Sibelius

No, not the program you idiot, the composer!

Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius!!

I've recently been listening to him A LOOOT. Obviously his symphonies, and a lot of his other orchestral works, my favorite being En Saga, so far. I still need to find more of Sibelius' stuff...

There are his solo vocal works, too, sets of songs for soloist and piano, and they're so remarkable and so Jean Sibelius!

yeah, so if you agree that he's basically the scraggy, *daps*

otherwise, go listen to his scraggy, man, RIGHT NOW

*goes back to listening...to Bartok, actually, but maybe Sibelius later*

:phones: :phones: :phones: :phones:

I have played his 2nd Symphony. It was marvalous, seriously.

The first two movements really demostrates his unique and fatastic way of using the sonata form, especially in such a late romantic stage, it's great to see composers being faithful to this form. I would say the first movement is best in terms of orchestration, 2nd the stormiest, 3rd the most exciting, and 4th the grand finale. Try listening to that.

What can I say about Sibelius? He easily sits alongside Mozart and Beethoven as one of the greatest figures in western music for many reasons. Not least is that he very quickly moves beyond romantic imitation of Tchaikovsky and Grieg and establishes a very individual kind of modernism. If you listen to late works such as the last three symphonies and Tapiola the writing is constantly being concentrated and purified. It is not nineteenth-century romanticism he is writing by the end of his career but music that is as modern as Schoenberg and Webern. Another quality is that he never composed the same major piece twice; every successive symphony and tone poem explores new territory in every parameter of composition. I would actually reccomend trying to hear his music in chronological order so that one can get used to the changes in style, some of which are quite striking.

This is a very comprehensive site from Finland all about Sibelius and his life: sibelius.fi

He easily sits alongside Mozart and Beethoven as one of the greatest figures in western music for many reasons. Not least is that he very quickly moves beyond romantic imitation of Tchaikovsky and Grieg and establishes a very individual kind of modernism. If you listen to late works such as the last three symphonies and Tapiola the writing is constantly being concentrated and purified. It is not nineteenth-century romanticism he is writing by the end of his career but music that is as modern as Schoenberg and Webern.

I LOL'D.

One of the "greatest" figures in western music huh?

The "individual kind of modernism" is particularly hilarious. No, seriously, you're talking about someone who's right alongside Les Six, Stravinsky, etc etc in terms of neoclassical and I wouldn't even dare call Sibelius modern by any stretch of the word. The bit with Webern is just ridiculous.

But whatever.