Veneen luominen
Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat) is an unfinished composition by Jean Sibelius. The work was intended to be a grand opera, in the style of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, but was never completed, as Sibelius became disenchanted with Wagner's compositional techniques.
History
Sibelius was of the generation of composers whose works modeled late 19th-century compositional methods. Like others, he had a great appreciation for Wagner. Inspired by Wagner, Sibelius thought of himself as an operatic composer and thought that operas would be the focus of his career. He systematically studied the scores of Wagner's operas Tannhäuser, Lohengrin, and Die Walküre. He also attended a performance of Parsifal, which greatly affected him.
Sibelius then began work on his opera, entitling it Veneen luominen (The Building of the Boat). Shortly thereafter, his enthusiasm for Wagner plummeted and he forcefully rejected Wagner's techniques of composition, feeling they were too mechanical and stilted. The Swan of Tuonela – now a popular concert item – was to be the work's Prelude.
As he had lost interest in the composition of opera, the musical material from the incomplete Veneen luominen was eventually used for the Lemminkäinen Suite (1896), and the tone poem The Wood Nymph (1895).
