![]() ![]() It was a resounding success at its first performance, but Sibelius refused to allow the score to be published until after his death. He also started work on a much more ambitious project, the choral symphony Kullervo, based on episodes from the Kalevala. Photograph: Chronicle/Alamy Stock Photoįurther composition studies in Berlin and Vienna between 18 included an encounter with the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, perhaps as a result of which he began writing orchestral music that he conducted on his return to Helsinki. In his student years, he concentrated on chamber music, though he wrote only one mature string quartet, the five-movement Voces Intimae of 1909. By then Sibelius was starting to realise that he would never become the violin virtuoso he aspired to be, and Busoni encouraged his composition. (It was while he was a student, too, that he changed his first name from Johan to its French equivalent, Jean.) When the composer Ferruccio Busoni joined the institute as a piano teacher the two became friends. ![]() Very soon he abandoned law to study music full-time, and received his first formal composition lessons. He composed copiously through his teens, yet despite his obvious musical talent he began studying law, though at the same time he enrolled at the Helsinki Music Institute (now the Sibelius Academy). The family’s first language was Swedish, but from the age of nine he attended Finnish-speaking schools and was soon fascinated by Finnish mythology, particularly the folk stories collected in the Kalevala, first published in 1835.īy then he was having piano and violin lessons. His father died when he was three, and he was brought up by his mother and grandmother. His only compositions for devotional use are Five Christmas Songs (1895-1913) and "You Are Mighty, a Lord" (1927) for mixed choir.Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna, in the south of what was then the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous part of the Russian empire. Sibelius is known especially for his symphonic music, but he also composed many songs and theater music, as well as music for piano and chamber ensembles. He did not compose during the last twenty-six years of his life. In 1914 he visited the United States, where he was a popular conductor, and where he received an honorary degree from Yale University and taught briefly at the New England Conservatory in Boston. From 1900 until the outbreak of World War I he traveled extensively in Europe, often as conductor of his own works. In 1897 the government awarded him a pension for life for his contribution to his country. Finland's most famous composer, Sibelius used native mythology and geography in his composition, which became a rallying point for Finland's nationalism and patriotism. But he began composing at the age of ten, and his later career in music was primarily in composition. Sibelius began music studies on the piano, then violin, and at one time thought of becoming a concert violinist. This tune is also often set to the hymn text of Katharina Von Schlegel, "Stille, mein Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen" ("Be Still, My Soul, The Lord Is On Thy Side") The tune is a glorious setting for harmony singing by choirs. Because of the long lines, accompanists must work to keep the tempo moving. It is clearly an instrumental tune, but with diligent leadership by organists, congregations can sing the various cadential tones to their proper length. The melody features several repeated and varied melody lines. The chorale-like theme that emerges out of the turbulent beginning of this tone poem became the hymn tune.įINLANDIA was first used as a hymn tune in the Scottish Church Hymnary (1927) and the Presbyterian Hymnal (1933). ![]() In 1900 Sibelius revised the music from the final tableau into FINLANDIA, a tone poem for orchestra. Hameenlina, Tavastehus, Finland, 1865 Jarvenpaa, near Helsingfors, Finland, 1957) wrote a musical score for six historical tableaux in a pageant that celebrated and supported the Finnish press against Russian oppression. In 1899 Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (b. ![]()
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