Obscure Music Monday: Glière's The Sirens

Reinhold Moritzevich Glière (Jan. 11, 1875 - June 23, 1956) was a Russian/Soviet composer and violinist born in Kiev, of German-Polish descent. Son of a wind instrument maker, Glière showed talent as a child, and entered the Kiev School of Music in 1891, studying the violin. In 1894 he entered the Moscow Conservatory, and graduated in 1900, after composing a one act opera entitled Earth and Heaven, and winning a gold medal for it. Glière would later go on to teach at the Kiev and Moscow conservatories.

Written in 1908, The Sirens is a symphonic poem meant to tell the story of the mermaids who lure sailors on to the rocks with their singing. Glière, who wasn't the most skilled orchestral writer, did a marvelous job with this piece; he creates a deep sense of longing with lines that build, but rarely seem to resolve. We magically find ourselves in the shoes of the sailor in those moments, as we listen to the violins climb up and up in half steps, but then back down, but never to where our ears except them to go. Eventually the sirens pull a sailor down with a 5-note theme, and away they are taken. Glière's ability to create an eerily nautical mood is uncanny, and an absolute delight to listen to.