Jean Sibelius was one of the leading postromantic composers and Finland's greatest musician. His music is both nationalistic and universal and is most effective in conveying mood or atmosphere.
Background
Sibelius was born on December 8, 1865 in Hämeenlinna, Finland. He was the son of the Swedish-speaking medical doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius née Borg. The family name stems from the Sibbe estate in Eastern Uusimaa which was owned by his paternal great-grandfather. Sibelius's father died of typhoid in July 1868, leaving substantial debts. As a result, his mother -
who was again pregnant - had to sell their property and move the family into the home of Katarina Borg, her widowed mother, who also lived in Hämeenlinna. Sibelius was therefore brought up in a decidedly female environment, the only male influence coming from his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius, who was interested in music, especially the violin. It was he who gave the boy a violin when he was ten years old and later encouraged him to maintain his interest in composition. For Sibelius, Uncle Pehr not only took the place of a father but acted as a musical adviser.
Education
Although primarily Swedish in his ancestry and cultural background, Sibelius was educated in a Finnish-language secondary school.
In 1885 he was sent to the Imperial Alexander University in Helsinki in order to prepare for the legal profession. He soon abandoned this pursuit and enrolled in the Music Institute, where he became the stellar pupil of Martin Wegelius. In 1897 Sibelius was defeated in a competition for the position of music teacher at the university, but his friends persuaded the senate to grant him a yearly stipend of 3, 000 Finnish marks.
Career
In 1898 Sibelius worked with Carl Goldmark and Robert Fuchs in Vienna. Upon returning to Finland Sibelius made his formal debut as a composer with Kullervo, Op. 7, a tone poem for soloists, male chorus, and orchestra, based on one of the legends of the Finnish national epic, the Kalevala. It was performed at a time when Finnish nationalism was white-hot, and Sibelius was immediately hailed as one of his country's most promising composers.
The world première of his First Symphony was given in Helsinki in 1899. Six other works in this form followed, the last being the Seventh Symphony (or Fantasia sinfonica in one movement), Op. 105, first performed in Stockholm in 1924. For over thirty years the world waited for new compositions - especially for the much-discussed "Eighth Symphony" - but they failed to materialize.
During this period he did write various small pieces, including Masonic music and songs, which added nothing to his reputation. His international reputation as a composer rests almost exclusively upon his popularity in the Anglo-Saxon countries.
Between 1903 and 1921 Sibelius paid five visits to England to conduct his music, and in 1914 he visited the United States where he conducted the première of his tone poem The Oceanides, which had been commissioned for a music festival held in Connecticut.
Sibelius' popularity in these two countries reached its peak in the mid-1930's. In England such influential writers as Rosa Newmarch, Cecil Gray, Ernest Newman, and Constant Lambert hailed him as the most important composer of his time and the successor to Beethoven.
Since 1940 public enthusiam for his music has waned considerably, and many voices have been raised in challenge to the assertion that his music contains radical innovations in terms of form. His stylistic mannerisms are original only because of the way they are combined.
Sibelius is today generally classified with Richard Strauss and Edward Elgar as a late-romantic composer. Since 1939 his alma mater, the Music Institute, has been known as the Sibelius Academy.
Member of Suomi Lodge No. 1 (1922), honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society
Connections
In 1904 Sibelius built a villa in the forest near the town of Järvenpää which he named Ainola after his wife and where he lived for the rest of his life. Sibelius's mature years became a regular alternation of steady composition and international travel.