It's hard to believe that today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. In the year of his birth, 1865, Berlioz, Liszt and Wagner were still alive, and Chopin, Mendelssohn and Schumann had recently passed. Due to his longevity, Sibelius witnessed significant changes and transformations in music, politics, and technology.
His fierce, emboldened music mirrored his country's feelings of individuality, pessimism and discipline. His musical ideas were drawn from mythology and nature. Kalevala, the signature poem of Finland with its legends of magic and warriors, inspired his series of symphonic poems ranging from the Swan of Tuonela to Tapiola. His themes, harmonies and sonorities were directed toward his prodigious symphonic output. His short work Finlandia helped to lead the way toward Finnish independence. His tone poems included Lemminkainen's Return and Pohjola's Daughter. His violin concerto is one of the most important pieces in the solo violin repertoire. He composed choral music, incidental music for plays, short piano pieces, and songs.
His comments on his creativity are quite telling.
"I let the musical thought and its development in my mind determine matters of form. I'd compare a symphony to a river: the river is made up of countless streams all looking for an outlet: the innumerable tributaries, streams and brooks that form the river before it broadens majestically and flows into the sea. The movement of the water determines the shape of the river bed: the movement of the river-water is the flow of the musical ideas and the river-bed that they form is the symphonic structure."
I invite you to listen to his music and read about his life. Compact discs of his music include Orchestral Works, Symphony no. 4 in A minor ; Symphony no. 6 in D minor, Tone Poems, and the Violin Concerto in D minor, op. 47 . The library has Harold Johnson's Jean Sibelius and Robert Layton's Sibelius.