# Is Pohjola's Daugher a symphony



## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

I have just been reading Harold Truscott's interesting discussion of the Sibelius symphonies in which he offered a most interesting thought. In talking about whether the 7th symphony is truly a symphony or a 'Symphonic Fantasia' which Sibelius originally called the work, Truscott says:



> On the other hand, it is my firm belief that another work, which Sibelius also called a 'Symphonic Fantasia' (and did not alter the title for publication), _Pohjola's Daughter_, really is a genuine one-movement symphony.


Would anyone like to comment on the idea?


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## Richannes Wrahms (Jan 6, 2014)

Pohjola's Daugher is perhaps his most heterochromatic work. Sibelius was very keen in writing sonata and sonata-like forms, even when his take on the genre was more or less 'to let the material freely decide the form'. As such, Kullervo and Lemminkäinen Suite could be viewed as 'independent symphonies'. However, I think that those and Pohjola are too directly inspired by the literary to be called Symphonies, like nobody calls Strauss' 'Eine Alpensinfonie' a symphony proper.

The tone poem(s) that I think can be called Symphonies are first the deceptively light Aallottaret [The Oceanides] and perhaps also Tapiola, both of which have no clear program. It's important to note that some of the material from Symphonies 5, 6 and 7 comes from an unrealised symphonic poem called Kuutar [Moon Spiritess] and all share some patterns and structural basis with Aallottaret and were at various points intended to be 'Symphonic Fantasias' until Sibelius decided to properly call and treat them like Symphonies after a lot of thought; while the material for Aallottaret comes from an almost finished 'Suite for orchestra' of which 2/3 of it survives today.


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## Becca (Feb 5, 2015)

Richannes Wrahms said:


> However, I think that those and Pohjola are too directly inspired by the literary to be called Symphonies, like nobody calls Strauss' 'Eine Alpensinfonie' a symphony proper.


While I agree regarding the Strauss work, I do not necessarily see why something that is literary inspired could not also be symphonic in structure. A good case could be made for Tchaikovsky's _Manfred_. Of course the prerequisite would be agreeing on what symphonic structure actually meant. The best definition that I have seen comes from Robert Simpson who said "At the end of a great symphony their is the sense that music has grown from the interpenetrative activity of all its constituent elements." That the "symphony is profoundly inclusive." There is nothing there which precludes literary inspiration. Having said that, personally I think that that is an easy argument to make for the Sibelius 7th, maybe also for _Tapiola_ but less so for _Pohjola's Daughter_.


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## Vinski (Dec 16, 2012)

Sibelius eventually managed to build up an independent whole from drafts made for a number of different composition projects.

"In the drafts for Pohjola's Daughter there are also parts which did not fit into this whole. These later ended up in the third symphony and the suite Scènes historiques II. So there truly had been material for a work of symphonic proportions, but this time the pieces of the mosaic were better suited to separate compositions."

http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/ork_pohjolantytar.htm


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