' (Finnish: “Death”), JS 113, is

incidental music Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, or some other presentation form that is not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as t ...

for orchestra by

Jean Sibelius Jean Sibelius ( ; ; born Johan Julius Christian Sibelius; 8 December 186520 September 1957) was a Finnish composer of the late Romantic and 20th-century classical music, early-modern periods. He is widely regarded as his country's greatest com ...

for a play of that title by his brother-in-law

Arvid Järnefelt Arvid Järnefelt (16 November 1861, in , Russian Empire – 27 December 1932, in Helsinki, Finland) was a Finnish judge and writer. Arvid's parents were general and governor August Aleksander Järnefelt and Elisabeth Järnefelt (''née'' Clo ...

, structured in six movements and originally scored for string orchestra,

bass drum The bass drum is a large drum that produces a note of low definite or indefinite pitch. The instrument is typically cylindrical, with the drum's diameter much greater than the drum's depth, with a struck head at both ends of the cylinder. Th ...

and a

bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inter ...

. He conducted the first performance at the

Finnish National Theatre The Finnish National Theatre ( fi, Suomen Kansallisteatteri), established in 1872, is a theatre located in central Helsinki on the northern side of the Helsinki Central Railway Station Square. The Finnish National Theatre is the oldest Finnish ...

in Helsinki on 2 December 1903. He drew individual works from the score and revised them as: * Op. 44 no. 1 ', completed in 1904 * Op. 44 no. 2 ''Scene with Cranes'', completed in 1906 For a 1911 production of the play, he added two new movements: * Op. 62a ''Canzonetta'' (Rondino der Liebenden) for string orchestra, first version in 1906, final version in 1911 * Op. 62b ' (Waltz intermezzo), completed in 1911

Background

Initially, Sibelius wrote six numbers for the 2 December 1903 production: # ''Tempo di valse lente - Poco risoluto'' (Act I) # ''Moderato'' (Paavali's Song: 'Pakkanen puhurin poika', for solo baritone, Act II) # ''Moderato assai - Moderato'' (Elsa's Song: 'Eilaa, eilaa', for solo soprano) - ''Poco adagio'' (Act II) # ''Andante'' (The Cranes, Act II) # ''Moderato'' (Act III) # ''Andante ma non tanto'' (Act III) In 1904, he revised No. 1 as ''

Valse triste ''Valse triste'' (''Sad Waltz''), Op. 44, No. 1, is a short orchestral work by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was originally part of the incidental music he composed for his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt's 1903 play '' Kuolema'' (''Dea ...

'', and it was performed in Helsinki on 25 April 1904. It was published as Op. 44 in 1905 by

Breitkopf & Härtel Breitkopf & Härtel is the world's oldest music publishing house. The firm was founded in 1719 in Leipzig by Bernhard Christoph Breitkopf. The catalogue currently contains over 1,000 composers, 8,000 works and 15,000 music editions or books on ...

, and immediately took on a life of its own. It became an instant hit with the public, and one of Sibelius's signature pieces. However, because of the publishing contract, Sibelius saw relatively little money in terms of royalties from the performances of ''Valse triste''. Erik W. Tawaststjerna (trans. Robert Layton), ''Sibelius, Volume II: 1904-1914''. Faber and Faber (London, 1986), pp. 45-46. In 1906, he combined Nos. 3 and 4 and revised the music under the title ''Scene with Cranes''. This was performed in Vaasa on 14 December 1906. Sibelius did not ascribe an opus number to it, it was not performed again in his lifetime, and it was not published until 1973, 16 years after his death. In 1906, he wrote a ''Rondino der Liebenden'' for string orchestra, adapted from the music for ''Kuolema''. It lay unperformed until 1911. In 1911, Järnefelt produced a revised version of the play. For this, Sibelius wrote a revised version of ''Rondino der Liebenden'', which he now called ''Canzonetta''; and a new piece, ''Valse romantique''. These were first performed in Helsinki at the

on 8 March 1911, together with ''Valse triste''. The play was not a success, however, hoping to repeat the success of ''Valse triste'' with ''Canzonetta'' and ''Valse romantique'', Sibelius immediately published them together, as Op. 62a and Op. 62b respectively. They failed to grab the public's attention the way ''Valse triste'' had done. In 1973, ''Scene with Cranes'' was posthumously published, as Op. 44, No. 2, and ''Valse triste'' was retrospectively renumbered as Op. 44, No. 1. Recordings and performances sometimes present ''Valse triste'', ''Scene with Cranes'', ''Canzonetta'' and ''Valse romantique'' as a unified suite, as it represents the totality of what is known of the incidental music for the two versions of ''Kuolema''. However, this was not Sibelius's intention.

Literature

* Mäkelä, Tomi: ''Jean Sibelius und seine Zeit'' (in German). Laaber-Verlag, Regensburg, 2013.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Incidental music by Jean Sibelius 1903 compositions