The Wood Nymph (; subtitled ), Op. 15, is a programmatic tone poem for orchestra composed in 1894 and 1895 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The ballade, which premiered on 17 April 1895 in Helsinki, Finland, with Sibelius conducting, follows the Swedish writer Viktor Rydberg's 1882 poem of the same title, in which a young man, Björn, wanders into the forest and is seduced and driven to despair by a , or wood nymph. Organizationally, the tone poem consists of four informal sections, each of which corresponds to one of the poem's four stanzas and evokes the mood of a particular episode: first, heroic vigor; second, frenetic activity; third, sensual love; and fourth, inconsolable grief.
The Wood Nymph was performed three more times that decade, then, at the composer's request, once more in 1936. Never published, the ballade had been thought to be comparable to insubstantial works and juvenilia which Sibelius had suppressed until the Finnish musicologist Kari Kilpeläinen 'rediscovered' the manuscript in the University of Helsinki archives, "[catching] Finland, and the musical world, by surprise". Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra gave the ballade its modern-day 'premiere' on 9 February 1996. Although the score had been effectively 'lost' for sixty years, its thematic material had been known in abridged form via a melodrama for narrator, piano, two horns, and strings. Sibelius probably arranged the melodrama from the tone poem, although he claimed the opposite. Some critics, while admitting the beauty of the musical ideas, have faulted Sibelius for over-reliance on the source material's narrative and lack of the rigorously unified structure that characterized his later output, whereas others, such as , have hailed it as a "masterpiece" worthy of ranking amongst Sibelius's greatest orchestral works.
Composition Sibelius admired Rydberg and often set his poetry to music, including the melodrama Snöfrid, Op. 29, and the War Song of Tyrtaeus. The poem Skogsrået was first published in 1882, and in 1883 Sibelius's future friend, the artist Akseli Gallen-Kallela, illustrated it. In 1888 or 1889, about the time the two met, Sibelius first set Skogsrået for voice and piano. This setting is musically unrelated to Sibelius's 1894–95 treatment.
In 1894, although Sibelius was a national figure in Finland and had completed major works like Kullervo and the Karelia Suite, he was still struggling to break free of Wagnerian models and develop a truly individual style. The origin of the tone poem remains obscure but The Wood Nymph may well have gradually evolved out of music for a verismo opera that Sibelius had planned but never realized. The libretto, as related in a letter from Sibelius dated 28 July 1894, tells the story of a young, engaged student who, while travelling abroad, meets and is attracted by an exotic dancer. Upon his return, the student describes the dance and dancer so vividly that his fiancée concludes he has been unfaithful; the opera ends with a funeral procession for the student's fiancée (the letter is unclear as to her cause of death). Furthermore, in a letter from 10 August 1894, Sibelius informs his wife, Aino, of a new composition "in the style of a march". Murtomäki argues that Sibelius readily adapted his previous musical ideas to the plot of : the march became Björn's theme from the first section of The Wood Nymph, the protagonist "tak[ing] himself off (abroad)" became the frenetic chase of the second, the unfaithfulness with the dancer became the seduction by the evil skogsrå in the third, and the opera's funeral procession became the despair of Björn in the finale.
While both tone poem and melodrama would emerge from this material, it is not clear which musical form Sibelius initially used to tackle Rydberg's poem. In the 1930s, the composer claimed he had first composed the melodrama (premiered on 9 March 1895 at a lottery ball benefiting the Finnish Theatre where it was narrated by ), only to realize subsequently that "the material would allow a more extensive treatment" as a symphonic poem. Scholars, however, have disputed this chronology, arguing that, given the premiere of the tone poem a mere month later, it is "improbable, if not totally impossible" that Sibelius could have expanded the melodrama so quickly. He probably "compressed" the earlier tone poem, eliminating bridges and repetitions, to produce the streamlined melodrama. The manuscript of the melodrama has far fewer corrections than the manuscript of the tone poem, which supports this view. Sibelius also arranged the conclusion for solo piano.
Performance history
The tone poem premiered on 17 April 1895, at the Great Hall of the University of Helsinki, with Sibelius himself conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society; the programme also included the tone poem (Spring Song) and selections from the Karelia Suite. A repeat performance was given two days later. Despite its positive reception, The Wood Nymph would only be played another five times in Sibelius's lifetime: twice in Turku on 29 and 30 November 1897; twice in Helsinki at the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 on 26 and 30 April 1899 (a highly important event in Sibelius's career, and a sign that he viewed The Wood Nymph as a worthy counterpoint to the symphony); and, after a 37-year hiatus, once in Helsinki on 27 October 1936. Sibelius, who was in his seventies and had retired to Ainola, was not present for this final performance, although he appears to have personally selected The Wood Nymph for the programme; Georg Schnéevoigt, who cut the score extensively in order to fit the performance into the radio broadcast's allotted time, conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic, with President Pehr Evind Svinhufvud, Prime Minister Kyösti Kallio, and Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim in attendance.
After 1936, The Wood Nymph again disappeared from the repertoire. Throughout his career, Sibelius was troubled with creative 'blocks' and bouts of depression. This led him to commit score to the flames when he felt unable to revise them to the level he demanded. This was the fate most notoriously of the Symphony No. 8, but also of many works from the 1880s and 1890s. He did not, however, destroy The Wood Nymph. The ballade lay neglected amongst the more than 10,000 pages of papers and scores which the composer's family had deposited in 1982 at the University of Helsinki Library archive. The work was 'rediscovered' by the manuscript expert Kari Kilpeläinen; its subsequent inspection by Fabian Dahlström "caught Finland, and the musical world, by surprise": the tone poem, 22 minutes in length and scored for full orchestra, was far more than the melodrama "recast without the speaker" many in the Sibelius establishment had assumed it to be. The Wood Nymph received its modern-day 'world premiere' on 9 February 1996 by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, with Osmo Vänskä conducting. Vänskä had received permission from Sibelius's family to perform the work. Out of necessity, Vänskä supplemented the manuscript—full of edits and, thus, "very difficult to read" in isolation—with notes from the 1936 performance. In 2006, Breitkopf & Härtel published the first edition of The Wood Nymph.
Instrumentation The Wood Nymph is scored for the following instruments, organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):
2 flutes (one doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A; one doubling bass clarinet (in A)), and 2 bassoons 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), and 3 trombones Timpani, Bass drum, cymbals, tambourine, and triangle Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, and double basses
Structure
In 1893, Sibelius had expressed his belief in the necessity of poetic motivation in music in a letter to the poet , "I believe that music alone, that is absolute music, can not satisfy. It awakens feelings and states of mind but always something unsatisfied remains in our souls..." In a letter to Aino from August 1894, Sibelius claimed to be "really a tone painter and poet" in the mold of the symphonic poems of Liszt. In The Wood Nymph, Sibelius adheres closely to the narrative structure of Rydberg's poem, so much so that at the 1895 premiere, audience members were provided with copies of the source material, indicating the centrality of Rydberg's plot to the performance. Due to its programmatic qualities, musicologists commonly describe The Wood Nymph, although in one movement, as consisting of four informal sections or "dramatic tableaux", each of which corresponds to one of the poem's four stanzas:
Alla marcia Vivace assai—Molto vivace Moderato Molto lento
First section Björn, "a tall and handsome lad", is announced by a heroic brass fanfare. His strength and good looks have aroused "the cunning spirits", and on his way to a feast one summer evening, he is entranced by the "singing" woods. The opening music, "breezy" and triumphant in C major, recalls the Karelia Overture, Op. 10 (not to be confused with the Karelia Suite, Op. 11) which Sibelius had written in 1893, and betrays no sign of Björn's impending fate. Björn's theme is recapitulated at the end of the second section.
Original Swedish English translationHan Björn var en stor och fager sven med breda väldiga skuldror Med smärtare midja än andre män slikt retar de snöda huldror. Till gille han gick en höstlig kväll, då månen sken över gran och häll, och vinden drog med hi och ho över myr och skog, över hult och mo; då var honom trolskt i hågen, han ser åt skogen och har ej ro, han skådar åt himlabågen, men träden de vinka och nicka, och stjärnorna blinka och blicka: gå in, gå in, gå in i vinande furumo!Björn was a tall and handsome lad With broad and mighty shoulders, With a tighter waist than other men He rouses those cunning spirits. To a feast he went one autumn eve, When the moon shone over spruce and crag, And the wind blew on With its shoos and shees Over marsh and copse, Over holt and heath; It all bewitched his thinking: He beholds the forest with great unease, He beholds the skies above, But the trees they are waving and nodding, And the stars are twinking and blinking: Go in, go in, go into the whining woods!
Second section Björn "willingly but under duress", plunges deep into the magical Nordic forest and is enchanted by evil, mischievous dwarves, who "knit a web of moonbeams" and "hoarsely laugh at their prisoner". Considered by some critics to be the tone poem's most striking section, the "proto-minimalist" music in A minor is at once hypnotic and delightfully propulsive: Sibelius repeats and reworks the same short motif (belonging initially to the clarinets) into a rich woodwind tapestry, quickening the tempo and adding off-beat horns and pulsating trombones, to produce what Murtomäki has described as a "modal-diatonic sound field".
Original Swedish English translationHan går, han lyder det mörka bud, han gör det villig och tvungen; men skogens dvärgar i kolsvart skud, de fara med list i ljungen och knyta ett nät af månens sken och skuggan från gungande kvist och gren, ett dallrande nät i ris och snår bak vandrarens fjät, där fram han går och skratta så hest åt fången. I hidena vakna ulv och lo, men Björn han drömmer vid sången som runt från furorna ljuder och viskar, lockar och bjuder: gå djupare, djupare in i villande furumo!He walks on, obeys the dark command, Gladly he goes, compelled along; But the forest's dwarves in jet black garb, Step stealthily on through the heather And weave a net of moonbeams And shadows of swaying twigs and stems, A quivering net In bosk and copse Behind the wanderer's footsteps, As on he goes, And so hoarsely they laugh at their prisoner. In their dens wake wolf and lynx, But Björn, he dreams with the song Arising from the forest's sighs And whispers, luring and inviting him: Go deeper, deeper into the boundless woods!
Third section