Stylistic Conflicts in Sibelius's Second Symphony

Abstract

Three stylistic streams converge in Sibelius’s music: Modernism/Classicism, Karelianism, and National Romanticism. As a consequence of this stylistic confluence, Sibelius’s musical output poses a unique dialogue that resists discrete classification. Notwithstanding the nuances of his music, polarizing views that tend to emphasize only one of these styles abound in his reception history. Sibelius’s Second Symphony is a quintessential example of the stylistic interaction that pervades his output. Focusing on this symphony, this study will explore the socio-aesthetic conditions that induced Sibelius to compose a symphony of such a polystylistic character, furthering our understanding of the symphony’s role within his professional development while prompting a re-evaluation of its stylistic categorization. Furthermore, it will probe the analytical and hermeneutical potential of its myriad stylistic interactions, presenting an interpretation that highlights the work’s stylistic contradictions as paramount features of Sibelius’s compositional aesthetic.