Jean Sibelius

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

Musical style

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.

Related Topics:
19th Century - Antonin Dvorák - Melodies - Ferruccio Busoni - Peter Tchaikovsky - Kullervo - 1891 - Symphony No. 1 in E Minor - 1899 - Violin Concerto - Sonata form

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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.

Related Topics:
Modal - Pedal points - Gustav Mahler - Olin Downes - Virgil Thomson

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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 Haydn's use of built-in dissonances. He would often alternate melodic sections with blaring brass chords that swell and fade away, or 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.

Related Topics:
Tritone - Symphony No. 4 - Haydn's - Dissonance - Brass - Second Symphony - Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven - En Saga - Tapiola - 1926

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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. Sibelius (as reported in the Manchester Guardian newspaper in 1958) 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.

Related Topics:
8th numbered symphony - Sixth - Seventh - Shakepeare's - The Tempest - Manchester Guardian - 1958

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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).

Related Topics:
Paavo Berglund - Sir Colin Davis - John Barbirolli - Vladimir Ashkenazy - Osmo Vänskä - Sinfonia Lahti

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