The profound logos: creative parallels in the lives and work of Aalto and Sibelius

摘要

In this time of often divisive specialisation it is interesting to explore a cross-disciplinary parallel. This essay is drawn from my research into the life and works of an architect (Alvar Aalto), and a composer (his compatriot Jean Sibelius). It examines common, and extremely influential, childhood experiences, before moving on to study concomitant inspirational phenomena. These became keys to their creative output at the level of compositional form and structure. It is important and interesting that Sibelius and Aalto each requisitioned ideas from both the phenomenal character and the compositional forms of natural growth that they experienced around them. I argue that it was through this requisitioning that they related their own past to their adult creative work. Indeed, Suzanne K. Langer suggests that, 'Art has a logic of its own (and by "logic" I mean relational structure).' This research examines the use of their creative art as just such a rejational tool, and indeed, it is at this level that the study demonstrates a concatenation between their different forms of art.