Grove's dictionary of music and musicians

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SI CONTRA PA SIBELIUS 447
but, happily for the honour of the music of
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6 Porque de la Musica (1672).
syllables of the hymn, Ut queant ' laxis ' ; the
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completion of the octave being provided for by Finland, he presently found that his real talent
the introduction of certain changes in the position lay in the direction of Art, and his real power
of the root -syllable, irf.i Until the mediffival of speech could only display itself in the language
theory of the scale was revolutionised by the of music. Accordingly, he placed himself under
discovery of the functions of the leading-note Wegelius at the Helsingfors Conservatorium ;
this method answered its purpose perfectly ; but and afterwards studied under Becker at Berlin
when the ecclesiastical modes were abandoned in and Goldmark at Vienna. After his return to
favour of our modern form of tonality, it became
absolutely necessary to add another syllable to
Finland he accepted the post cf Principal of the
Conservatorium (which he still holds), and was
the series. This syllable is said to have been the fortunate recipient of a handsome annuit}"
first used, about 1590, by Erycius Puteanus, of from the Senate, which enables him to give the
Dordrecht, the author of a treatise on music, greater part of his time to composition. For so
entitled JIusathena ;
and tradition asserts that young a man he has WTitten much, his latest
it was formed from the initial syllable of the opus number being 53. In all his compositions
he displays marked ability, a strong
fourth verse— 'Sancte Joannes'—of the hymn
already alluded to, by the substitution of i for individuality, and a decided bias in favour of
a. This account, however, has not been universally
the Folk-music of his country. Sibelius is a
received. Mersennus^ attributes the composer who must be taken on his own merits ;
invention to a French musician, named Le it would he difficult to compare him to any one
Maire, who laboured for thirty years to bring else, the whole atmosphere of his work is so
it into practice, but in vain, though it was strange, and so permeated with lights and
generally adopted after his death. Brossard' shadows that are unfamiliar, and colours that
gives substantially the same account. Bourdelot * are almost from another world. To understand
attributes the discovery to a certain nameless him it is necessary to understand both the racial
Cordelier, of the Convent of Ave Maria, in descent of the Finns, and their strange, deeply
France, about the year 1675 ; but tells us that influencing mythology ; their racial character
the Abbe de la Louette, Maitre de Chapelle at is derived partly from the East, and partly from
Notre Dame de Paris, accorded the honour to the West, as they are a mixture of Mongolian
a singing-master, named Metru, who flourished and "Western stock ; deriving from the West,
in Paris about the year 1676. In confirmation vigour and self-reliance, and from the East,
of these traditions Bourdelot assures us that languor and mysticism. Even more important
he once knew a kitenist, named Le Moine, who is the influence of their mythology. It is hardly
remembered both Metru and the Cordelier, as too much to say that Sibelius's music seldom gets
having practised the new system towards the away from the atmosphere of legend and rune.
close of the 17th century—whence it has been In idea, rhythm, turn of melody (diction), colour
conjectured that one of these bold innovators of thought and of orchestration, he keeps within
may possibly have invented, and the other touch of the magic halo which surrounds the
adopted it, if indeed both did not avail themselves
'Kalevala,' which is the gi'eat collection of
of an earlier discovery.
Runes and Folklore made by Dr. Lbnnrot in
Jlei-sennns teUs us that some French professors 1835 (the year in which the university of
of his time used the syllable za to express Bb, Helsingfors was founded).
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The Kalevala ' is a
reserving si for Blj. Loulie, writing some sixty poem which sets forth the mythical history of
years later, rejected za, but retained the use of the Finnish people, just as the Nibelungenlied
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st.^ The Spanish musician, Andrea Lorente, of sets forth the mythical histoiy of the Teutonic
Alcala, used bi to denote Bt] ;^ while in the latter
half of the 17th century, our own countryman,
nations.
The Finnish music, like the Finnish character,
Dr. "Wallis, thought it extraordinary that the is the outcome of a fearful sti-uggle against
verse, Sancte Johannes,' did not suggest to unfavourable environment,—a struggle which
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Guide himself the use of the syllable set—and has literally been for life or death, but which
this, notwithstanding the patent fact that the has resulted in a triumphant life. Without
addition of a seventh syllable would have some understanding of the Finnish history,
struck at the very root of the Guidonian religion, and temperament, Sibelius's music is
system. w. s. E. more or less unintelligible ; for it does not belong
SI CONTRA FA. [See Mi contra Fa.] to any family or nation except the Finnish.
SIBELIUS, Jean, born on Dec. 8, 1865, at He has nothing in common with the Russian
Tavastehus in Finland. Like so many other or German ; and even the Swede and the Dane
musicians he was at first made a law student, are foreign to him. The Finnish Folk-Song is
also a thing by itself ; the chief features being
» See SoLMrsATlos. 2 Barmxmie XTnivvneUe (Paris, 1636), p. 183.
3 Dictttymujarti de Musigue (Amsterdam, 1703).
* Iftttoire de la Mrisique, compiled from the MSS. of the Abb^ the prevalence of 5-4 rhythms, and the repetition
of the same note many
Bourdelot, and those of his nephew. Bonnet Bourdelot, and subsequently
publiahed by Bonnet, Paymaster to the Lords of the Parliament
of Paris (Paris, 1705 and 1715 ; Amsterdam, 1725, 1743). Sibelius makes free use of the latter character-
times (see Song).
6 Sl6ment6 ou Frincipes de M-usigue (Amsterdam, 1698).
istic in most of his compositions, although he