Erkki Melartin
Encyclopedia
Erkki Melartin was a Finnish
composer and pupil of Martin Wegelius from 1892-99 in Helsinki
, and Robert Fuchs
from 1899-1901 in Vienna
. He shares identical birth and death years with the composer Maurice Ravel
.
As well as composing, Melartin also taught and directed music at the Helsinki Music College, later the Helsinki Conservatory. As conductor of the Vyborg
Orchestra in 1908-11, and despite chronic health problems, Melartin toured extensively (as far as North Africa
and India
), conducting the first performance of Gustav Mahler
's music in Scandinavia
, a movement of the Resurrection
symphony in 1909 (see the Finnish Music Information Centre link,.)
Although Melartin was chiefly a lyricist, the symphony was central to his musical output. He wrote six symphonies
(1902–1924) and was the first Finnish composer to bear Mahler's influence. The fourth symphony uses a vocalise
like that of Carl Nielsen's
Sinfonia Espansiva
. The fifth is a Sinfonia brevis ending in a fugue and chorale, while the sixth, harmonically more advanced than the other five, advances stepwise from a C minor
first movement — with evocations of Mahler's second symphony
— to an E-flat major finale. His musical output also includes an opera, Aino
(based on the character
from the Finnish national epic), a violin concerto
, four string quartet
s, and many piano pieces. His works therefore are divided mainly into large-scale works for orchestra, and chamber pieces for much smaller groups and soloists. In spite of working in the same time period as Jean Sibelius
, he was not influenced by the more famous composer's style, and subsequently his work has been largely overshadowed by Finland's most revered composer.
The Juhlamarssi (Festive March) from his ballet Sleeping Beauty is the most popular wedding march in Finland.
Orchestral
Concertante
Chamber music
Piano
Vocal
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
composer and pupil of Martin Wegelius from 1892-99 in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, and Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs
Robert Fuchs was an Austrian composer and music teacher.As Professor of music theory at the Vienna Conservatory, Fuchs taught many notable composers, while he was himself a highly regarded composer in his lifetime....
from 1899-1901 in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. He shares identical birth and death years with the composer Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...
.
As well as composing, Melartin also taught and directed music at the Helsinki Music College, later the Helsinki Conservatory. As conductor of the Vyborg
Vyborg
Vyborg is a town in Leningrad Oblast, Russia, situated on the Karelian Isthmus near the head of the Bay of Vyborg, to the northwest of St. Petersburg and south from Russia's border with Finland, where the Saimaa Canal enters the Gulf of Finland...
Orchestra in 1908-11, and despite chronic health problems, Melartin toured extensively (as far as North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
and India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
), conducting the first performance of Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler
Gustav Mahler was a late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation. He was born in the village of Kalischt, Bohemia, in what was then Austria-Hungary, now Kaliště in the Czech Republic...
's music in Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
, a movement of the Resurrection
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...
symphony in 1909 (see the Finnish Music Information Centre link,.)
Although Melartin was chiefly a lyricist, the symphony was central to his musical output. He wrote six symphonies
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
(1902–1924) and was the first Finnish composer to bear Mahler's influence. The fourth symphony uses a vocalise
Vocalise
A vocalise is a vocal exercise without words, which is sung on one or more vowel sounds.-In classical music:Vocalise dates back to the mid-18th century...
like that of Carl Nielsen's
Carl Nielsen
Carl August Nielsen , , widely recognised as Denmark's greatest composer, was also a conductor and a violinist. Brought up by poor but musically talented parents on the island of Funen, he demonstrated his musical abilities at an early age...
Sinfonia Espansiva
Symphony No. 3 (Nielsen)
The Danish composer Carl Nielsen wrote his Symphony No. 3 "Sinfonia Espansiva", Op. 27, FS 60, between 1910 and 1911 by . It typically lasts around 33 minutes.The symphony followed Nielsen's tenure as bandmaster at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen...
. The fifth is a Sinfonia brevis ending in a fugue and chorale, while the sixth, harmonically more advanced than the other five, advances stepwise from a C minor
C minor
C minor is a minor scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. The harmonic minor raises the B to B. Changes needed for the melodic and harmonic versions of the scale are written in with naturals and accidentals as necessary.Its key signature consists of three flats...
first movement — with evocations of Mahler's second symphony
Symphony No. 2 (Mahler)
The Symphony No. 2 by Gustav Mahler, known as the Resurrection, was written between 1888 and 1894, and first performed in 1895. Apart from the Eighth Symphony, this symphony was Mahler's most popular and successful work during his lifetime. It is his first major work that would eventually mark his...
— to an E-flat major finale. His musical output also includes an opera, Aino
Aino (opera)
Aino is an opera by Erkki Melartin, composed in 1912 to a libretto by Jalmari Finne. The opera is based on the Kalevala, more specifically on the character of Aino. Its music shows the influence of Richard Wagner.-Synopsis:...
(based on the character
Aino (mythology)
Aino is a figure in the Finnish national epic Kalevala. It relates that she was the beautiful sister of Joukahainen. Her brother, having lost a singing contest to the storied Väinämöinen, promised Aino's "hands and feet" in marriage if Väinämöinen would save him from drowning in the swamp into...
from the Finnish national epic), a violin concerto
Violin concerto
A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin and instrumental ensemble, customarily orchestra. Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up through the present day...
, four string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
s, and many piano pieces. His works therefore are divided mainly into large-scale works for orchestra, and chamber pieces for much smaller groups and soloists. In spite of working in the same time period as Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius
Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...
, he was not influenced by the more famous composer's style, and subsequently his work has been largely overshadowed by Finland's most revered composer.
The Juhlamarssi (Festive March) from his ballet Sleeping Beauty is the most popular wedding march in Finland.
Selected compositions
Stage- AinoAino (opera)Aino is an opera by Erkki Melartin, composed in 1912 to a libretto by Jalmari Finne. The opera is based on the Kalevala, more specifically on the character of Aino. Its music shows the influence of Richard Wagner.-Synopsis:...
, Opera in 2 acts, Op. 50 (1907–1909) - Prinsessa Ruusunen (Sleeping Beauty), Ballet, Op. 22 (1911)
- Sininen helmi, Ballet, Op. 160 (1930)
Orchestral
- Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 30 No. 1 (1902)
- Siikajoki, Symphonic Poem, Op.28 (1903)
- Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 30 No. 2 (1904)
- Prinsessa Ruusunen (Sleeping Beauty), Suite from incidental music, Op. 22 (1904, 1911)
- Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 40 (1906-07)
- Traumgesicht, Symphonic Poem, Op. 70 (1910)
- Patria, Symphonic Poem, Op. 72 (1911)
- Symphony No. 4 "Kesäsinfonia" (Summer Symphony) in E major, Op. 80 (1912)
- Lyric Suite No. 3 "Impressions de Belgique", Op. 93 (1915?)
- Symphony No. 5 "Sinfonia brevis" in A minor, Op. 90 (1915)
- Symphony No. 6, Op. 100 (1924)
- Symphony No. 7 "Sinfonia gaia", Op. 149 (1935–1936, unfinished)
- Sininen helmi, Suite from the ballet, Op. 160 (1930)
- Symphony No. 8, Op. 186 (1936–1937, incomplete)
Concertante
- Concerto in D minor for violin and orchestra, Op. 60 (1913)
Chamber music
- String Quartet No. 1 in E minor, Op. 36 No. 1 (1896)
- Sonata for violin and piano (1899)
- String Quartet No. 2 in G minor, Op. 36 No. 2 (1900)
- String Quartet No. 3 in E, Op. 36 No. 3 (1902)
- String Quartet No. 4 in F, Op. 62 (1910)
- Nocturne for violin and piano, Op. 64 No. 1
- Kuusi helppoa kappaletta (6 Easy Pieces) for cello (or violin) and piano, Op.121
- String Trio, Op. 133 (1927)
- Sonata for flute and harp, Op. 135 (1927)
- Sonata for brass, Op. 153 (1929)
- Trio for flute, clarinet and bassoon, Op. 154 (1929)
- Pieni kvartetto (Little Quartet) for horns, Op. 185
Piano
- Marionetteja (Marionnettes), Suite for 2 pianos, Op. 1 (1899)
- 2 Ballads, Op. 5 (1899)
- 3 Pieces, Op. 8 (1899)
- Skizzer, 5 Pieces, Op. 11
- Legend II, Op. 12 (1900)
- Surullinen puutarha (The Melancholy Garden), 5 Pieces, Op. 52 (1908)
- Lyric Pieces, Op. 59 (1909)
- 4 Pieces, Op. 75
- 9 Little Pieces, Op. 76
- Album Leaves, Op. 83
- 4 Sonatinas, Op. 84
- 24 Preludes, Op. 85 (1913-20)
- Noli me tangere, Op. 87 (1914)
- 3 Pieces, Op. 98 (1916?)
- Skuggspel, 7 Pieces, Op.104
- Fantasia apocaliptica, Op. 111 (1921)
- 6 Pieces, Op. 118 (1923)
- No. 2 The Mysterious Forest
- 6 Pieces, Op. 123 (1924–1925)
Vocal
- 3 Songs for voice and piano, Op. 13
- Kansanlaulua Käkisalmelta (Folk Songs from KexholmKexholm CountyKexholm County was a county of the Swedish Empire from 1617 to 1721, when the southern part was ceded to the Russian Empire in the Treaty of Nystad.-History:...
), Op. 55 - 5 Songs for voice and piano, Op. 69
- 3 Songs for voice and piano, Op. 77
- 3 Songs for voice and piano, Op. 86
- 4 Songs for voice and piano, Op. 95