The Six Partsongs (sometimes listed as the Six Songs; deprecated title Nine Partsongs or Nine Songs), Op. 18, is a collection of Finnish-language choral pieces written from 1893 to 1901 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Originally composed for male choir, the composer subsequently arranged Nos. 1, 3–4, and 6 (under the same catalogue number) for mixed choir. The Six Partsongs are as follows:

"" ("The Broken Voice"), Op. 18/1 (1898–1899, for SATB 1898–1899) "" ("Hail, Moon"), Op. 18/2 (1901) "" ("The Boat Journey"), Op. 18/3 (1893, for SATB 1914) "" ("Fire on the Island"), Op. 18/4 (1895, for SATB 1898) "" ("The Woodsman's Song"), Op. 18/5 (1899) "" ("Song of My Heart"), Op. 18/6 (1898, for SATB 1904)

The lyrics for Nos. 2–3 come from Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, while Nos. 1 and 4 draw on its companion book of poetry, the Kanteletar; finally, for Nos. 5–6 Sibelius set excerpts from the novel Seven Brothers () by Aleksis Kivi.

Music

No. 1: "" 1898–1899 for male choir; arranged for mixed choir in 1898–1899 The tempo marking is: [Not too slowly; ]. It has a duration of about 1.5 minutes. The text comes from poem No. LVII (57) of the Kanteletar. Version for male choir premiered on 21 April 1899 in Helsinki by and the YL Male Voice Choir. The male choir version was published by YL. Dahlström does not report the premiere of the version for mixed choir. The mixed choir version was published by in 1898 as part of music magazine, edited by

No. 2: "" 1901 for male choir The tempo marking is: [Briskly, but solemnly; ]. It has a duration of about three minutes. The text comes from the Kalevala, Runo XLIX (49) (lines 403–422). Premiered on 30 May 1901 by Klemetti and . Published by in 1902. Was not arranged for mixed choir.

No. 3: "" 1893 for male choir; arranged for mixed choir in 1914 The tempo marking is: [Briskly; ] It has a duration of about two minutes. The text comes from the Kalevala, Runo XL (40) (lines 1–16). Version for male choir premiered on 4 April 1893 in Helsinki by and the YL Male Voice Choir. The male choir version was published by in 1895.

No. 4: "" Op. 18/4 (1895; arranged for mixed choir in 1898) The text is the Kanteletar for SATB

No. 5: "" Op. 18/5 (1899) The tempo marking is: Alla marcia The text is from Seven Brothers

No. 6: "" Op. 18/6 (1898; arranged for mixed choir in 1904) The tempo marking is: Lento assai The text is from Seven Brothers

Partsongs related to Op. 18 The following three partsongs were at one time listed by Sibelius under the Op. 18 catalogue number but were removed subsequently. The deprecated title of Nine Partsongs, then, refers to their inclusion: "" ("To the Fatherland"), JS 98 (1899; revised and arranged for mixed choir 1900; revised version arranged for male choir in 1908) ... text by Paavo Cajander "" ("My Brothers Abroad"), JS 217 (1904) ... text by Juhani Aho "" ("Busy as a Thrush"), JS 129 (1898) ... for mixed choir only ... text from the Kanteletar

Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the Op. 18 partsongs, as well as the three related partsongs noted above: EnsembleConductorPartsong runtimeRecording venueLabelscope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" scope="col" 1YL Male Voice Choir (1) (1)1:333:282:001:251:402:382:013:311986Finlandia21:301:342:091987[], EspooFinlandia3 (1) (1)1:242:171:072:061:151992Ondine4 (2) (2)1:222:161:122:562:191:171996BIS51:251:511:322:552:011:221997Finlandia6Accentus Chamber Choir1:492:112001Church Notre Dame de LibanNaive7YL Male Voice Choir (2) (2)1:203:101:341:231:362:121:473:132006, KauniainenBIS8Polytech Choir1:092:561:102:262007PK91:321:371:193:012:031:172010, KauniainenBIS101:371:432010Tampere Hall11Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir1:231:441:132:552:051:102014Ondine121:462:322:082016, LeipzigGenuin

Notes, references, and sources Notes

References

Sources

External links