The work is scored for 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 3 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, tam-tam, harp and strings, with the primary voices being the clarinet, strings and harp.

But no giant, outpouring Romantic utterance is this, just the complete opposite. In The Bard, Sibelius employs his trademark concentrated atmosphere and his greatly condensed orchestration with breathtaking effect. The tam-tam sounds once near the end, so quietly you will miss it if you don't listen for it - and the result is spine-tingling.

Despite the size of the orchestra, at no point does there exist a real full tutti. At no point does there even exist a single melody. The Bard begins with a three-note ascending motif on the clarinet, echoed first by the harp, then the strings (in the example, it is in the violas). This gentle gesture, as of the Bard brushing his hands across his lyre, is the principle theme in the entire work. Listen and you will hear it drifting, rippling and echoing throughout the entire piece. The effect is like listening to the sound of a plucked string reverberating and fading away, again and again, powerfully depicted by the openly resounding spread chords of the harp. As the "theme" echoes in the airy chamber of sound, it is as of distant memories swimming faintly through the misty corridors of some mythical past.

The tone poem lives and breathes in pure atmosphere, infinitely sad, with but the faintest whiff of hope, of yearning memory, of some thing lost long ago. The poetry of the music is age old, yet its feeling is powerfully charged, hauntingly intense... but all is quiet... so quiet, so very sad. Nothing, absolutely nothing in all of Sibelius' output compares with The Bard - it is a one-off creation, a unique individual in his entire oeuvre.

There is one buildup, to one single climax. In the last third of the piece, it is again the same rising motif which urges the orchestra towards its one final breath of all-consuming utterance. Like winds blowing from far far away, in a grand chorale of pedals, a solemn-heroic choir of brass intone the soul of The Bard. In this single brass chord, imitating the Scandinavian longhorn, the lur, some of the instruments play their one and only note in the whole work. Such is the intense concentration of the music and the composer's vision.

...A window seems to open to reveal a glimpse of infinity, broad and grand. A sliver of white light gleams momentarily at the edge of darkness. Then all slips away into quiescence... Wistfully, with heartbreaking tenderness, sadness itself caresses the dusk with one final sigh of life. Soft strings sigh... sigh... fade... And dies...

I am left only to quote again Runeberg's poem, in spirit, if not in reference:

Time came when winter touched his locks
And age paled his cheeks;
And so once more he took his lyre
And plucked sonorous chords - and died
Rendering up his soul to the spirit from which it came...

The Symphonies
The First Symphony An Inktroduction
The First Symphony Survey of Recordings

The Fifth Symphony An Inktroduction
The Fifth Symphony Survey of Recordings

The Seventh Symphony An Inktroduction
The Seventh Symphony Survey of Recordings

Lahti/Vänskä Cycle: Nos.1 & 4 | 2 & 3 | 5 & 5 | 6 & 7, Tapiola

The Bournemouth Symphony/Berglund Cycle (1970s)

Iceland/Sakari Cycle: Nos. 1 & 3 | 2 | 4 & 5 | 6 & 7 | Four Legends

More Symphonies reviews at the Inkvault

Kullervo This Way Lies the Future: An Inktroduction with further links

The Violin Concerto Original and Final Versions on BIS