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Kom nu hit, död
Art song by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1940–1945)
Opus60/1
Text
LanguageSwedish
Composed1909 (1909), arr. 1909, orch. 1957
Publisher
Duration3 mins.[4]
Premiere
Date12 November 1909 (1909-11-12)[1]
LocationHelsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland
PerformersSven Quick [sv] (as the Fool)

Kom nu hit, död (literal English translation: "Come Away, Death"),[a] Op. 60/1, is an art song by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who wrote the piece in 1909 to accompany a Swedish-language production[b] of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton).[6] The song, which the royal fool attached to Countess Olivia's household sings to guitar accompaniment in Act 2, Scene 3, premiered on 12 November 1909 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki; a "Herr Qvick" (cast as the fool) was the vocalist.[7]



After completing the piece, Sibelius immediately made an arrangement for vocalist and piano.[6]



In the spring of 1957, just months before his death, Sibelius arranged for bass and orchestra two of his earlier songs; the impetus for this to was a request by the Finnish bass-baritone Kim Borg for a set of new concert items from Sibelius. One of the songs Sibelius selected was Kom nu hit, död, while the other was Kullervon valitus (Kullervo's Lament) from Movement III of his withdrawn 1892 choral symphony Kullervo (Op. 7). By this time, Sibelius's hand tremor had become so severe and his health so poor that he could not himself write down the notes; instead, he dictated the arrangements to his son-in-law Jussi Jalas. As such, Kom nu hit, död retains a degree of historical significance as the final compositional activity of Sibelius eight-decade career, as on 20 September the composer died at the age of 91.

Borg premiered the new orchestral versions of Kom nu hit, död and Kullervon valitus on 14 June in Helsinki during Sibelius Week, with Jalas conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.[8] Xxxx published the former in yyyy.

Analysis

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Schlüren

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  • ..."is extremely moving due to an archaic reduction of means".[9]
  • "It is one of the last and enduring pieces he created before his death."[9]
  • Says that Jussi Jalas requested Sibelius make the arrangement for Kim Borg... [9] (But Barnett says Borg made the request???)

Wells

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  • "this pair of songs originally dates from 1909, a time when death was very much on the composer’s mind, as he was then living in fear of the throat tumour that had developed the previous year."[10]
  • "The song alternates between E minor and a G sharp minor triad, creating an especially macabre colouring on the word ‘död’ (‘death’)"[10]

Tawaststjerna (for BIS)

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  • "Kom nu hit, dod (Come hither, death) is one of the peaks of his vocal production. Like the jester in the play, the composer sees through life's masquerade which is reflected in the three keys at intervals of a major third from each other. The tragedy rings out in e minor, the principal key, whose fundamental chord is followed by the deathly shadow of the chord of g-sharp minor. The vanity of life was shown in the tritone tension of the melodic line (e to a-sharp) which, is delineated against the tonic sixth chord's deceitful light - deceitful since the c major key is never definitely established. Similar major-third relationships are also characteristic of the composer's second and fourth symphonies. Sibelius here projects his symphonic-harmonic thinking on a composition in song format".[11]

Discography

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The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the 1909 duet version (vocalist with either guitar or piano accompaniment) of Kom nu hit, död:

Soloist Accompanist Instrument Runtime[c] Rec.[d] Recording venue Label Ref.
Marian Anderson Kosti Vehanen piano 3:24 1936 Studio Albert, Paris Warner Classics[e]
Kim Borg Erik Werba piano 3:40 1957 Herkulessaal [de], Munich Residenz Deutsche Grammophon[e]
Jorma Hynninen (1) Seppo Siirala [fi] guitar 2:51 1975 Fuga Studio Fuga [fi]
Jorma Hynninen (2) Ralf Gothóni piano 2:58 1980 Munkkivuori Church [fi] Finlandia
Tom Krause (2) Carlos Bonell guitar 2:33 1981 Kingsway Hall Decca
Helge Birkeland Jorunn Marie Bratlie [no] piano 2:59 1996 Jar kirke [no] Bergen Digital
Gabriel Suovanen [fi] (1) Folke Gräsbeck [fi] piano 3:17 2008 Kuusankoskitalo [fi] BIS
Gabriel Suovanen [fi] (2) Juuso Nieminen [fi] guitar 3:12 2008 Kuusankoskitalo [fi] BIS
Marianne Beate Kielland Sergej Osadchuk [no] piano 2:26 2009 Sofienberg Church 2L [no]
Lilli Paasikivi Folke Gräsbeck [fi] (2) piano ? 2014 Ainola Ainola Foundation
Isabelle Druet Anne Le Bozec [fr] piano 3:01 2016 Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers [fr] NoMadMusic
Arttu Kataja [fi] Pauliina Tukiainen [fi] piano 2:52 2019 Ölberg Church [de] Alba [fi]
Tom Krause (1) John Williams guitar ? ? ? ?
Rolf Bromme Anouchka Mukherjee piano 4:09 2015 ? Nosag[e]
Gaudia Geijsen Jan Gruithuyzen piano ? ? ? Erasmus Muziekproducties
[[]] Pauliina Tukiainen piano 3:03 yyyy venue Coviello Classics
[[]] [[]] piano yyyy venue label

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the 1957 orchestral version of Kom nu hit, död:[w]

Soloist Conductor Orchestra Runtime[c] Rec.[x] Recording venue Label Ref.
Kirsten Flagstad Øivin Fjeldstad London Symphony Orchestra 3:36 1958 Kingsway Hall Decca
Jorma Hynninen (3) Jorma Panula Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra 2:48 1984 Gothenburg Concert Hall BIS
Jorma Hynninen (4) Leif Segerstam (1) Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra 2:35 1994 Tampere Hall Ondine
Waltteri Torikka [fi] Leif Segerstam (2) Turku Philharmonic Orchestra 3:03 2014 Turku Concert Hall Naxos
Gerald Finley Edward Gardner Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra 2:55 2016 Grieg Hall Chandos

Notes, references, and sources

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Notes
  1. ^ Because Sibelius's Op. 60/1 song is sung in Swedish, this article gives preference to its native title, rather than the English translation.
  2. ^ The other song is its catalogue-mate, Hållilå, ute storm och i regn (Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain), Op. 60/2.[5] Both songs utilize the translation of Twelfth Night by Carl August Hagberg.[6]
  3. ^ a b All runtimes are official, as printed on CD or LP liner notes.
  4. ^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  5. ^ a b c This recording is sung in English.
  6. ^ [M. Anderson—Warner Classics (0825646053179)] 2015
  7. ^ K. Borg—DG (4776612) 2007
  8. ^ J. Hynninen—Fuga (FA 3007) 1975
  9. ^ J. Hynninen—Finlandia (FACD 202 S) 1986
  10. ^ T. Krause—Decca (4788609) 2015
  11. ^ H. Birkeland—Bergen Digital (BD7032CD) 1996
  12. ^ [G. Suovanen—BIS (CD–1918/20)] 2008a
  13. ^ [G. Suovanen—BIS (CD–1918/20)] 2008b
  14. ^ M. Kielland—2L (2L–064–SACD) 2010
  15. ^ L. Paasikivi—Ainola Foundation (AINOLA 01) 2015
  16. ^ I. Druet—NoMadMusic (NMM038D) 2016
  17. ^ A. Kataja—Alba (ABCD 456) 2021
  18. ^ T. Krause—() yyyy
  19. ^ [ R. Bromme—(NOSAG CD 224)] 2015
  20. ^ G. Geijsen— Erasmus (WVH 041) 1992
  21. ^ [ . Coviello Classics—(COV 51308)] 2013
  22. ^ [ . —()] yyyy
  23. ^ This table excludes a recording by Kim Borg with Hans Rosbaud and the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra from 5 December 1956 (released in 2021 on the orchestra's in-house label), because it is of an arrangement of the song by the Swedish conductor Ivar Hellman [fi], rather than Sibelius's (which wasn't made until 1957).[9]
  24. ^ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  25. ^ [ Ø. Fjeldstad—Decca ()] yyyy
  26. ^ J. Panula—BIS (CD–270) 1985
  27. ^ L. Segerstam—Ondine (ODE 823–2) 2007
  28. ^ [L. Segerstam—Naxos (8.573299)] 2015
  29. ^ L. Segerstam—Chandos (CHSA 5178) 2017
References
  1. ^ a b c Dahlström 2003, p. 276.
  2. ^ Dahlström 2003, p. 277.
  3. ^ Dahlström 2003.
  4. ^ Dahlström 2003, pp. 275, 277, 279.
  5. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 407.
  6. ^ a b c Barnett 2007, p. 201.
  7. ^ Bis 1909.
  8. ^ Barnett 2007, p. 348.
  9. ^ a b c d Schlüren 2021, p. 17.
  10. ^ a b Wells 2015, p. 3.
  11. ^ Tawaststjerna 1985, p. 5.
Sources
  • Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16397-1.
  • Tawaststjerna, Erik (2008b) [1978/1988; trans. 1997]. Sibelius: Volume III, 1914–1957. Translated by Layton, Robert. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 9780571247745.