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Composers as Works of Art

Sibelius’s Second Symphony and Gallen-Kallela’s Lake View

Sibelius takes long walks in the forest mist. Gallen-Kallela paints a realistic yet mythic Finnish landscape. Miniature trees in the foreground suggest Finland’s forests to come. Brushstrokes like breath or delicate oars cause the lake’s many ripples. In Sibelius’s strings a brooding three note pattern of rising notes, each one louder. They are someone’s footsteps, […]