Pike Sibelius Polyphony

  • Upload
    harald0

  • View
    236

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    1/11

    Sibelius's Debt to Renaissance PolyphonyAuthor(s): Lionel PikeSource: Music & Letters, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Jul., 1974), pp. 317-326Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/734228

    Accessed: 24/11/2009 19:02

    Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at

    http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless

    you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you

    may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

    Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at

    http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=oup.

    Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed

    page of such transmission.

    JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

    content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

    of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

    Oxford University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toMusic &

    Letters.

    http://www.jstor.org

    http://www.jstor.org/stable/734228?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ouphttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ouphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/734228?origin=JSTOR-pdf
  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    2/11

    SIBELIUS'S DEBT TO RENAISSANCEPOLYPHONYBY LIONEL PIKE

    "THE error of our day has been its faith in polyphony. It has seemedas if people imagined that the whole had become better by placingnonentities on top of each other. Polyphony is, of course, a forcewhen there is good reason for it, but for a long time it has seemed asif an illness had been raging among composers". Sibelius's own viewof polyphony, as quoted here by Ekman, does not exclude him fromadmiring the work of Palestrinal or using polyphony should therebe a good reason for it. In fact, his love of the music of Palestrina,Lassus and the English Tudor composers is almost as well knownas his remark that what interested him in symphonic writing was"the profound logic that created an inner connection between allthe motives".2 This view did not prevent him from insisting on theimportance of the aural effect of the music; he said of his sixthsymphony: "You may analyse it and explain it theoretically.-Youmay find that there are several interesting things going on. But mostpeople forget that it is, above all, a poem". The reference here wasto analysts who saw the 'unity' of the symphony in terms of thederivation of the motifs from one melodic germ-a view that missesthe real point of the work. An understanding of its nature cannevertheless give greater depth to our appreciation of the poetry.The sixth symphony is the work which commentators have mostfrequently said to be influenced by Renaissance polyphony, 8and theobject of this article is to explore those facets of Sibelius's writing inthis work which are attributable to that influence. The featuresnormally singled out are modality and counterpoint, but to mentionthese is merely to scratch the surface. Before discussing modality andcounterpoint in detail, it is essential to outline the main features ofthe formal structure of the work.

    Many of the themes derive their material from a phrase of fivenotes rising by step in a minor scale; this phrase is first heard in itsentirety on p. 2,4just after Letter A, on the first oboe; its significanceis emphasized by the fact that this is the point at which the tonic of the1 See Harold E. Johnson, 'Sibelius' (London, x959), pp. 160 foil.2See David Cherniavsky, 'Special Characteristics of Sibelius's Style', in GeraldAbraham, 'Sibelius; A Symposium' (London, 1952), pp. I65 foll.3 See, for instance, Wilfred Mellers, 'Sibelius and the Modern Mind', Music Survey,(1949), p. I80.4 All such references are given to the miniature score published by Wilhelm Hansen,No. 3343b: I have referred to the score rather than print examples, since copies are soreadily available.

    317

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    3/11

    symphony is first firmly stated. The scalic pattern is alluded to indescending form before this point, and the idea occurs equallyfrequently in rising form and inversion throughout the work. Therising and falling forms are often balanced by being used con-secutively or simultaneously as 'mirror' forms of one another. Theformer process results in a second shape which is of importance tothe work, - ' -^ - - ; this is also used in inversion, andis often extended by the employment of longer stepwise motion inboth directions. Of somewhat less importance is a triadic arpeggioand its inversion; and the phrase - - * which is alsoused in inversion, and in reversion " * - . The form

    -- possiblyalsoderivesfromit; its fallingfifth is oftenanelement of other themes. The "profoundlogic that created an innerconnection between all the motives" goes deeper than this: as thework progresses one becomes more and more aware that a themewhich at firsthearing uses one of the elements isolated above may infact have several others worked into it, and its overall shape orharmony may be governed by yet another.5This much is not new: it is firmly rooted in the tradition of theGermansymphony-in fact, very much like Beethoven'sproceduresfrom the 'Eroica' symphony onwards.What is new is the treatmentof modality. There had been modal symphonies before, especiallyby Nationalist composers, and Beethoven's own late works werebecoming increasingly influenced by the modes. There is modalmusic by Sibelius before the sixth symphony (the sharp fourth ofthe Lydian mode was much to his liking). The originality here liesin the use of modality not merely in giving harmonic or melodicpiquancy but also as one of the means of unifying the work. InEngland, Vaughan Williams was likewise using modes as the basisof his entire technique at this time, though he was writingin a ratherdifferentway.The Dorian mode had been the most popularin the Renaissanceperiod until major/minor tonality began to replace modality, andit has also been the most popular in 'neo-Renaissance'music of thepresent century. By using the Dorian mode at various differentpitches throughout his symphony Sibelius introduced a powerfulnew unifying element. For example, the opening movement islargely in the untransposedDorian mode; the second movement isin G Dorian (I shall refer to the transpositionsof the Dorian modeby stating the Final first, as here: thus G Dorian refersto the modetransposedup a fourth from D to G), the third movement is in D

    s A great deal could be written on this subject-but that is not the topic with whichthis discussion is concerned.318

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    4/11

    Dorian with passages in A Dorian and G Dorian, and the Finale ismostly in D Dorian. As far as I am aware, this is a unique exampleof the use of transposed modes to replace keys. One of theadvantages of the tonal system over the modal system when theformer was being adopted at the end of the sixteenth century wasthat the major and minor scales could be used at various pitches,and a technique of modulating between them evolved: Renaissancecomposers did not modulate between the same mode at differentpitches, and though some pieces changed mode or used a mixture ofmodes, this procedure was not normal. Sibelius, in his sixth sym-phony, has used the customary pitch transpositions for the move-ments of a symphony (subdominant for the second movement, asection in the dominant in the third), but he has used a mode-thesame mode-instead of a major or minor scale at each of thesepitches. The composer himself makes the point quite explicitlyat the opening of the second movement: rather than go straight tothe new 'key' (G Dorian), he has modulated into it after starting inD Dorian, the 'key' of the first movement: the tune itself, when itenters, also begins in D Dorian. The principle of modulating to thenew key after beginning in the key of a previous movement is awell-known one, and can be seen in the slow movement of Dvorak'ssymphony 'From the New World' and the Finale of Debussy'sstring quartet.6 Sibelius seems here to be demonstrating its applica-bility to modes as well as to tonality.Other points of interest follow from this use of modes. Twocharacteristics of the Dorian mode contribute to its popularity andgive it its special colour; in its pure form it is a minor scale, but thesixth degree is major and the seventh minor. In Renaissance poly-phony, especially the late sixteenth-century music which was beingrediscovered in the first two decades of the present century, andwith which Sibelius would have been most familiar, this mode wassubjected to a certain amount of modification by musica icta, theresult of which was to bring it closer to the modern D minor scale.Under certain conditions B's (in the untransposed mode) wereflattened, and at cadence points C was sharpened to form a 'leading-note'. These alterations did not always take place, so there was acertain ambivalence in the music between major and minor formsof the sixth and seventh degrees of the mode. In part this ambi-valence contributed to the cross-relations which are a characteristicfeature of English Tudor music. Sibelius was well aware of thesefeatures, and made full use of them in his own way.The seventh degree of the Dorian mode, as already stated, canbe either minor (in the pure form of the mode) or major (to form amodern 'leading-note' at cadences): in the untransposed Dorianmode, C or C#. The opening of the symphony uses the mode in6 The deception (that is, starting in the 'wrong' key) extends to rhythm; Sibeliusstarts with what sounds like a slow movement-in effect chords of a dotted minim's length-before beginning to use much shorter note values.

    319

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    5/11

    its pure form, with frequent Ct's: the violas enter with a C~ (againsta D minor chord) in the fourth bar; a C# in the bass is dwelt on atp. 4, bar 5, but is surrounded by statements of the natural form ofthe note. At the next appearance of C# we are reminded of this,since the same chord is used (p. 5)-it is, in effect, the very 'tonal'dominant ninth (C$ in the bass with E, G and B above it)-andthe point is made clear by repeating it in a crescendo.During theserepetitions the brass and timpani enter with a chord of C major(using Ct, according to the pure form of the mode), and this is leftsounding when the string and woodwind chords are finished. Theear hears the bass as a C$-CL progression, even though the twoare for a time sounding together. Here one could demonstrate anaffinity with the type of cross-relationship often found in Tallis'smusic, but this would be a minor point compared with the useSibelius actually makes of the C#-Ck progression, which has beencaused by his reference to the ambivalence inherent in the seventhdegree of the Dorian mode. The falling semitone now assumes animportant place among the unifying elements of the work.The influence is first heard on p. 8 (from bar 0oonwards), wherethe woodwind keep reiterating DL-C (a progression doubled atthe major third above); constant repetition of the progressionagain helps to make the point more clearly audible. The use of thefalling semitone increases in frequency on the next few pages untilthe B Dorian tonality on p. I I is introduced with it (C--Bt in thebass); the new cello tune itself and its accompaniment at this pointboth include many references to it. In the enigmatic coda of thefirst movement the influence is first really strongly felt; and it partlyexplains the rather extraordinary end of the movement. Two brassphrases on p. 23 end with Phrygian cadences (the fall of a semitonebeing in the bass); the divided cellos have a tremolandopassagewhich makes a feature of the figure, and the paragraph is roundedoff by a long Eb falling to D (again doubled at the major thirdabove) in the flutes and bassoons: this Eb-D cadence has consid-erable importance in the second movement, and it is announcedwith some force. A scalic unison passage in the Dorian mode (p. 24,bar I I) ends by inverting the semitone (F-F$), so that the followingsequential passage is in F# Dorian. The tonic is reached by the useof harmonies which reiterate the falling semitone, the overall schemeof the passage being Db-C.

    The Eb-D cadence of the coda to the first movement assumesgreat importance in the second; the end of the introductory chordalpassage insists on these two notes in a passage of antiphonal chordsin two different combinations of woodwind and harp. Again Sibeliususes repetition to drive the point home: the idea comes again (p. 27,bars 18-21) with the Eb's repeated before falling to D, and a furtheroccurrence, on the notes Db and C, comes at the start of p. 30, wherenot only is the progression repeated, but each chord of the pro-320

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    6/11

    gression consists of repeated notes. The falling semitone affects thetonality briefly; in the horns on p. 28, where the descending semi-tones work against the rising string scales, in the progression on p. 31,and in the coda, which many commentators find puzzling. AfterLetter G (p. 35, bar 9) the first two bars have rapid string chordswhose common note is Eb; the following two bars use Di, then barsfive and six use C: the falling semitone progression D[-C (the C#-Ct of the cross-relation at the opening of the first movement) is usedto introduce G major. (The significance of this will be explainedlater.) When G Dorian returns (p. 37) it is with the Eb-D pro-gression continuously repeated in the bass, repetition being yet againa means of making the point clear. The string figuration of this codaseems to foreshadow, in duple rhythm, a triple-time string figurationwhich frequently occurs in the third movement. In the third move-ment the semitonal motif is not used structurally, though it hassome effect on the melodic writing.In the Finale the far-reaching effects of that initial cross-relationjust after the opening of the symphony are powerfully felt in thecontinual downward semitonal sequences of the strings (pp. 66, 70,78 and 79). At the great climax of intensity towards the end of themovement the semitone progressions are everywhere-there isscarcely a note on pp. 78 and 79 which is not part of either a fallingor a rising semitone progression, as the two forms work against eachother. That the struggle has reached its height here is also clear fromthe appearance, during these passages, of the only fff markingsin the work; it reaches its climax on the fff unison B u on p. 80.This very loud and dissonant passage exhausts its influence, and thefalling semitone has no further part to play in the construction ofthe symphony, except in a quiet retrospective passage on the lastpage of the work; here D Dorian becomes C# Dorian (p. 87, firstbar) for the space of a single bar before moving back by furtherdownward semitone steps to D Dorian. The final cadence uses a Ct(in accordance with the pure form of the mode) rather than a C#.A less obvious ambivalence in this work is between Bt and Bb.The lack of a Bb in the key-signature of most of the opening move-ment underlines the frequency of Bt's in Sibelius's use of the mode;the final cadences of both the first and second movements aremodally very pure, and much melodic material is also in the pureDorian mode. Indeed, the rising minor scale of five notes which isone of the features which unify the symphony thematically is noneother than the Dorian diapente;and most of the other motifs isolatedat the beginning of this article are compatible with the diapenteanddiatesseron f that mode. In the second movement G Dorian requiresthe ambivalence to be between ES and Eb; and the Ek (the puresixth of the mode), when coupled with the Db (C#)-C progressionmentioned above, is the clue for the modulation to G major in thecoda of this movement. At Letter H (p. 37, bar 4), Et is the note

    321

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    7/11

    common to all the chords; it is the descent by a semitone to Eb thatmoves the music back into G Dorian.The final great climax of the work already alluded to can alsobe seen as the result of the working out of the ambivalence betweenthe major and minor forms of the sixth. In fact the climax itself isreached on a most significant note, perhaps the most colourful of themode, Bt (p. 80). Sibelius makes the point clear, after all the pre-vious chromaticism, by relating the note immediately to its scalewith a few flourishes in D Dorian. As with the descending semitonefigure mentioned above, this very firm underlining of the majorsixth of the mode exhausts its influence, and it likewise plays verylittle part in the few remaining pages of the work. This is clearlyemphasized by the introduction of a flat into the key-signature atthe end of the Finale, and the use of D Dorian with Bb and Ct. Agreat deal of the tension of the symphony is clearly the result ofmodal thinking-the working out, in twentieth-century symphonicterms, of the ambivalence of CGand C$, Bb and Bb, inherent in thelate Renaissance treatment of the Dorian mode.A feature of some Renaissance music in modes which naturallycontain a minor seventh is the use of the triad on that degree of themode; the opening of Palestrina's 'Stabat Mater' is a well-knownexample. The sound was so much liked that it was sometimesused in modes which do not naturally have a minor seventh;the B[ chord just after the beginning of Weelkes's C Ionian 'Threevirgin nymphs' is a case in point. The feature was much copied bylate nineteenth- and early twentieth-century composers who soughtto avoid excessive use of the dominant-tonic (with its characteristic'leading-note') cadence which is a vital feature of German symphonicmusic: the flat seventh was a useful and appealing alternative forthe Nationalists. Sibelius's sixth symphony has remarkably few'leading-note'-tonic perfect cadences; he also makes use of the typeof progression found at the opening of Palestrina's 'Stabat Mater'.On p. 6 of the miniature score of the sixth symphony the musicfirst begins to move away from D Dorian; it does so by means oftonalities which progress downwards by steps of a tone (C major-Bb major-Ab major). The importance of this progression is shownby the fact that it appears at the first move away from the 'tonic'.The idea is used on several other occasions (for example on p. 8,bars 3-6; p. Io, bars 4-7; and p. I2, bars 3-7, where the progressionis extended), and it will not have escaped notice that a falling scaleis one of the unifying features of the symphony.The progression is made an integral part of the chords whichaccompany the main tune of the second movement (see p. 26,flutes, bars 4-6 and o-I I, for instance), and of the main theme ofthe third movement (see p. 41, violins and flutes, bars 5-7; p. 43,violins, bars 1-3, and many other similar runs, mostly in the strings).It is an integral part of the opening phrase of the Finale, and it also

    322

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    8/11

    occurs in that movement as a series of minor triads (p. 65, bar 3-page 66, bar 4) as well as major (p. 72, bar 5-page 73, bar I). Theusual downward movement of this tonal progression is, in thesecond movement, twice balanced by upward motion (p. 28, bars4-I I, and p. 32). In most of the symphony the avoidance of'leading-notes' is obviously deliberate; almost the earliest to appear, it willbe remembered, was immediately contradicted by a Ct, withfar-reaching effects on the structure of the work. Very few occuruntil after the climax already discussed, near the end of the Finale.It is only after thefff B that V-I cadences with a 'leading-note'begin to appear fairly frequently; not until the last page of the workdoes the music revert to using minor sevenths (the Cl's in the finalbars; and the two high cadences in the strings, p. 87, bars 5 and 6).The relaxed feeling of the end of the symphony is attributable toseveral factors: the use of largely diatonic conjunct motion, themore frequent perfect cadences, the use of the minor sixth and theabsence of the influence of the falling semitone (as compared withthe rest of the work). The 'leading-note' and V-I cadence are, infact, used in the opening theme of the Finale (bar 7 of the move-ment), and the freshness of its sound here results from its infrequentappearance in the first three movements.The cross-relation between the C# and Cb just after the be-ginning of the symphony can now be seen to be one of the mostinfluential events in the work. Sibelius's other cross-relations, thoughnot simultaneous cross-relations, show affinities with those ofRenaissance polyphony, especially that written by Englishmen; theF#'s and Ft's on p. 4, bars 8-12, and p. 62, bars 4-6, make the pointvery clearly.The polyphony of the work is evident at even a superficialhearing. Sibelius gives the clue to the influences on the symphonyat the very outset, just as Beethoven does. The opening few bars havea type of polyphony which is clearly derived from the late Renais-sance, with its multiple parts, carefully prepared and resolved sus-pensions, and largely stepwise movement. This foreshadows manyelements in the work; the very first sound, a major third, is theforerunner of much material which appears in parallel thirds; thework contains a considerable amount of conjunct motion, especiallyat the end and in the themes of an ecclesiastical character of whichSibelius was always very fond. Nevertheless, the opening sounds likeno other composer than Sibelius; the cold, high scoring for secondviolins, the reversing of weak and strong beats for dissonance andresolution (as compared with Renaissance technique), dissonantentries and parts which move in mild syncopation all add to the effectof vagueness. There are, nevertheless, many elements in the symphonywhich undeniably owe their existence to Renaissance contrapuntaltechniques; the many uses of antiphony (even within the space of ashort melody, as for example on p. 5, bars I-4), the use of many-5* 323

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    9/11

    voiced free polyphony and of imitation (two examples will make thepoint: p. 4, bars I5-24, and p. 30, bars 7 foll., violins and violas), ofvarious types of canon (a canon three in one in the strings, p. Io,in which each part is thickened to a triad; a canon four in two, p. I I,bar 8; a canon by diminution, page 12, bars 2 foll.; and a canonwith augmentations at two different speeds, p. 38, bars 6 foll.-andthese do not exhaust the list): also the use, typical in Renaissancemusic, of high and low blocks of sound juxtaposed, as in the openingof the Finale; and the suspensions and resolutions (p. 5, bars I-5;p. 86, bars I3-I4).There is, however, one other element besides the canons andspacing of blocks of sound. One of the features most often praised inthe work of Palestrina is the balance of vocal lines: the way inwhich upward and downward movement complement one another,in which a leap is normally followed by stepwise movement in theopposite direction, and in which one typical outline consists of asharp rise at the beginning of a phrase, followed by a gradualstepwise descent. I have already remarked on the tendency in thesymphony to use the five stepwise rising notes and their inversionconcurrently or simultaneously, and on the similar stepwise shapewhich rises and falls in an arch (or its inversion); the balance ofthese phrases is very much akin to those of Palestrina:1stmovement,p. 4

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    10/11

    ~~~~~~~~~~~Strin~~a~~~~gso~Finale, p. 61

    Such a balance of lines is clearly discernible throughout the sym-phony, although it seems that Sibelius has kept the perfect balancein reserve for the end of the Finale, after the great climax severaltimes alluded to above:Finale,p. 85

    StringsSui):s if7F-C~ 85 $ii n- X

    This balance is foreshadowed by the long canonic lines (in thewoodwind) in the coda of the third movement: these legato linesare rendered the more effective by being placed after a great dealof staccato writing. Thus it can be seen that some feature of each ofthe last three movements is foreshadowed by material contained inthe coda of the preceding movement. Similarly, the end of theFinale reverts to the feeling of the opening of the first movement,thus completing the cyclical pattern of the whole work.Sibelius's sixth symphony, even without the elements discussedin this article, is a work which is extremely tightly organizedthematically; the amount of influence of Renaissance music in thework does not make it any the less characteristically Sibelian, as Ihave already pointed out. In analysing the piece I have not forgottenthe composer's warning that it is, above all, a poem. It remains forme, as for many lovers of Sibelius's music, the most appealing of thesymphonies. Here there has been good reason for the use of poly-phony, and it is indeed a considerable force; not because of its mostobvious feature (the independent contrapuntal lines) but because ofthe symphonic possibilities of its modality. The quotation whichopened this article was reported from the year 1936, some thirteenyears after the composition of the symphony, and some such reasonas the kind of working which I have described above may have beenin Sibelius's mind when he made the qualification: "Polyphony is,of course, a force when there is good reason for it". One cannot helpbut admire the genius of a composer who takes a fossilized conceptsuch as the Dorian mode and so thoroughly works out its latentpossibilities; who sees in the ambivalence of intervals in a singlescale the means of creating and maintaining tension throughout asymphonic work, and of introducing that ambivalence in a mannerwhich at once reminds one of English Tudor music and is yet true325

  • 8/9/2019 Pike Sibelius Polyphony

    11/11

    to his own technique, as Harold Truscott7 reminds us; who, indoing all this, unifies his work in a unique way by means of hisemployment of that one mode, and leads it to an intense climax (onthe most colourful note of the mode), after which the energy createdby the symphonic struggle between the ambivalent notes is spentand the music relaxes into a tranquil coda whose lines have a pureRenaissance-like balance.7 Harold Truscott, 'Jean Sibelius', in 'The Symphony', ed. Robert Simpson, ii(Harmondsworth, I967), pp. 80 foll.

    326