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{sib-ayl'-ee-us}
Jean Sibelius, b. Dec. 8, 1865, d. Sept. 20, 1957, was Finland's
greatest composer and a major postromantic musical figure.
He trained for a career in law but was drawn to music. Initially
hoping to be a violin virtuoso, his studies, first in Helsinki,
then in Berlin and Vienna, led him to composition. Back in
Helsinki (1893), Sibelius became associated with a circle
of artists and writers dedicated to Finnish cultural expression
and political independence. Among his early patriotic works
was his famous Finlandia (1899). From the Finnish national
epic, the Kalevala, he drew inspiration for such orchestral
works as the Kullervo Symphony (1892), the Four Legends (1893-95;
including The Swan of Tuonela), and Pohjola's Daughter (1906).
Sibelius taught at Helsinki Conservatory until a government
pension, granted in 1897, freed him for full-time composition.
In 1892 he married composer Armas Jarnefelt's sister Aino,
and a decade later they built a country home, Ainola, near
Jarvenpaa, where he lived until his death. By then he had
become a national legend, and his birthdays were national
festivals. He made only brief trips abroad, mainly to Britain
and the United States, teaching at the New England Conservatory
in 1914.
Sibelius developed a personal and characteristic style of
concision, germinating rather than developing thematic material
and carefully controlling orchestral color. The symphonic
poem was an important vehicle for him, from En Saga (1893-1901),
his earliest masterpiece, to the lean Tapiola (1925), his
final major work. His seven symphonies (1899-1924), which
evoke haunting images of the Finnish landscape through intense
orchestral harmonies and folk motifs, are his greatest claim
to fame as a composer. His violin concerto (1903) is a repertoire
mainstay. He wrote many piano pieces and the string quartet
called Voces intimae (1919). A composer of a number of songs
(to both Finnish and Swedish texts) and choral works, he also
made two unsuccessful attempts at opera.
By the late 1920s, Sibelius ceased active composition. Warmly
championed in Britain and the United States especially, his
music continues to hold a place in the concert repertoire.
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