"The music of Sibelius has been turned into a stomping ground of racism and nationalism"

Jean Sibelius

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By Antti Vihinen
     
      How often is it that one comes across the notion that only a Finnish conductor can conduct and interpret the work of Jean Sibelius "correctly"?
      This is a mantra repeated by music professionals, critics, and other cultural figures practically in unison, and at a noteworthy level: they insist that Finlandia should be declared the country's new national anthem.
      What is surprising in this pattern of thinking, and in its supporters, is that the obvious racism, chauvinism, and nationalism inherent in this discourse does not seem to bother anyone. Supposedly Sibelius can be understood "correctly" only through a certain blood heritage and cultural background. Every self-respecting Finnish conductor seeking international success is expected to produce a set of recordings of Sibelius' symphonies. On the other hand, Finns rarely record the symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven.
      Of course, there could be some truth to the idea that with respect to Sibelius, there may be some value in Finnish interpretation at some level, but the implications of this pattern of thought are downright frightening. The grand music of Sibelius finds itself wrapped in the cloak of national colours and tones, as Independence Day music, from which it can break out into more universal spheres only with considerable difficulty.
      The Finnish community has made Sibelius its "own" composer, and even the composer's own attempts to disengage from this distressing embrace of provincialism have been sharply rebuffed. The whole basis of Finnish music culture, its export attempts, and the music subsidy policy, have been built with Sibelius as their foundation, and composers coming after him have often found themselves working "in the shadow of Sibelius".
      Few have dared take on the role of patricide, or of a harbinger of emancipation, and there have been no truly serious attempts to question the basic tenets of Finnish music policy.
     
Already in Sibelius' first performances as a symphonist in the 1890s, Finnish listeners felt that they were hearing in his work "the sound of nature", which was rapidly co-opted for the purposes of a community that was seeking its own identity.
      Over the period of a few decades, the subtle Sibelian pantheism was turned into "the nature of Finland", and in the 1930s and 1940s, into "the nature of The Fatherland", and it was in this form that it was marketed abroad. To some extent, this process continues today.
      Does the music of Sibelius really need the support of such defiant nationalism? The best answer is that Finland needs Sibelius more than Sibelius needs Finland. The man, Jean, "Janne" Sibelius, has become a myth, and later an icon, and his humanisation - the reverse phasing of a metamorphosis - is incredibly difficult.
      So, with the strength of our Finnish sisu, we push Sibelius into the sauna, and expect him to emerge softened up by the heat, cloaked in a blue-and-white towel, ready as ever to represent "us" in the heavyweight series of international musical wrestling matches.
      But as the wrestlers go through their pre-bout examination, we easily forget that in a German weigh-in, Janne would not necessarily reach the super-heavyweight class of composers such as Wagner, Beethoven, or Mozart. In spite of this, we expect him to don a blue-and-white track suit instead of the more appropriate blue wrestling jersey, thereby depriving him of any chance at success.
      Why has music turned into such a stomping ground of national feelings? Surely, sports would be good enough for this? What shocking and uncouth manifestations can this nationalistic gale and this defiantly uncertain hilarity achieve? L'Allemagne, douze points!
     
Central Europeans have been especially annoyed to the point of revulsion by the mawkishly patriotic presentation of the national genius Sibelius as great art. For instance, for German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, Sibelius amounted to an all-inclusive image of the enemy - a threat with which Adorno's own theories were in conflict.
      For Adorno, Sibelius was a reactionary "composition firm", whose music fed the "wrong consciousness" of the masses, holding them in its grip in an uncritical, voluntary goose-step march toward fascism and totalitarianism.
      As Adorno sees it, Sibelius' success in Britain and the United States took place at the expense of "progressive" composers.
      In February 2005, German neo-Nazis held a demonstration in Dresden on the 60th anniversary of the city's destruction in an allied bombing. Background music for the March included Sibelius' Finlandia. There were shocked reactions in Finland, and the Finnish Ambassador in Berlin demanded that in the future, demonstrators no longer "abuse" the music of Sibelius in such a manner.
      However, not everyone was surprised by the musical choices of the neo-Nazis. After all, Sibelius was politicised by the Third Reich. He was one of the most frequently-played foreign composers, whose "cause" the Nazis sought to promote consciously, and to some extent with the collaboration of Sibelius himself.
      Sibelius was anything but an innocent bystander in the process in which the "purity of the northern race" experienced its triumphant march in Nazi Germany, and Jews and modernists were exiled - some even to the gas chambers of the concentration camps.
      One is tempted to say that Sibelius was not engaged in a separate war on the musical eastern front, any more than the national entity Finland was, at least from the East European point of view.
      These are matters that Finns would very much prefer to avoid confronting. Why is this? Would the Finnish Ambassador in Berlin have reacted as strongly, or possibly at all, if it had occurred to the neo-Nazis to put music of Sibelius contemporary Uuno Klami, or the rock group Eppu Normaali, on their play list?
      Probably not; perhaps the Ambassador is not even familiar with the music of Klami or Eppu Normaali. And thank goodness that they have been spared the Finnish nationalist brouhaha that Sibelius has had to endure.
     
A few summers ago there was a report on a television news broadcast, that work had begun on restoring the walking paths near Sibelius' home of Ainola in Järvenpää. The aim was to find out what routes the composer's beloved hikes had taken, and what kinds of landscapes had given birth to his inspirations.
      So the Sibelius excavations have already begun: the shy little boy from Hämeenlinna has been turned into an archaeological site.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 1.5.2005
     
Antti Vihinen, the managing director of the Sibelius Hall in Lahti, has written a book, Musiikkia ja politiikkaa - esseitä Wagnerista Sibeliukseen ("Music and Politics - Essays from Wagner to Sibelius"), which will be published later this spring.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Theodor Adorno vs. Jean Sibelius - seconds out for the final round? (24.10.2000)
  The Nazis and a certain Violin Concerto (11.12.2000)

Helsingin Sanomat