Jean Sibelius

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Sibelius
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Sibelius

Jean Sibelius (December 8, 1865September 20, 1957) was a Finnish composer of classical music and violinist. Together with the work of Johan Ludvig Runeberg, Sibelius's music is synonymous with Finnish national identity.

Sibelius was born into a Finland-Swedish family in Hämeenlinna in the Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. He was given the names Johan Julius Christian Sibelius, but from an early age he adopted the name of his French uncle Jean. His family consciously decided to send Jean to an important Finnish language school. This should be seen as part of the larger rise of the Fennoman movement, an expression of Romantic Nationalism which was to become a crucial part of Sibelius' artistic output and politics.

His most famous compositions are probably Finlandia, Valse Triste, the violin concerto, the Karelia Suite and The Swan of Tuonela (a movement from his Lemminkäinen Suite). However he wrote much more, including other pieces inspired by the Kalevala, seven numbered symphonies, over 100 songs for voice and piano, incidental music for 13 separate plays, an opera (Jungfrun i tornet, which remains unpublished), chamber music including a string quartet, piano music, 21 separate publications of choral music, and Masonic ritual music.

The Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun used Jean Sibelius as the motif for the 100 markka note in Finland's final markka series.

Contents

Musical style

A bust of Jean Sibelius at the Sibelius-monument in Helsinki.
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A bust of Jean Sibelius at the Sibelius-monument in Helsinki.

Jean Sibelius was part of a wave of composers who accepted the norms of late 19th century composition, but sought to radically simplify the internal construction of the music. Like Antonin Dvorák this led him to seek idiomatic melodies with an identifiably national character; but he also brought a unique and idiosyncratic approach to developmental technique. He was influenced by Ferruccio Busoni and Peter Tchaikovsky; the influence of the latter is particularly evident in his un-numbered choral symphony Kullervo, from 1891, as well as his Symphony No. 1 in E Minor of 1899: indeed the influence of these two composers is evident as late as his Violin Concerto of 1903. However, he progressively stripped away formal markers of the sonata form in his work, and pursued the idea of continuously developing cells and fragments until coming to a grand statement at the end. The synthesis was often so complete that it was thought that he began from the finished statement and worked backwards.

Photograph of Jean Sibelius
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Photograph of Jean Sibelius

Sibelius built much of his music with melodies that have very powerful modal implications, and that are drawn out over a number of notes. His harmonic language is often restrained and reductive in comparison with that of many of his contemporaries, and makes frequent use of pedal points. He stated "music often loses its way without a pedal." Because of this, Sibelius' music is sometimes considered insufficiently complex, but he was immediately respected by his peers, including Gustav Mahler. Later in life he was championed by critic Olin Downes but attacked by composer-critic Virgil Thomson. Perhaps one reason Sibelius attracts the ire of critics is that in each of his seven symphonies he approached the basic problems of form, tonality, and architecture in unique, individual ways.

Sibelius over time sought to use new chord patterns, including naked tritones, for example in the Symphony No. 4, and bare melodic structures to build long movements of music, in a manner similar to Joseph Haydn's use of built-in dissonances. Sibelius would often alternate melodic sections with blaring brass chords that swell and fade away, or he would underpin his music with repeating figures which push against the melody and counter-melody. His work is rich with literary reference, even when not explicit. The Second Symphony has a movement that has been compared to the statue in Don Giovanni sneaking by moonlight, while the stark Fourth Symphony combines work for a planned "Mountain" symphony with a tone poem based on Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven. He also wrote several tone poems based on Finnish poetry, beginning with the early En Saga and culminating in the late tone poem Tapiola (1926), his last major composition.

He published only a few minor pieces after 1926, and said he destroyed the score for a completed 8th numbered symphony. His last large works were the Sixth and Seventh symphonies, incidental music for Shakepeare's The Tempest and Tapiola. As reported in the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1958, Sibelius summed up the style of his later works by saying that while other composers were engaged in manufacturing cocktails, he offered the public pure cold water. But for nearly the last thirty years in his life (primarily after World War I and an operation for suspected throat cancer), Sibelius avoided talking about his music and composed nearly nothing.

Sibelius has fallen in and out of fashion, but remains one of the most popular 20th century symphonists, with complete cycles of his symphonies continuing to be recorded. In his own time, however, he focused far more on the more profitable chamber music for home use, and occasionally on works for the stage. Currently Paavo Berglund and Sir Colin Davis are considered major exponents of his work. Other classic sets of recordings of the symphonies are by John Barbirolli and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Recently Osmo Vänskä and the Sinfonia Lahti released a critically acclaimed complete Sibelius cycle, including unpublished or retracted pieces such as the first version of the Symphony No. 5 (1915).

Selected works

These are ordered chronologically; the date is the date of composition rather than publication or first performance.

Orchestral Works

  • Kullervo, Symphony for soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra Op.7 (1892)
  • En Saga, tone poem for orchestra Op.9 (1892)
  • Karelia Overture for orchestra Op.10 (1893)
  • Karelia Suite for orchestra Op.11 (1893)
  • Rakastava (The Lover), for male voices and strings or strings and percussion Op.14(1893/1911)
  • Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the Kalevala) for orchestra Op.22 (1893)
  • Skogsrået (The Woodnymph), tone poem for orchestra Op.15 (1894)
  • Vårsång for orchestra Op.16 (1894)
  • Kung Kristian (King Christian) Suite from the incidental music for orchestra Op.27 (1898)
  • Sandels, Improvisation for chorus and orchestra Op.28 (1898)
  • Finlandia for orchestra and chorus (optional) Op.26 (1899)
  • Snöfrid for reciter, chorus and orchestra op.29 (1899)
  • Symphony no. 1 in E minor, Op.39 for orchestra (1899/1900)
  • Symphony no. 2 in D major, Op.43 for orchestra (1902)
  • Violin Concerto in D minor, Op.47 (1903/1905)
  • Kuolema ("Valse Triste" & "Scene with Cranes") for orchestra Op.44 (1904/1906)
  • Dance Intermezzo for orchestra Op.45/2 (1904/1907)
  • Pelléas et Mélisande Incidental music/ Suite for orchestra Op.46 (1905)
  • Pohjolan tytär (Pohjola's daughter), tone poem for orchestra Op.49 (1906)
  • Symphony no. 3 in C major, Op.52 for orchestra (1907)
  • Svanevit (Swanwhite) Suite from the incidental music for orchestra Op.54 (1908)
  • Nightride and Sunrise, tone poem for orchestra Op.55 (1909)
  • Dryadi (The Dryad) for orchestra Op.45/1(1910)
  • Two Pieces for Kuolema for orchestra Op.62(1911)
  • Symphony no. 4 in A minor Op.63 for orchestra (1911)
  • Two Serenades for Violin and Orchestra Op.69 (1912)
  • Barden (The Bard), tone poem for orchestra and harp Op.64 (1913/1914)
  • Luonnotar, tone poem for soprano and orchestra Op.70 (1913)
  • Aallottaret (The Oceanides), tone poem for orchestra Op.73 (1914)
  • Symphony no. 5 in E flat major Op.82 for orchestra (1915 revised 1916 and 1919)
  • Oma Maa (Our Fatherland) for chorus and orchestra Op.92 (1918)
  • Jordens sång (Song of the Earth) for chorus and orchestra Op.93 (1919)
  • Symphony no. 6 in D minor Op.104 for orchestra (1923)
  • Symphony no. 7 in C major Op.105 for orchestra (1924)
  • Stormen (The Tempest), incidental music for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Op.109 (1925)
  • Väinön virsi (Väinö's song) for chorus and orchestra Op.110 (1926)
  • Tapiola, tone Poem for orchestra Op.112 (1926)
  • Andante Festivo for string orchestra (1925/1930)

Other Works

External links

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