Sibelius Symphony no.7 video finally included of the whole thing

My favorite is the 2nd.
The beginning of it is the breath of the earth.

I listened to The Swan of Tuonela and Finlandia. They were both pretty nice pieces. I also heard his 5th. I guess he not too bad. I like him, but he isn't one of my favorites.

Part 1

part 2

part 3

These videos have been there ages! I listen to it almost daily Thanks again for bringing to my attention this most awesome piece of music I love the fact that everything seems to be developed from so little material, yet there is a great deal of variety and interest.

The trombone theme I once saw described as 'the voice of God'. I wholly agree with whoever said that

I have never quite understood the vogue for Sibelius. Although I would not go as far as René Leibowitz who called Sibelius "the worst composer in the world", I do think Sibelius is a terribly overrated composer, at least in the Anglo-Saxon world. I've heard this Seventh Symphony of his a couple of times now and I don't see what's so special about this rather conservative piece written in an unoriginal romantic tonal idiom at a time (1924) when other composers were already experimenting with the most daring chromatic and atonal harmonies, complex rhythms and innovative techniques...

Sibelius IS innovative!!! But I don't have the will-power to explain right now.
Hopefully someone else will.

Have you heard the 4th symphony? Is it "written in an unoriginal romantic tonal idiom"?

(Obviously you haven't or you wouldn't have posted such a mal-informed post. The answer: NO!)

Anyway...

I'll have a try Dan

Sibelius was most certainly innovative, and this is one of his most innovative pieces (at least from what I've heard). For a start, the form is very different to the form of any symphony before it. It's all in one movement, but that movement is structured very very carefully to give the listener the same sort of experience as if they'd listened to a normal 4 movement symphony. There are a number of different sections, and three points of climax all of which employ the same theme in the trombones which I believe Michel posted earlier. Another innovative and interesting thing about this symphony is that almost all of it is developed from very little material - it is an extremely 'organic' work in that one can trace the melodic material in most of the different sections to one or several of the motifs/themes introduced in the first section (the section leading up to the first statement of the trombone theme). This creates a great sense of unity which holds the work together but the skill with which the material is manipulated and developed gives enough variety to keep the listener's interest.

It's true that this is much more rooted in tradiational harmony than a lot of other works that were being written at the same time - but is that a bad thing? There are some truley amazing and beautiful moments harmonically, and some points that sound decidedly not-common-practice, for example the work starts with an ascending A natural minor (A Aeolian) scale, which finishes on an Ab minor chord - a long way away from the home key in just the first few bars - it's not until quite a way in that we arrive in the home key of C major (sorry I can't give an exact bar reference, don't have a score )

These are just my thoughts on it from having listened to it many times and tried to do a bit of analysis on the form myself - please do not take these as having any authority whatsoever - I could be talking complete shit

Anyway, I hope I've gone some way to explaining how innovative and original Sibelius's music was, and perhaps now you'll give it another listen with these things in mind and see if you can appreciate it a little more, gianluca

The people in this video bore me to death.

Originally Posted by Jamie Whitmarsh

The people in this video bore me to death.

If you're bored by Leonard Bernstein, then I pity your life. I guess it would be better if they wore shakos or windmilled on guitars (no offense to my bizoy, Pete Townsend, he sure plays a mean pinball)


Also, to gianluca, I'm sure Sibelius will be much better remembered than you.

Originally Posted by gms5287

Also, to gianluca, I'm sure Sibelius will be much better remembered than you.

So, your point being what? Some genius composers may be (unjustly) forgotten, whereas some mediocre composers may be remembered. The fact that person X is better remembered than person Y doesn't necessarily mean that X's work was better or greater than Y's. I'm sure Britney Spears will be better remembered than most classical composers living today....

Now back to Sibelius, I stick to my belief that he is an uninteresting conventional composer of minor importance (and I'm pleased to have read an interview with Boulez in which he expressed the same view). And yes, Daniel, I did listen to his Fourth Symphony as well (I even studied the score), but for a work written in 1911, its musical language is still lightyears away from that of the more innovative pieces written around that time - e.g., Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Stravinsky's Petrushka and Rite of Spring, Debussy's Jeux, Scriabin's Prometheus, etc.

Furthermore, the one-movement form of Sibelius' Seventh isn't that innovative or unconventional. Something similar had already been done by Schoenberg in his first Chamber Symphony (written in 1906!), which also has several individual sections integrated into a single uninterrupted organic form, and which moreover has a greater structural complexity and a much more advanced harmonic language than Sibelius' 7th.