The Oceanides (in Finnish: ), Op. 73, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written from 1913 to 1914 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which refers to the nymphs in Greek mythology who inhabited the Mediterranean Sea, premiered on 4 June 1914 at the Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut with Sibelius conducting. Praised upon its premiere as "the finest evocation of the sea ... ever ... produced in music", the tone poem, in D major, consists of two subjects, said to represent the playful activity of the nymphs and the majesty of the ocean, respectively. Sibelius gradually develops this material over three informal stages: first, a placid ocean; second, a gathering storm; and third, a thunderous wave-crash climax. As the tempest subsides, a final chord sounds, symbolizing the mighty power and limitless expanse of the sea.
Stylistically, many commentators have described The Oceanides as an example of Impressionism. Others have countered that Sibelius's active development of the two subjects, his sparing use of scales favored by Impressionists, and his prioritization of action and structure over ephemeral, atmospheric background distinguish the piece from quintessential examples, such as Debussy's La mer.
Aside from the definitive D major tone poem, two intermediate versions of The Oceanides survive: the first, a three-movement orchestral suite, in E major, that dates to 1913 (movement No. 1 lost); and the second, the initial single-movement "Yale" version of the tone poem, in D major, which Sibelius dispatched to America in advance of his journey but revised prior to the music festival. The Oceanides thus stands alongside , the , the Violin Concerto, and the Fifth Symphony as one of Sibelius's most overhauled works. The suite and Yale version, never performed in the composer's lifetime, received their world premieres by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra on 10 September and 24 October 2002, respectively. A typical performance of the final version lasts about 10 minutes, some 3 minutes longer than its Yale predecessor.
History Composition In August 1913, Sibelius received a message from the American composer and Yale University professor Horatio Parker: a New England patron of the arts, Carl Stoeckel, and his wife, Ellen Stoeckel née Battell, had authorized $1,000 for the commission of a new symphonic poem from Sibelius, per Parker's recommendation. The piece, not to exceed fifteen minutes in length, was to be played at the 1914 Norfolk Music Festival in Connecticut, which the Stoeckels annually hosted (and financed) at their estate in a wooden performance hall dubbed "The Music Shed". Despite his ongoing struggles with another commission, incidental music to Poul Knudsen's tragic ballet-pantomime Scaramouche, Sibelius accepted the Stoeckel offer, writing in his diary, "A symphonic poem, ready by April".
Initial and intermediate versions In early September, another letter from Parker arrived saying that Stockel wished to provide the copyist's fee for writing out the orchestral parts in Finland. As 1913 drew to a close, Sibelius had not made much progress on the American commission, having spent the entire autumn on other pieces and revisions. A trip to Berlin in January 1914 followed, and Sibelius's diary and correspondence indicate the Stoeckel commission was at the forefront of his mind; an initial plan to set Rydberg's poem Fantasos and Sulamit subsequently was discarded. His stay in Berlin was not productive, and in mid-February he returned to Helsinki ("Uneasy because of the America thing [Norfolk commission]. Presumably have to go home to my cell in order to be able to concentrate".)
Today, three versions of the work survive. Initially in 1913, Sibelius conceived of the commission as a three-movement suite for orchestra in E major, of which only No. 2 (Tempo moderato) and No. 3 (Allegro) are extant. At some point in 1913–14, Sibelius decided to rework the thematic material of the Allegro, very much a "work in progress", into a single-movement symphonic poem; the musical content of the Tempo moderato would find its way into the piano piece (To Longing), JS 202. In making the transition from suite to tone poem, Sibelius transposed the material from E to D major; in addition, he also introduced new musical ideas, such as the rocking wave-like motif in the strings and woodwinds, and expanded the orchestration.
Final version
In April 1914, Sibelius mailed the score and parts to the United States, calling the piece (this intermediate version of the tone poem is commonly referred to as the "Yale" version). On 12 and 20 April 1914, Parker wrote on behalf of Stoeckel, expanding upon the initial agreement: Sibelius's American patron now wished him to travel to and conduct a program of his music at the Norfolk festival; as compensation, Sibelius would receive $1,200, as well as an honorary doctorate of music from Yale University. Although he already had sent the manuscript to Norfolk, Sibelius was not satisfied with the score and immediately began to revise the piece, eventually opting for a complete overhaul ("Isn't it just like me to rework the tone poem—at the moment I am ablaze with it."). Although Sibelius was prone to revising his compositions, such effort was usually undertaken when preparing a piece for publication or after having heard it first performed in concert. With respect to the Yale version, it is possible the invitation to attend the music festival in person prompted Sibelius to "reassess" the tone poem with a more critical eye.
The differences between the first and final versions of the tone poem are substantial; not only did Sibelius again transpose the piece, into D major, but he also added the wave-crash climax. Despite these changes, the orchestration is more or less the same, with the addition of one trumpet. As the trip to America approached, Sibelius raced to complete the revisions in time. Aino Sibelius, the composer's wife, recounts the scenes at Ainola:
The trip to America is approaching. is not yet complete. Terrible haste ... the score is only half-ready. The copyist, Mr. Kauppi, is staying with us and writing night and day ... It is only because of Janne's [Sibelius] energy that we are making progress ... We lit a lamp in the dining room, a chandelier in the living room, it was a festive moment. I didn't dare say a word. I just checked that the environment was in order. Then I went to bed and Janne stayed up. All night long I could hear his footsteps, alternating with music played quietly.
Sibelius continued to make changes to the final version of the tone poem as he sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard the steamship SS Kaiser Wilhelm II and even during rehearsals in Norfolk, but these last-minute changes, Andrew Barnett argues, must have been relatively "minor", as the orchestral parts had been copied before his departure from Finland. Sibelius was delighted with the new piece, writing to Aino, "It's as though I have found myself, and more besides. The Fourth Symphony was the start. But in this piece there is so much more. There are passages in it that drive me crazy. Such poetry". Neither the suite nor the Yale version of the tone poem was performed in Sibelius's lifetime, receiving their world premieres by Osmo Vänskä and the Lahti Symphony Orchestra on 19 September and 24 October 2002, respectively.
Naming the piece
Sibelius appears to have vacillated over a name for the new tone poem. By 3 April 1914 he had dropped in favor of . On 29 April he wrote to Parker in favor of the original title ("Herr Doctor, now you must forgive me for performing the new tone poem in its final version with the original title . The version Aallottaret that I sent to you can stay with Mr. Stoeckel".). This position, too, proved fleeting. By the end of May, Sibelius had settled on , and the tone poem appeared under this title, albeit misspelled, on the 4 June Norfolk Festival program: " [sic]—Tone Poem (Nymphs of the Ocean)". In preparation for the publication of the tone poem by Breitkopf & Härtel in June 1915, Sibelius included alongside the Finnish title, , an "explanatory" German translation, (in English: The Oceanides). The piece was published as Op. 73 and dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Carl Stoeckel.
Performances
American premiere The tone poem premiered on 4 June 1914 at "The Shed" concert hall of the Norfolk Music Festival, Sibelius himself conducting at a podium decorated in the American and Finnish national colors. The orchestra, which Sibelius praised as "wonderful ... surpasses anything we have in Europe", comprised musicians drawn from three of America's best music societies: the New York Philharmonic, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The Oceanides was unlike anything the musicians had previously encountered. "I think they did not understand it all at first from what they said", Stoeckel recalled. "The next morning, after having run it through three times, they were thoroughly delighted with it and remarked that the beauty of the music grew with each rehearsal". The festival public sounded a similarly positive note about the new piece, which concluded a concert of Sibelius's music that included Pohjola's Daughter, the King Christian II Suite, The Swan of Tuonela, Finlandia, and Valse triste. Stoeckel recounts the events of 4 June:
Everyone who was fortunate enough to be in the audience agreed that it was the musical event of their lives, and after the performance of the last number there was an ovation to the composer which I have never seen equalled anywhere, the entire audience rose to their feet and shouted with enthusiasm, and probably the calmest man in the whole hall was the composer himself; he bowed repeatedly with that distinction of manner which was so typical of him ... As calm as Sibelius had appeared on the stage, after his part was over he came up stairs and sank into a chair in one of the dressing rooms and was very much overcome. Some people declared that he wept. Personally I do not think that he did, but there were tears in his eyes as he shook our hands and thanked us for what he was pleased to call the "honor we had done him".
Upon conclusion of the second half of the program (which featured Dvořák's Ninth Symphony, Coleridge-Taylor's rhapsody From the Prairie, and the overture to Wagner's opera Die Feen), the orchestra performed the Finnish national anthem, .
European premiere
With the outbreak of World War I on 28 July 1914, The Oceanides languished. Wartime politics being what they were, Sibelius's music was seldom played outside the Nordic countries and the United States: in Germany, there was little demand for the music of an "enemy national", while in Russia, Finns were viewed as being "less than loyal subjects of the Tsar". In any case, many of Sibelius's works had been printed by German publishing houses, a detail that harmed Sibelius's reputation not only in Russia, but also Britain and the United States. According to Tawaststjerna, the war plunged Sibelius into a state of melancholy and creative struggle (the Fifth and Sixth symphonies were in the process of simultaneous gestation at this time). His response was to retreat into near solitude: he abstained from attending and giving concerts and neglected his circle of friends, and he imagined himself "forgotten and ignored, a lonely beacon of light in a deepening winter darkness".