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Six Runeberg Songs

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Six Runeberg Songs
Song collection by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1918)
Opus90
LanguageGerman
Composed1917 (1917)
External audio
Sung by Anne Sofie von Otter,
accompanied by Bengt Forsberg
audio icon 1) "Norden"
audio icon 2) "Hennes budskap"
audio icon 3) "Morgonen"
audio icon 4) "Fågelfängaren"
audio icon 5) "Sommarnatten"
audio icon 6) "Vem styrde hit din väg?"

The Six Runeberg Songs, Op. 90,[a] is a collection of Swedish-language art songs for vocal soloist and piano written in 1917 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius,[b] who composed them for his frequent collaborator, the Finnish soprano Ida Ekman. Each song is a setting of a poem by the Finnish poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg, and of the set, "Norden" ("The North") generally is considered the best.[3]

Constituent songs

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Ordered by catalogue number, the Op. 90 songs are as follows:

  • "Norden" ("The North"), Op. 90/1[4]
  • "Hennes budskap" ("Her Message"), Op. 90/2[5]
  • "Morgonen" ("The Morning"), Op. 90/3[6]
  • "Fågelfängaren" ("The Bird Catcher"), Op. 90/4[7]
  • "Sommarnatten" ("Summer Night"), Op. 90/5[8]
  • "Vem styrde hit din väg?" ("Who Brought You Hither?"), Op. 90/6[9]

The songs were first published in 1920 by the Helsinki-based firm of R. E. Westerlund [fi].[10] The table below provides additional information about each song:

Song Tempo Time Key Premiere Ref.
Soloist Pianist Date Venue
No. 1 Moderato
3
2
 C major — — — —
[11]
No. 2 Andantino
3
4
 A major — — — —
[12]
No. 3 Allegretto grazioso
common time
 F major — — — —
[13]
No. 4 Allegretto
2
4
 B-flat major Ida Ekman Karl Ekman [fi] 1 October 1919 (1919-10-01) Solemnity Hall, Helsinki
[14]
No. 5 Commodo
common time
 E-flat major 4 October 1919 (1919-10-04)
[15]
No. 6 Lento ed espressivo
3
2
 B-flat major — — — —
[16]

Notes, references, and sources

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Notes

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  1. ^ Because Sibelius's Op. 90 songs are sung in Swedish, this article gives preference to each song's native title, rather than the English translation.
  2. ^ All but a few of Sibelius's songs are settings of Swedish-language poems (quantitatively, his favorite poets were Ernst Josephson, Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Viktor Rydberg, and Karl August Tavaststjerna [fi])[1] and are with piano accompaniment. While many are of high quality, they largely have been neglected outside the Nordic realm, due to the limited coverage (in terms of number of speakers) of Swedish (relative to, for example, German or French).[2]

References

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  1. ^ Layton 1993, pp. 160–161.
  2. ^ Layton 1993, pp. 159–160.
  3. ^ Barnett 2007, pp. 273–274; Layton 1993, p. 179.
  4. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, pp. 387–388.
  5. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, pp. 388–389.
  6. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, pp. 389–390.
  7. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, p. 390.
  8. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, p. 391.
  9. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 408; Dahlström 2003, p. 392.
  10. ^ Dahlström 2003, pp. 387–392.
  11. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 387.
  12. ^ Dahlström 2003, pp. 388–389.
  13. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 389.
  14. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 390.
  15. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 391.
  16. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 392.

Sources

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  • Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16397-1.
  • Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
  • Layton, Robert (1993) [1965]. Sibelius. (The Master Musicians Series) (4th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books. ISBN 0028713222.
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