Sibelius grew to maturity at a time of fervent Finnish nationalism, as the country broke away from its earlier Swedish and later Russian overlords. The son of a doctor, he was brought up in a small town in the south of Finland, in a Swedish-speaking family. Sibelius acquired a knowledge of Finnish language and traditional literature at school and the early Finnish sagas proved a strong influence on his subsequent work as a composer. His musical abilities were soon realised, although not developed early enough to suggest music as a profession until he had entered university in Helsinki as a law student. His first ambition had been to be a violinist. It later became apparent that any ability he had in this direction was outweighed by his gifts as a composer, developed first by study with Martin Wegelius, then in Berlin and in Vienna. Sibelius won almost immediate success at home in Finland in 1892 with his symphonic poem, Kullervo, based on an episode from the Finnish epic Kalevala. Other compositions of particular national appeal followed that further enhanced his reputation in Helsinki. Although he lived until 1957, he wrote little after 1926, feeling out of sympathy with current trends in music.
Sibelius wrote incidental music for Maeterlinck's Pelléas et Mélisande and for Belshazzar's Feast, a play by Procope, with a Prelude and two suites from a score for Shakespeare's The Tempest. His well known Karelia Suite was derived from incidental music for a pageant. His popular Valse triste was originally written for Järnefelt's play Death, and in fact accompanies a death-bed scene.
Orchestral Music
Sibelius wrote seven symphonies, an additional eighth apparently completed but destroyed. The first two of these enjoy particular popularity.
Symphonic poems by Sibelius, their inspiration usually from ancient Finnish legend, include En Saga, the Lemminkäinen Suite, of which the Swan of Tuonela and Lemminkäinen's Return form a part, Pohjola's Daughter and Tapiola. Finlandia was adapted from music provided for Press Pension celebrations in 1899.
Chamber Music
Chamber music by Sibelius includes a string quartet, "Voces intimae", a sonatina for violin and a number of short pieces for violin and piano.
