The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River explained

The Breaking of the Ice
on the Oulu River
Native Name:Swedish: Islossningen i Uleå älv
Type:Melodrama
Image Upright:.9
Border:Yes
Language:Swedish
Opus:30
Duration:12 mins.
Premiere Location:Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
Premiere Conductor:Jean Sibelius

The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River (in Swedish: Swedish: Islossningen i Uleå älv; in Finnish: Finnish: Jäänlähtö Oulujoesta), Op. 30, is a composition by Jean Sibelius, an "improvisation for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra". Sibelius composed it in 1899 on a poem by Zachris Topelius, a Swedish-language Finnish poet, who had dedicated it to Tsar Alexander II of Russia, thus escaping censorship. The piece was an "explicit protest composition" against a Russia restricting the autonomy of the Grand Duchy of Finland. Sibelius wrote it for a lottery of the Savonian-Karelian Students' Association, where he conducted the first performance on 21October 1899.

Instrumentation

The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River is scored for the following instruments and voices, organized by family (vocalists, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):

History

Sibelius composed Swedish: Islossningen i Uleå älv in a political context. Most of what is now Finland had been part of Sweden until Russia won the territory in the Finnish War and ruled it as a Grand Duchy. It was first autonomous in terms of a parliament, money, and schools in Swedish and Finnish, but Nikolay Bobrikov, the Russian Governor-General, tried to limit these liberties and even proposed schooling only in Russian.

Sibelius composed music as patriotic statements against the restricting censorship, in Swedish: Islossningen i Uleå älv, first performed on 21October at a lottery of the Savo-Karelian Students' Association in Helsinki, and in Finlandia, first performed as part of the Press Celebration Music two weeks later.Sibelius conducted the first performance, the premiere. He used the choral theme again for children's choir a cappella, The Landscape Breathes (Nejden andas). After the first performance, Sibelius made a note about the composition, "should be revised", which he later did.

Composition

The breaking of the ice is an annual event in some northern countries, releasing winter and ending immobility. The text for Swedish: Islossningen i Uleå älv is a poem by Zachris Topelius, a Swedish-language Finnish poet. The poem lists many rivers besides the one in the title, summarizing Finland. He dedicated it to Tsar Alexander II, thus protecting it from censorship. Sibelius, like the poet, interpreted the frozen river as a symbol of the Russian oppression, and the breaking of the ice as an image of freedom. Sibelius confirmed the underlying meaning of the music when he programmed its premiere to be followed by Song of the Athenians, a song for freedom first performed half a year earlier and held high by Finnish nationalists.

The composition is subtitled "improvisation for narrator, men's chorus and orchestra". The subtitle is Sibelius' own description of the work, it has otherwise been described as a melodrama, cantata and choir suite. It begins and ends with recitation for the narrator, accented by brass chords. The center of the work is a dramatic chorus, often in unison and accompanied by a symphony orchestra. It has been considered as a test piece for Finlandia in terms of accessibility and some effects of orchestration.

Discography

The Finnish conductor Rauno Rännäli and the made the world premiere studio recording of The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River—albeit of a Finnish-language translation—in 1990; the male choir was Pohjan Laulu, while the narrator was the Finnish baritone Hannu Heikkilä. The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings::

ConductorOrchestraChorusNarratorTimeVenueLabel
1Pohjan Laulu19909:54Madetoja Hall, PL
2Lahti Symphony Orchestra200110:30Sibelius HallBIS

In addition, the Finnish choral director Hannu Norjanen and the made the world premiere studio recording of The Landscape Breathes for female choir for Finlandia. The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

scope=col Choral directorscope=col Ensemblescope=col Runtimescope=col scope=col Recording venuescope=col Labelscope=col class="unsortable"
10:401997Finlandia
20:521998Tapiola HallBIS
30:392010, KauniainenBIS
4Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir0:312014Ondine

Literature

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "The Breaking of the Ice on the Oulu River".

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