On Learning and Performing Jean Sibelius' Granen/Le Sapin/The Spruce

Jean Sibelius - Granen / Le Sapin / The Spruce

The Spruce is the 5th and last of the tree cycle composed by Jean Sibelius. It was said he composed the tree cycle because of his fondness of trees and nature in general. “Sibelius’ ‘tree cycle’ is one of the finest examples of the composer’s sensitive, pantheistic way of feeling: ‘the trees speak’  to him.”

My experience studying the piece was that it was challenging because of the 32nd notes, and because I haven’t studied any piano piece for over a year, making me doubt that I’ll be able to study enough of it for the performance day. In the performance, I still wasn’t able to do the 32nd notes flowingly unlike how others in the videos I had watched had done. If I could play these notes as they're written, I think I still wouldn't stay strictly in the 3/4 time signature, because in doing so I feel like it hinders me from expressing what I feel from the piece. I can't really visualize a spruce tree because I don't think I've ever seen one in person, though I definitely have come across guitars made of spruce. I couldn't picture or connect with spruce trees unlike Sibelius. I did however picture a serene ocean. 

From measure 33

I chose to study and perform this piece because it was the one I was very interested in from the moment I heard it. My first thought was “I didn’t know 20th century music was like this. It’s completely different from the other music periods.” This is my reaction to pretty much every piece I had stumbled upon in youtube when I was searching for what to perform. I really like 20th century music. I wonder, if the music periods were introduced to me backwards, perhaps I’d then be interested in learning more about the other periods because I want to be able to connect all of them to 20th century music.