solo My father’s idea of a good evening was to sit in the half-darkness getting drunk and listening to classical music; he had us kids turn the record or tape over for him. I always had preferences for some of the music above others – when I was five I conceived such a passion for “The […]
Tag Archives: Sibelius
Sibelius’s Back Catalog.
29-Aug-12A very nice poem, part of the play Belshazzar’s Feast, where it gets a beautiful setting from Sibelius. An improvement on the psalm. Original text follows the translation. I sat by the rivers of Babylon And wept with my brothers, day and night. And my sisters were moved by my tears, By my brothers’ deep […]
Reflections of an Artist.
16-Mar-10“My gift for composition is not the kind which will ever be ‘successful.’ It is far too subjective for that. When I was a boy I thought I would invent an altogether new art (it would be half-sculpture and half-music, I thought). I began with sculpture and as you know that turned out disastrously. But […]
The Journals of Jean Sibelius.
21-Oct-17At a certain point in my college career I stopped worrying very much about my classes, and decided to get my education directly from the university library. One of the books I read at the time was Erik Tawaststjerna’s monumental three-volume biography of Sibelius. I often find that great musicians can also write, but Sibelius […]