The Swan of Tuonela was originally composed in 1893 as the prelude to a projected opera called
The Building of the Boat. Sibelius revised it two years later, making it the second section of his Lemminkäinen Suite of four tone poems, which was premiered in 1896. He twice further revised the piece, in 1897 and 1900. Sibelius left posterity no personal account of his writing of the tone poem, and its original manuscript no longer exists (the date of its disappearance is unknown). The work was first published by K. F. Wasenius in Helsingfors (Helsinki), Finland, in April 1901. The German firm Breitkopf & Härtel also published it in Leipzig, also in 1901.[4]
The work was recorded for the first time by Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra in May 1929.
Structure
The tone poem is scored for a small orchestra of
poisoned arrow
and dies. In the next part of the story he is restored to life.
