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Tapiola (literally, "Realm of the Forest-God"), op. 112, is a tone poem by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, written in 1926. It was the product of a commission from Walter Damrosch for the New York Philharmonic Society. Tapiola portrays the terrifying spirit lying behind the stark Finnish pine-forests that enveloped Sibelius's isolated home outside Järvenpää.
When asked by the publisher to clarify the work's program, Sibelius responded by supplying a quatrain:
- Widespread they stand, the Northland's dusky forests,
- Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams;
- Within them dwells the Forest's mighty God,
- And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.
