En Saga

En Saga ("The Sage " ) is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius ( 1865-1957 ). The Opus Number 9 supporting work was written in 1892, but was later heavily revised and is now one of Sibelius ' most popular compositions.

Genesis, premiere and reception

Sibelius En Saga in 1892, immediately after the honeymoon with his wife Aino, who had to Karelia, the region of origin of the Finnish national epic Kalevala, out. Robert Kajanus had Sibelius encouraged to write after an extensive, highly -demanding listeners and performers choral symphonic composition Kullervo a shorter orchestral work. Unlike Kullervo, which is directly related to the Kalevala epic, En Saga, however, does not follow a predetermined program. Sibelius expressed in 1913 about this: "Sagas music is moods and why, different phases in a legend, to which every listener can not ' dense one, content. " There is evidence that parts of a 1891 in Vienna began, originally ballet scene No. 2 -titled composition there have been included, and the work was first conceived as a septet for flute, clarinet and strings.

The work was premiered in Helsinki conducted by the composer on 16 February 1893. Since it hit with audiences and critics with little understanding, Sibelius decided nine years later to a fundamental revision, in which the structure of the work is concentrated (eg accounted for a substantial midsection, thereby reducing the length of 952 to 810 cycles) and the instrumentation has been revised. In this form, En Saga was performed on November 2, 1902 under the direction of Robert Kajanus again in Helsinki; Sibelius himself conducted it a little later in Berlin with the Berlin Philharmonic. As a result, conductors such as Arturo Toscanini or Henry Wood En Saga took into their repertoire, which is still one of Sibelius ' most frequently played works.

In addition to the two versions of En Saga, the published by Breitkopf & Härtel, there is also a created by Sibelius version for piano. 2003 attempt to reconstruct the putative septet original version of Gregory Barrett was premiered.

Instrumentation and construction

The score includes the following cast before: 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion and strings.

En Saga follows the sonata form. From the first issue two additional but related topics are derived, from which the implementation is developed. An over exposure significantly altered and shortened recapitulation concludes the work. En Saga begins in A minor and ends in E flat minor.

The performance time is about 17 to 18 minutes.

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