MODERN MUSIC.

Evening Star, Issue 22525, 18 December 1936, Page 3

MODERN MUSIC.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —As 1 have long regarded Sibelius as the greatest figure in contemporary music, 1 have been surprised by the confession of your correspondent, “ L.D.A.,” to the effect that he is unable to enthuse over this master, whose creations, to uso his own expression, “ leave him cold.” Well, “ L.D.A.” has ray sympathy. Furthermore. he doubts whether Sibelius can bo called modern in the modern sense, since he was born in 1865. I see no reason why Sibelius, although belonging chronologically to the older period of Elgar ami Richard Strauss, should not find a place in any discussion or modern music for that reason. Tins raises the question as to what a modern composer actually is. If it is essentially a person who imagines that the only conceivable method of musicmaking lies in the manufacture of queer noises utterly unlike anything heard before, then Sibelius is exempted. But the greater of his works have been produced within the present century, so that lie is quite a contemporary of Stravinsky and the rest ot the modern innovators who seem to get nowhere. But whereas the music of the Stravinsky elan seems to be a case of much ado about nothing, Sibelius, where necessary, provides much ado about something very definite indeed. There are many astonishing sounds _ in his music, biit they all form a logical part of the whole. The secret of Sibelius lies in getting to know him. I have found that out by means of frequent and repeated hearings of one or two of his works. I well remember when I first heard that colossal masterpiece of his, tho symphonic poem Tapiola. which dates from about 1926 (which. I hope, is modern enough to satisfy “L.D.A.”). After the first hearing I seemed conscious only of the fact that in the course of it I experienced the loudest sound I have ever heard from a gramophone. For the rest, it was just a noise. Then, after three or four hearings, I found myself more and more amazed at the jgrandenr of this 16-minute work, which an enormous orchestra to build a great symphonic poem out of a mere fragment of melody. Actually ‘ Tapiola. • is a fine example of the great results obtainable from simple means and _ ot Sibelius’s uncanny genius for seeing electrifying possibilities in the apparently commonplace. Admittedly I sit down to listen to every Sibelius composition with the preconceived opinion that I am about to hear a masterpiece, and I. suppose I have been fired with enthusiasm through reading the comments of such Sibelius enthusiasts as Cecil Gray, Constant Lambert, and Ernest Newman, But if I appear to be a blind worshipper of Sibelius it is principally as a result of listening continually to his music. How “L.D.A.” could be “ left cold ” after listening to such a work as the fifth _ symphony, and experiencing such thrills as the tantalising horn call in the first movement, tho astonishing yet sane development of the almost negligible theme of the second, and the ecstatic soaring of the violins over the undulations of the main themo on the brass instruments in the finale, is more than I can fathom. Thanks to the medium of the gramophone and radio, and the establishment of a society for the express purpose of recording the master’s works, the Sibelius compositions have reached this country in the form of records. It is comforting to think that “ L.D.A.,” who was bored with the seventh symphony in London* can at least renew acquaintances with it through the gramophone. Interest in his music is rapidly growing, and people are experiencing from it a satisfaction for which they search vainly in the music of certain moderns. To-day Sibelius lives in his native Finland, an old man of over 70, worshipped by and beloved of the entire Finnisn people. People, of course, find it hard to believe that an insignificant little Scandinavian country should produce one who ranks in the symphonic world as the greatest composer since Beethoven. They have seized tho idea that Sibelius _is a “ petit maitre, a sort of Finnish Grieg.” As Mr Constant Lambert says, it is still necessary when talking to a certain typo of person to point out that when you speak of Sibelius as a great composer yon are not think of ‘ Finlandia ’ or ‘ Valse Triste,’ two minor works -which have seized the public’s fancy and so moulded their opinions that when they hear one of his greater compositions they are frankly nonplussed. Perhaps it might be as well to cease before I wander any further. But, in conclusion, 1 might mention a fact that may cause “L.D.A.” to wonder what things are coming to. A youth younger than myself recently informed me that as far as symphonies go ho prefers Sibelius to Beethoven. It makes one think that there must be something in the music of this man Sibelius after all.—l am, etc., Charles Dickens. December 17.