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Tonality and Modality in Sibelius's Sixth Symphony
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2016
Extract
Sibelius began planning his Sixth Symphony, op. 104, in 1918, before the Fifth reached its final, definitive version: the Sixth took virtually five years to complete, and was first performed in 1923. It immediately attracted attention, and critics began at once to explore its structure. Sibelius seems to have been genuinely surprised at some of the revelations of the analysts and is recorded as saying that though investigators might find several interesting things going on in the work, ‘most people forget that it is, above all, a poem’. Sibelius's warning – typical of most composers, who generally seem content to forget the scaffolding of a work once it is completed – has done nothing to prevent analysts from probing into the Symphony.
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References
1 Johnson, Harold E., Sibelius (London: Faber and Faber, 1960), p.161 Google Scholar.
2 See Pike, Lionel, ‘Phrygian Elements in Sibelius's First Symphony’, Newsletter of the United Kingdom Sibelius Society, Issue 29, 12 1993, pp.12–17 Google Scholar.
3 See Pike, Lionel, Beethoven, Sibelius and ‘the Profound Logic’, (London: The Athlone Press, 1978), pp.93–106 Google Scholar.
4 See the discussion in Pike, Lionel, ‘Sibelius's Debt to Renaissance Polyphony’, Music and Letter, Vol 55 No.3, 07 1974, pp.317–26CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Pike, Lionel, op.cit., 1978, pp.188–202 Google Scholar; Howell, Tim, jean Sibelius, Progressive Techniques in the Symphonies and Tone Poems, (New York and London: Garland Publishing. Inc., 1989), pp.73–85 Google Scholar; and Murtomäki, Viejo, ‘Symphonic Unity: The development of formal thinking in the symphonies of Sibelius’, Studia Musicologica Universitatis Helsingiensis, 1993. pp.193–241 Google Scholar.
5
Both scales use 
; as the leading-note at cadences, and both can use 
: but Dorian is more likely to stress 
– particularly in harmonies – than is D minor.
6
The idea of tonal pivots is not new to Sibelius: he had already used them in his Second and Fifth symphonies. In some circumstances 
. could occur in the D Dorian mode; but the melodic – and much more, perhaps, the harmonic – character is governed by the 
which belongs to the pure mode.
7 Pike, Lionel, op.cit., 1978. passim Google Scholar.
8 The diapente consists of five notes – the final and the next four notes above it – in any mode; it helps to define the mode, though it can in reality only do so unequivocally if combined with the diatessaron (the four notes made up of the final and the next three notes below it).
9
I thank Professor Tim Carter for this observation, and for pointing out that the reverse happens in Symphony No.7, where D minor (plus 
)acts as a substitute dominant that resolves on C; and also for much help and advice in connexion with the present article.
10 The thirds may themselves derive from the dyad, though parallel thirds are a notable feature of Sibelius's style in any case. Murtomäki, , op.cit., pp.200–202 Google Scholar, shows how the work's melodic material relates to the Dorian scale.
11 See note 8.
12 Pike, Lionel, op.cit., 1978, p.102 Google Scholar.
13 The tune might, in fact, be either D minor or Dorian: since Bs (of any kind) are avoided, the listener cannot be sure.
14
Professor Tim Carter makes the entirely plausible suggestion that flute 2 in bar 240 {Hansen p.87 bar 1) should have 
on the last beat.
15 Johnson, , op.cit., p.161 Google Scholar.