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Image:Sibelius_monument.jpg|thumb|A bust of Jean
Sibelius at the Sibelius-monumentti in Helsinki.

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

Jean Sibelius was born in 1865 into a
Finland-Swedish family in Hämeenlinna in the
Russian Empire|Russian Grand Duchy of Finland. His
family consciously decided to send Jean to an
important Finnish language school. This should be
seen as part of the larger rise of the Fennoman
movement, an expression of Romantic nationalism |
Romantic Nationalism which was to become a crucial
part of Sibelius' artistic output and politics. 

His most famous compositions are probably
Finlandia, Valse Triste, the Violin Concerto
(Sibelius)|violin concerto, the Karelia suite and
Swan of Tuonela|The Swan of Tuonela (a movement
from his Lemminkäinen suite), but he wrote much
else besides, including other pieces inspired by
the Kalevala, seven numbered symphony|symphonies,
over a hundred songs for voice and piano,
incidental music for 13 separate plays, an opera
(Jungfrun i tornet, which remains unpublished),
chamber music including a string quartet, piano
music, 21 separate publications of choral music,
and Freemasonry|Masonic ritual music.

The Finnish graphic designer Erik Bruun used Jean
Sibelius as the motive for the 100 markka note in
Finland's last-ever markka series.

==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 Melody
|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 (Sibelius)|Symphony No. 1 in E
Minor of 1899: indeed the influence of these two
composers is evident as late as his Violin
Concerto (Sibelius)|Violin Concerto of 1903.
However, he progressively stripped away formal
markers of the History of sonata form | 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. 

Image:Jean
sibelius.jpg|right|thumb|130px|Photograph of Jean
Sibelius
Sibelius built much of his music with melodies
that have very powerful Modes|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_point|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.

Sibelius over time sought to use new chord
patterns, including naked tritones, for example in
the Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|Symphony No. 4, and
bare melodic structures to build long movements of
music, in a manner similar to Joseph Haydn
|Haydn's use of built-in dissonances. He would
often alternate melodic sections with blaring
Brass instrument |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 Symphony No. 2
(Sibelius)|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 (Edgar Allen Poe)|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
(Sibelius)|Tapiola (1926), his last major
composition.

He published only a few minor pieces after 1926,
and said he destroyed the score for a completed
Symphony No. 8 (Sibelius)|8th numbered symphony. 
His last large works were the Symphony No. 6
(Sibelius)|Sixth and Symphony No. 7
(Sibelius)|Seventh symphonies, incidental music
for William Shakespeare|Shakepeare's The Tempest
(play)|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.

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 Ashkenazy|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).

==Selected works==

These are ordered chronologically; the date is the
date of composition rather than publication or
first performance.

===Orchestral Works===

*  Kullervo, Symphony for soprano, baritone,
chorus and orchestra Op.7  (1892)
*  En Saga, tone poem for orchestra op.9 (1892)
*  Karelia Overture  for orchestra Op.10  (1893)
* Karelia Suite  for orchestra  Op.11  (1893)
*  Rakastava (The Lover), for male voices and
strings or strings and percussion Op.14(1893/1911)
*  Lemminkäinen Suite (Four Legends from the
Kalevala) for orchestra op.22 (1893)
* Skogsrået (The Woodnymph), tone poem for
orchestra Op.15  (1894)
*  Vårsång for orchestra  Op.16 (1894)
*  Kung Kristian (King Christian) Suite from the
incidental music for orchestra op.27 (1898)
* Sandels,  Improvisation for chorus and orchestra
op.28  (1898)
* Finlandia for orchestra and chorus (optional) 
op.26  (1899)
* Snöfrid  for reciter, chorus and orchestra
op.29  (1899)
* Symphony No. 1 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 1 in E
minor, opus 39 for orchestra (1899/1900)
* Symphony No. 2 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 2 in D
major, opus 43 for orchestra (1902)
* Violin Concerto (Sibelius)|Violin Concerto in D
minor, opus 47 (1903/1905)
* Kuomela (Valse Triste & Scene med Tranor) for
orchestra  op.44 (1904/1906)
* Dance Intermezzo for orchestra  op.45/2
(1904/1907)
*Pelléas et Mélisande (Sibelius)|Pelléas et
Mélisande Incidental music/ Suite for orchestra 
op.46  (1905)
*  Pohjola's Daughter|Pohjolan tytär (Pohjola's
daughter), tone Poem for orchestra op.49 (1906) 
* Symphony No. 3 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 3 in C
major, opus 52 for orchestra (1907)
* Svanevit (Swanwhite) Suite from the incidental
music for orchestra op.54  (1908)
* Nightride and Sunrise, tone poem for orchestra
op.55 (1909)
* Dryadi (The Dryad) for orchestra op.45/1(1910) 
*  Two Pieces for Kuomela for orchestra 
op.62(1911)
* Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 4 in A
minor  op.63 for orchestra (1911)
*  Two Serenades for Violin and Orchestra op.69
(1912)
* The Bard (Sibelius)|Barden (The Bard), tone poem
for orchestra and harp  op.64 (1913/1914)
*  Luonnotar, tone poem for soprano and orchestra
op.70 (1913)
*  The Oceanides|Aallottaret (The Oceanides), tone
poem for orchestra op.73 (1914)
*  Symphony No. 5 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 5 in E
flat major op.82  for orchestra (1915 revised 1916
and 1919)
*  Oma Maa  (Our Fatherland) for chorus and
orchestra op.92 (1918)
* Jordens sång (Song of the Earth) for chorus and
orchestra  op.93  (1919)
* Symphony No. 6 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 6 in D
minor op.104  for orchestra (1923)
* Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius)|Symphony no. 7 in C
major op.105   for orchestra (1924) 
* Stormen (The Tempest (Sibelius)|The Tempest),
incidental music for soloists, chorus and
orchestra, opus 109 (1925)
*  Väinön virsi (Väinö's song) for chorus and
orchestra op.110 (1926)
*  Tapiola (Sibelius)|Tapiola, tone Poem for
orchestra op.112 (1926)
* Andante Festivo for string orchestra o.op.
(1925/1930)


===Other Works===

*Viisi joululaulua (Sibelius)|Viisi joululaulua,
opus 1, five Christmas songs (1895-1913)
*Voces intimae, opus 56, string quartet (1909)
*Jääkärimarssi (1915)

==External links==
commons|Jean Sibelius

*http://www.helsinki.fi/kasv/nokol/sibelius.html
Sibelius link collection
*http://www.abo.fi/fak/hf/musik/Sibelius/EN/
Sibelius biography