The Finnish

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

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 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."...

 wrote the tone poem

Symphonic poem

A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...

 The Oceanides, Op.

Opus number

An Opus number , pl. opera and opuses, abbreviated, sing. Op. and pl. Opp. refers to a number generally assigned by composers to an individual composition or set of compositions on publication, to help identify their works...

 73, in 1914

1914 in music

-Events:*October 15 - In Rovigo, Beniamino Gigli makes his operatic debut in Amilcare Ponchielli's La Gioconda.*The first recorded calypso music is made in Trinidad and Tobago.*First publication of Orchestration, the classic book by Cecil Forsyth....

 immediately before his Fifth Symphony

Symphony No. 5 (Sibelius)

Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 is a major work for orchestra in three movements by Jean Sibelius.-History:Sibelius was commissioned to write this symphony by the Finnish government in honor of his 50th birthday, which had been declared a national holiday. The symphony was originally...

. It was commissioned for the Norfolk Festival in Connecticut

Connecticut

Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...

, at which Sibelius conducted the premiere performance.

The Oceanid

Oceanid

In Greek mythology and, later, Roman mythology, the Oceanids were the three thousand daughters of the Titans Oceanus and Tethys. Each was the patroness of a particular spring, river, sea, lake, pond, pasture, flower or cloud...

es of the title refer to the feminine spirits who animated the waters in Greek mythology

Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

. However, the Finnish

Finnish language

Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...

title Aallottaret ("Spirits of the Waves") provides an added nuance. The work was originally planned in three movements, and unfolds in three cyclical "waves". The composer uses a large orchestra to present the work's two brief themes in a rich variety of instrumental colours.

A typical performance runs 9 to 11 minutes.