Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 May 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Neil Powell: ‘Music’
- Introduction
- Dana Gioia: ‘Lives of the Great Composers’
- Thomas Tallis (1505–85)
- William Byrd (?1543–1623)
- John Dowland (?1563–1626)
- Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643)
- Gregorio Allegri (1582–1652)
- Orlando Gibbons (1583–1625)
- Dietrich Buxtehude (1637–1707)
- Henry Purcell (1659–95)
- François Couperin (1668–1733)
- Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
- Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
- George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
- Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757)
- Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714–87)
- Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
- Antonio Salieri (1750–1825)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–91)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
- Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
- John Field (1782–1837)
- Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
- Hector Berlioz (1803–69)
- Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47)
- Fryderyk Chopin (1810–49)
- Robert Schumann (1810–56)
- Franz Liszt (1811–86)
- Giuseppe Verdi (1813–1901)
- Richard Wagner (1813–83)
- Anton Bruckner (1824–96)
- Bedřich Smetana (1824–84)
- Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
- Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
- Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–93)
- Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904)
- Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900)
- Edvard Grieg (1843–1907)
- Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924)
- Leoš Janáček (1854–1928)
- Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
- Giacomo Puccini (1858–1924)
- Hugo Wolf (1860–1903)
- Gustav Mahler (1860–1911)
- Frederick Delius (1862–1934)
- Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
- Richard Strauss (1864–1949)
- Jean Sibelius (1865–1957)
- Erik Satie (1866–1925)
- Amy Beach (1867–1944)
- Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
- Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943)
- Gustav Holst (1874–1934)
- Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951)
- Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
- Ottorino Respighi (1879–1936)
- Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
- Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
- Percy Grainger (1882–1961)
- Arnold Bax (1883–1953)
- Anton Webern (1883–1945)
- Alban Berg (1885–1935)
- George Butterworth (1885–1916)
- Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959)
- Ivor Gurney (1890–1937)
- Sergey Prokofiev (1891–1953)
- Peter Warlock (Philip Heseltine) (1894–1930)
- Francis Poulenc (1899–1963)
- Aaron Copland (1900–90)
- Gerald Finzi (1901–56)
- Michael Tippett (1905–98)
- Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–75)
- Olivier Messiaen (1908–92)
- Samuel Barber (1910–81)
- John Cage (1912–92)
- Benjamin Britten (1913–76)
- Witold Lutosławski (1913–94)
- György Ligeti (1923–2006)
- Harrison Birtwistle (b.1934)
- Peter Maxwell Davies (b.1934)
- Arvo Pärt (b.1935)
- Epilogue
- Composers
- Poets
- Acknowledgements
- Index of First Lines
- Index of Titles
Summary
Sibelius
The forests discern him,
the forests of idle turbulent rain,
whose horses, bridled, barely,
whose chariots, burn.
GILLIAN ALLNUTT
Barkbröd
for Michael Mott
I used to think of him as Väinämöinen – seer, demigod.
I told him to his face once, when flushed with wine.
He smiled his sour smile and called me ‘cheesemonger’.
Last week he told me that an elk had stamped his lawn.
(Of course reindeer milk gives the best of gamey cheeses.)
I told him his ‘Kullervo’ called all creatures home.
I went with Birgit to Helsinki for his symphony.
What I heard there was a growling. We took the tailor, Hirn,
who singled out the culprits: bassoon and double bass.
Someone said this new work sounded ‘mountainous’.
‘Barkbröd’, Hirn said. ‘Like the mix of grain and tree bark
which kept our ancestors alive’. Others took the likeness up.
“‘Austere’, ‘introspective’, ‘spare’?” the maestro sneered
when I told him that his Fourth brought Barkbröd to mind.
He flapped his hands about as if such compliments were flies.
I took exception to the gesture. Flies in my shop!
Then he turned on our tutunmaa, a perfectly pale yellow,
and declared it ‘off’. I gestured towards the door.
‘Allow me,’ I said, ‘to know and nurse my own cheeses’.
(He patronised me, he once said, for my turn of phrase.
‘It's just as Finnish as your symphonies,’ I replied.)
Not content, he singled out my juustoleipä for abuse.
To him it might as well have been old gammalost
that nourished Norsemen on their long sea trips.
I’ve thought of him as one of our forefathers since,
his fine hands clutching rough dark rye barkbread.
Yes, he would yearn then for my ‘elemental’ cheeses.
TONY ROBERTS
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Accompanied VoicesPoets on Composers: From Thomas Tallis to Arvo Pärt, pp. 110 - 112Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2015