List of compositions by Jean Sibelius

List of compositions by Jean Sibelius
The following is a list of works by Jean Sibelius (18651957), presented as a sortable table with eight parameters: title, category, key, catalogue number, year of composition, genre, and—if applicable—text author; for some compositions, comments are provided, as well. The table's default ordering is by genre and, within a genre, by date.
Oeuvre
The compositional career of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius extended over eight decades, from juvenilia and unpublished works written in the 1870s and 1880s to his final works of the 1940s; the 1890s–1920s, however, represent the key years of his activity. Sibelius composed across many genres, and his oeuvre includes large-scale orchestral compositions, chamber music, songs, piano pieces, and choral works.
Most highly regarded as a composer for the orchestra, the core of Sibelius's oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, the last of which (in one movement) erodes the traditional subdivisions of sonata form. (An eighth symphony likely was destroyed by the composer in the late 1930s.) In addition, the choral work Kullervo and the orchestral suite Lemminkäinen—both based upon Kalevala myths—are classified occasionally as unnumbered, programmatic symphonies.
In addition, Sibelius was a significant contributor to the symphonic poem repertoire. His 16 examples in the form (with Lemminkäinen disaggregated) span the duration of his career and include not only two of his most popular works, The Swan of Tuonela and Finlandia, but also some of his most critically acclaimed: En saga, Pohjola's Daughter, Luonnotar, The Oceanides, and Tapiola. Sibelius also frequently composed for the stage, and his scores for Nordic productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest and Maeterlinck's Pelléas and Mélisande are particularly admired. (He famously abandoned his operatic ambitions in the 1890s.) Other notable orchestral works include the Karelia Suite and .
Within the concertante and chamber genres, the Violin Concerto and the string quartet Voces intimae (each in D minor), respectively, ensure Sibelius's reputation.
Works with and without opus
Sibelius's final opus list dates to 1952 and ranges from Opp. 1 to 116, albeit with Op. 107 unassigned and Op. 117 holding ambiguous status. Among the 115 active numbers, however, are many collections; disaggregating these multi-work numbers reveals that about 340 compositions comprise the list. When ordered numerically, Sibelius's opus list is an imperfect indicator of his stylistic maturation over time. This is because Sibelius curated the collection according to his ever-changing assessment of his oeuvre (highly self-critical, he became especially ambivalent later in life towards his early period), promoting works to or demoting them from the catalogue and filling the resulting vacancies without a strict regard for compositional chronology. Among the pieces that at one point held, but later lost, a place on Sibelius's opus list are numerous large-scale works from the 1880s and 1890s, including his only opera, three cantatas, a melodrama, and multi-movement compositions for chamber ensembles. Sibelius also demoted his first two orchestral compositions, the Overture in E major and , which were originally intended as movements in a symphony before the composer abandoned the project. For works without opus, the convention since the late-1990s has been to follow the JS numbering system of the musicologist , which he finalized in 2003 with the publication of Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works. This list runs from JS 1 to 225 and includes not only compositions Sibelius demoted from his opus list but also those that never held an opus number at any point during his career.
List of compositions
{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="margin-right: 0; font-size: 95%"
|-
|+ Compositions by Jean Sibelius
|-
! scope="col" style="width:22%;"| Title
! scope="col" | Category
! scope="col" | Key
! scope="col" data-sort-type="number"| Op.
! scope="col" data-sort-type="number"| JS
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Genre
! scope="col" | Text
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Comments
{{Classical composition row
| title = Come Away, Death
| subtitle =
| key =
| details = Voice
| scoring =
| catalogue =
| year =
| genre = Song
| description = Voice, pf (guitar)
| text =
| reference = First of the Two Songs from 'Twelfth Night'''; later arranged by the composer for voice and orchestra
}}
{{Classical composition row
| title = Hey, ho, the Wind and the Rain| subtitle =
| key =
| details = Voice
| scoring =
| catalogue =
| year =
| genre = Song
| description = Voice, piano (guitar)
| text =
| reference = Second of the Two Songs from 'Twelfth Night}}
|}
Works without catalogue number
[Scherzo] in B minor, for string quartet (1885); completed by Kalevi Aho
[Four Themes], for string quartet, in: G minor; E-flat major; A minor; and, E minor (1887)
[33 Small Pieces], for string quartet (1888–89)
[Allegro] in G minor, for string quartet (1888–89)
Allegretto in B-flat major, for string quartet (1889)
[Menuetto] in D minor, for piano trio (1882–85)
[Andante]—Adagio—Allegro maestoso, for piano trio (1883–85)
[Allegro] in C major, for piano trio (1885)
[Moderato] in A minor, for piano trio (1885)
Ljunga Wirginia, for violin, cello, and piano four hands (1885); sixth movement completed by Kalevi Aho
[Andantino] in A major, for piano trio (1886)
[Allegretto] in A-flat major, for piano trio (1887–88)
[Allegro] in D minor, for piano trio (1889); completed by Kalevi Aho
[Allegretto] in E-flat major, for piano trio (1891–92); completed by Jaakko Kuusisto
Sonata [movement] in D major, for violin and piano (1885)
[Menuetto] in D minor, for violin and piano (1886)
[Andante elegiaco] in F-sharp minor, for violin and piano (1887)
[Maestoso] in C minor, for violin and piano (1887–88)
[Tempo di Valse] in A major, for violin and piano (1888)
Andante molto in B minor, for cello and piano (1888–89)
[Adagio] in D minor, for violin and piano (1890)
[Larghetto] in D minor, fragment for violin and piano (1890–92)
Minuet in F major, for violin and cello (1891); completed by Jaakko Kuusisto
[Grave] in D minor, fragment for violin and piano (1891–94)
To add to tablePiano Piano Suite (Florestan), JS 82 (1889)
Sonata in F major, Op. 12 (1893)
10 Pieces, Op. 24 (1894–1903)
10 Bagatelles, Op. 34 (1914–16)
10 Pensées lyriques, Op. 40 (1912–14)
10 Pieces, Op. 58 (1909)
Three Sonatinas, Op. 67 (1912)
No. 1 in F-sharp minor
No. 2 in E major
No. 3 in B-flat minor
2 Rondinos, Op. 68 (1912)
4 Lyric Pieces, Op. 74 (1914)
5 Pieces (The Trees), Op. 75 (1914)
13 Pieces, Op. 76 (1914)
5 Pieces (The Flowers), Op. 85 (1916)
6 Pieces, Op. 94 (1919)
6 Bagatelles, Op. 97 (1920)
8 Short Pieces, Op. 99 (1922)
5 Romantic Compositions, Op. 101 (1923)
5 Characteristic Impressions, Op. 103 (1924)
5 Esquisses, Op. 114 (1929)Organ' Preludium (1925)
Postludium (1925)
Intrada, Op. 111a (1925)
Surusoitto (Funeral Music), Op. 111b (1931)
Opening Hymn (from Masonic Ritual Music, Op. 113 (1926/1948))
Marche funèbre (Funeral March) from Masonic Ritual Music'', Op. 113 (1926/1948))
Notes
References
External links
Yhtenäistetty Jean Sibelius: Teosten yhtenäistettyjen nimekkeiden ohjeluettelo. 2013. [A complete list of works in Finnish and English.]
Sibelius, Jean