Chess (in Finnish: Shakkipeli; literal translation: 'Chess Game'), Op. 5, is a theatre score—comprising four numbers—for orchestra by the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja; he wrote the music in 1910 to accompany the Finnish author Eino Leino's one-act "historical tableau" of the same name. In particular, Madetoja's music occurs during the pantomime divertissement in the middle of the play. The scene, a dream sequence in which 16 white and 16 black chess pieces come to life and play a game, is an allegory for the political intrigue that transpired in 1464 between rivals for the Swedish thrown: Charles VIII of Sweden and Christian I of Denmark. Chess premiered on 15 February 1910 in Helsinki at Finnish National Theatre during a lottery soirée, with Madetoja conducting the Apostol's Concert Orchestra.
Contents
History
Chess premiered on 15 February 1910 in Helsinki at Finnish National Theatre. The occasion was a lottery soirée organized by the Association for Feeding Elementary School Children. As the musicologist Glenda Dawn Goss has written about turn-of-the-century Finland, such charitable evenings were common:
The faintly distasteful act of giving money to gamble for prizes was masked by the elaborate spectacle ... which proved to be an ideal device for raising money in support of national causes and ... promoting social cohesion and Finnish identity in a guise that the imperial censors would approve ... These entertainments ... with music, drama, dancing, drinking, and eating mingled with the fund-raising ... [comprised] lavish tableaux vivants in which key events from Finland's myths, landscapes, and history were colorfully dramatized ... Choruses, orchestras, and other musicians were brought to sing, play dance music, and perform new works, which the country's composers were prevailed upon to compose ... The very spectacle was enough to take one's breath away.