Tapiola (Sibelius)

Tapiola
Tone poem by Jean Sibelius
The composer in 1923
Catalogue	Op. 112
Duration	20 minutes
Premiere
Date	26 December 1926 (1926-12-26)
Location	New York, New York
Conductor	Walter Damrosch

Tapiola (literally, "Realm of Tapio"), Op. 112, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, written in 1926 on a commission from Walter Damrosch for the New York Philharmonic Society. Tapiola portrays Tapio, the animating forest spirit mentioned throughout the Kalevala. It was premiered by Damrosch on 26 December 1926.

Walter Damrosch commissioned the work for the New York Philharmonic Society. Tapiola portrays Tapio, the animating forest spirit mentioned throughout the Kalevala, lurking behind the stark Finnish pine-forests that enveloped the composer's isolated home Ainola outside Järvenpää.

When asked by the publisher to clarify the work's program, Sibelius responded by supplying a quatrain:

Tapiola was premiered by Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphonic Society on 26 December 1926.

The first performance in Finland on 25 April 1927 was conducted by Robert Kajanus, when the overture to The Tempest and the Seventh Symphony were also introduced to Finland. The composer Leevi Madetoja noted, "At times we hear the melancholy, repeated call of an elf, at times a lonely wanderer in the woods is giving vent to the pain of life. A beautiful work, technically close to the seventh symphony."

The original publisher was Breitkopf & Härtel, who published most of the composer's works. Tapiola was Sibelius's last major work, though he lived for another thirty years. He began working on an Eighth Symphony, but he is said to have burned the sketches after becoming unhappy with the work.