from which the whole piece develops:

Karl Ekman wrote in the Hufvudstadsbladet: "Indeed, Tapiola is a monothematic whole – although there has been disagreement as to whether the core motif can actually be considered a theme. Erkki Salmenhaara argues that it is not. In his view, the "core" motif gives rise to at least four central, interconnected basic motifs. These, in their turn, produce "around thirty highly characteristic, original and inimitably Sibelian musical motifs".

Reception

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Discography
The following sortable table includes commercially available recordings of Tapiola. (Updated: May 2020)

Liner notes








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Books