|
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)
|
Finnish composer
Musical studies in Helsinki, Berlin and Vienna
1892, begin of the glory with "Kullervo", symphony for soli, chores and orchestra inspired from finnish
mythology "Kalevala"
1899, "Finlandia" in which he participates to the autonomist claim for his homeland
1904, he settled in Järvenpää, some thirty kilometers north of Helsinki in a house surrounded with trees, where
his work turns from romanticism to a kind of classicism.
Many rounds abroad with six ones to England (1903-1921) and one to the United States (1914).
After "Tapiola" (1925), there were thirty years of silence. A 8th symphony was written but then destroyed.
Most well-known pieces :
Symphonies (1899-1924)
First symphony , e Minor, op. 39, 1899
Second symphony, D Major, op. 43
Third symphony, C Major, op. 52, 1907
Fourth symphony, a Minor, op. 63, 1911, is the most personal one
Fifth symphony, E-flat Major, op. 82, 1915
Sixth symphony, d Minor, op. 104, 1923, automnal, the most southern atmosphere
Seventh symphony, C Major, op. 105, 1924
Symphonic poems, inspired from nature
"Suite of Lemminkäinen", op.22, 1895
"the Swan of Tuonela" (1893), which is like the "Faune" of the french composer Debussy
"In Saga", op. 9, 1892
"The Bard", op. 64, 1913
"Luonnotar", op. 70, 1913, inspired from "Kalevala"
"Oceanides", op.73, 1914
"Tapiola", op. 112, 1925, poem of the forest
Scenic music : for "the King Christian II" of A. Paul (1898), "Kuolema", of A. Järnefelt, "Sad valse" (1903)
"Pelleas and Melisande", of M. Maeterlinck (1905)
"the Feast of Balthazar" (1906)
"the White Swan", of August Strindberg (1908)
"Jedermann", of Hugo von Hofmannstahl (1916)
"The Storm", of Shakespeare (1925)
Concerto for violin (1903)
Quatuor for strings (1909)
Lieder and other pieces, with 3 sonatines for piano (1912)
Links to the music of Sibelius
http://www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/sibelius.html
http://www.sibelius.fi/english/musiikki/js_saveltajana.html
A detailed biography with photos
The first edition of the Kalevala appeared in 1835, compiled and edited by Elias Lönnrot on the basis of the epic folk poems he had collected in Finland and Karelia. This poetic song tradition, sung in an unusual, archaic trochaic tetrametre, had been part of the oral tradition among speakers of Balto-Finnic languages for two thousand years. When the Kalevala appeared in print for the first time, Finland had been an Autonomous Grand Duchy for a quarter of a century. Prior to this, until 1809, Finland had been a part of the Swedish empire. The Kalevala marked an important turning-point for Finnish-language culture and caused a stir abroad as well. It brought a small, unknown people to the attention of other Europeans, and bolstered the Finns' self-confidence and faith in the possibilities of a Finnish language and culture. The Kalevala began to be called the Finnish national epic. Lönnrot and his colleagues continued their efforts to collect folk poetry, and new material quickly accumulated. Using this new material, Lönnrot published a second, expanded version of the Kalevala in 1849. This New Kalevala is the version which has been read in Finland ever since and upon which most translations are based.