It’s Kalevala Day!
Frequently referred to as “the Finnish national epic,” the Kalevala, a disparate collection of long narrative poems set down from oral tradition in the early 19th century, tells of the creation of the Earth, the loves, antagonisms, and retaliations of its peoples, and the forging, theft, and attempted recovery of a mysterious talisman called the Sampo. Its fantastic and heroic tales informed the work of Finland’s greatest artists at a time when the country began its surge toward independence, after 700 years of Swedish rule, and another century as a duchy of the Russian Empire.
The Kalevala was instrumental in promoting a sense of Finnish national identity. Swedish had been the tongue of the country’s administration and education from time immemorial. Then Tsar Nicholas II attempted to instate Russian as the official language. The Kalevala became a lightning rod for Finnish nationalists. Cresting patriotic fervor led Finland to declare independence on the heels of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The Kalevala resonated in Finland to an extent it may be difficult for foreigners to comprehend. It has inspired holidays, the naming of cities and companies devoted to banking, insurance, jewelry, asphalting, icebreaking, and dairy, and innumerable paintings, books, and pieces of music.
Finland celebrates its own separate Independence Day, on December 6, as it trumpets its freedom from the Russian Empire, but Kalevala Day, also known as Finnish Culture Day, is equally a time of deep national pride.
Fun fact: In the United States, a community founded by Finnish immigrants in Michigan is called Kalevala, and many of its street names are drawn from the epic. Better known is the fact that the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was inspired by a German translation of the Kalevala in the crafting of his own “The Song of Hiawatha.”
The composer Jean Sibelius, fiercely patriotic, was Kalevala-crazy. A significant portion of his output was influenced by this fount of Finnish lore – “Four Legends from the Kalevala,” “Kullervo,” “Pohjola’s Daughter,” “Tapiola,” “The Origin of Fire,” and “Kyllikki,” to name a few. Some of the symphonic poems had their roots in a projected opera, “The Building of the Boat,” which was never completed.
I’ve done several radio shows, over the years, programmed around themes from the Kalevala. This one, “Epic Finnish,” last aired on Sunday, on “The Lost Chord,” on WWFM – The Classical Network.
The playlist includes “Aino” by Sibelius champion Robert Kajanus, the “Kalevala Suite” by Uuno Klami, and a Sibelius rarity, “A Song for Lemminkäinen.”
I am also appending, as a bonus, Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic with Sibelius’ “Pohjola’s Daughter.” I’m a little mixed on Bernstein’s recordings of the symphonies, but here I think he really excels. The performance is a wonder. Steadfast old Väinämöinen, the wizard, attempts to woo the Daughter of the North, whom he espies seated atop a rainbow, weaving a cloth of gold. She agrees to marry him only if he is able to complete a series of impossible tasks. (My favorite is tying an egg into invisible knots!) Unfortunately, Väinämöinen, always unlucky in love, wounds himself grievously with an axe while attempting to construct a boat from fragments of her distaff.
Also, quite simply, one of my favorite Sibelius recordings of all time: Eugene Ormandy conducts the Philadelphia Orchestra in “Four Legends from the Kalevala.” Its four movements are meant to evoke the swashbuckling Lemminkäinen and his adventures among the maidens of Saari; the Swan of Tuonela gliding through the realm of the dead; the resurrection of Lemminkäinen, treacherously slain; and finally, Lemminkäinen’s homeward journey.
Here’s a live performance, with the Turku Philharmonic (a Finnish orchestra) conducted by Leif Segerstam
The message to would-be occupiers: don’t start what you can’t Finnish! Happy Kalevala Day!
“The Defense of the Sampo” (1896), by Akseli Gallén-Kallela. Väinämöinen the wizard faces off against the evil witch Louhi
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