Richard Millet

Richard Millet, French, is the author of several novels and essays. He has a strong predilection for language and culture. Particularly his interest in the Christian foundation of Western culture led to his involvement into a heated polemic about the defense of Western cultural values in Europe between 2005 and 2012.

Music is another lifelong interest of the author. Some of his earliest writings recall the time he lived in Bayreuth, and Millet has written elsewhere about his passion for contemporary music, particularly Schoenberg and Berg. Sibelius. Les cygnes et le silence begins with some of these reminiscences, and memories of playing Sibelius on the piano with his father a quatre mains in Bayreuth. In 2004, Millet published Pour la musique contemporaine. He plays the piano and the violin.

Sibelius. Les cygnes et le silence is a book-length essay about the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In this essay, Millet proposes to contemplate two questions which have fascinated him. The first of these is who Sibelius was. The essay is a magnificent description of Sibelius' career, with the main focus on his work and how it relates to other contemporary music and culture in Europe in the Twentieth Century. Two chapters are specifically dediated to the composers life, but seen through his musical development. They also explore Sibelius main sources of inspiration. It is beautifully written, and regardless of whether one has a special interest in Sibelius, the essay is a joy to read about the general musical culture of European music.

Sibelius main style was developed in orchestral works, particularly in the form of symphonies. The essays explores the sources that inspired the composition of these works and their connections to contemporaries. Yes, the swans appear in various places, as Sibelius writes about them: "Nothing in the world, neither art nor music, touches me as much as swans and wild cranes" (p.71). It appears they are the epitome of his sense of beauty.

The other question Millet struggles with is why Sibelius stopped composing and remained silent for the remaining 35 years till his death. This silence has puzzled the author, but his essay naturally fails to answer that question. At the beginning of the essay, Millet lists three other composers who fell silent after s short and very successful musical carreer, notably Rossini, Elgar and Ives. What the latter two have in common with Sibelius is that their silence came in the second decade of the century: Elgar fell silent in 1919, Ives and Sibelius both in 1926. Sibelius started an Eighth Symphony, but abandoned it.

Sibelius. Les cygnes et le silence is a beautifully written essay about European music and culture during the first quarter of the Twentieth Century. In 2015, Richard Millet received the newly created Prix de littérature André-Gide for it. This new literary prize was established in 2014, and Richard Millet is the first French author to receive this prize, the jury praising Sibelius. Les cygnes et le silence for its exceptional beauty of language. Highly recommended.… (more)