1. Jean Sibelius is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer, and his music is often credited with having helped Finland develop a stronger national identity when the country was struggling from several attempts at Russification in the late 19th century.
Jean Sibelius was born on 8 December 1865 in Hameenlinna in the Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomous state within the Russian Empire.
Jean Sibelius was the son of the Swedish-speaking medical doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius.
Jean Sibelius's father died of typhoid in July 1868, leaving substantial debts.
Jean Sibelius was therefore brought up in a decidedly female environment, the only male influence coming from his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Jean Sibelius, who was interested in music, especially the violin.
From an early age, Jean Sibelius showed a strong interest in nature, frequently walking around the countryside when the family moved to Loviisa on the coast for the summer months.
Jean Sibelius progressed by improvising on his own, but still learned to read music.
Jean Sibelius later turned to the violin, which he preferred.
Jean Sibelius participated in trios with his elder sister Linda on piano, and his younger brother Christian on the cello.
In 1874, Jean Sibelius attended Lucina Hagman's Finnish-speaking preparatory school as a native Swedish speaker.
However, during his student years, he adopted the French form Jean Sibelius, inspired by the business card of his deceased seafaring uncle.
Jean Sibelius continued his studies in Berlin with Albert Becker, and in Vienna with Robert Fuchs and Hungarian-Jewish composer Karl Goldmark.
Jean Sibelius enjoyed his year in Vienna, frequently partying and gambling with his new friends.
Shortly after returning to Helsinki, Jean Sibelius conducted his Overture and the Scene de Ballet at a popular concert.
Jean Sibelius was able to continue working on Kullervo, now that he was increasingly developing an interest in all things Finnish.
Jean Sibelius composed, conducted and socialized actively in the Scandinavian countries, Britain, France and Germany and later travelled to the United States.
Jean Sibelius went to her funeral, visiting his Hameenlinna home one last time before the house was sold.
Furthermore, on the 19th and 23rd Jean Sibelius presented an extended suite of the work in Helsinki, conducting the orchestra of the Philharmonic Society.
Jean Sibelius was able to complete the music for Adolf Paul's play King Christian II.
In January 1899, Jean Sibelius embarked on his First Symphony at a time when his patriotic feelings were being enhanced by the Russian emperor Nicholas II's attempt to restrict the powers of the Grand Duchy of Finland.
Nevertheless, in the summer Jean Sibelius went on an international tour with Kajanus and his orchestra, presenting his recent works in thirteen cities including Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin and Paris.
Jean Sibelius spent the summer in Tvarminne near Hanko, where he worked on the song Var det en drom as well as on a new version of En saga.
In 1903, Jean Sibelius spent much of his time in Helsinki where he indulged excessively in wining and dining, running up considerable bills in the restaurants.
In January 1905, Jean Sibelius returned to Berlin where he conducted his Second Symphony.
In 1906, after a short, rather uneventful stay in Paris at the beginning of the year, Jean Sibelius spent several months composing in Ainola, his major work of the period being Pohjola's Daughter, yet another piece based on the Kalevala.
Jean Sibelius ended the year conducting a series of concerts, the most successful being the first public performance of Pohjola's Daughter at the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.
Jean Sibelius's lifestyle had a disastrous effect on the health of Aino who was driven to retire to a sanatorium, suffering from exhaustion.
Shortly afterwards Jean Sibelius met Austro-Bohemian composer Gustav Mahler who was in Helsinki.
In 1907, Jean Sibelius underwent a serious operation for suspected throat cancer.
Jean Sibelius travelled with his wife to Berlin to have a tumour removed from his throat.
Jean Sibelius started work on his Fourth Symphony in early 1910 but his dwindling funds required him to write a number of smaller pieces and songs.
Jean Sibelius then travelled to Berlin to continue work on his Fourth Symphony, writing the finale after returning to Jarvenpaa.
Jean Sibelius conducted his first concerts in Sweden in early 1911 when even his Third Symphony was welcomed by the critics.
Jean Sibelius went on to compose Luonnotar for soprano and orchestra.
In early 1914, Jean Sibelius spent a month in Berlin where he was particularly drawn to Arnold Schoenberg.
Henry Krehbiel considered The Oceanides one of the most beautiful pieces of sea music ever composed, while The New York Times commented that Jean Sibelius's music was the most notable contribution to the music festival.
Around this time, Jean Sibelius was running ever deeper into debt.
Jean Sibelius naturally supported the Whites, but as a Tolstoyan, Aino Jean Sibelius had some sympathies for the Reds too.
In early 1919, Jean Sibelius enthusiastically decided to change his image, shaving off what remained of his thinning hair.
In 1920, despite a growing tremor in his hands, Jean Sibelius composed the Hymn of the Earth to a text by the poet Eino Leino for the Suomen Laulu Choir and orchestrated his Valse lyrique, helped along by drinking wine.
On his birthday in December 1920, Jean Sibelius received a donation of 63,000 marks, a substantial sum the tenor Waino Sola had raised from Finnish businesses.
Eastman offered $20,000 salary to teach for a single year, and before Jean Sibelius declined, negotiations were so firm that the New York Times published Jean Sibelius's arrival as fact.
Jean Sibelius was beginning to suffer from exhaustion, but the critics remained positive.
Early in 1922, after suffering from headaches Jean Sibelius decided to acquire spectacles although he never wore them for photographs.
Jean Sibelius then proceeded to Gothenburg where he enjoyed an ecstatic reception despite arriving at the concert hall suffering from over-indulgence in food and drink.
Jean Sibelius was honoured with the Knight Commander's Cross of the Order of the Dannebrog.
Jean Sibelius spent most of the rest of the year resting as his recent spate of activity was straining his heart and nerves.
Jean Sibelius completed the work well in advance of its premiere in March 1926.
The music journalist Vesa Siren has found evidence that Jean Sibelius perhaps suffered from essential tremor since a young age and that he reduced the symptoms by drinking alcohol.
For most of the last thirty years of his life, Jean Sibelius even avoided talking publicly about his music.
Jean Sibelius promised the premiere of this symphony to Serge Koussevitzky in 1931 and 1932, and a London performance in 1933 under Basil Cameron was even advertised to the public.
Anxious about Bolshevism, Jean Sibelius advocated that Finnish soldiers march alongside German forces after Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941.
Jean Sibelius did not make any utterances about the genocide of the Jews, although, in a diary entry in 1943, he wondered why he had signed the Aryan certificate.
On 1 January 1939, Jean Sibelius had participated in an international radio broadcast during which he conducted his Andante Festivo.
From 1903 and for many years thereafter Jean Sibelius lived in the countryside.
Two years later in Ainola, on the evening of 20 September 1957, Jean Sibelius died of a brain hemorrhage at the age of 91.
Jean Sibelius was honoured with a state funeral and is buried in the garden at Ainola.
Jean Sibelius is widely known for his symphonies and his tone poems, especially Finlandia and the Karelia suite.
Jean Sibelius composed a series of works for violin and orchestra including a Violin Concerto, the opera Jungfrun i tornet, many shorter orchestral pieces, chamber music, works for piano and violin, choral works and numerous songs.
Jean Sibelius progressively stripped away formal markers of sonata form in his work and, instead of contrasting multiple themes, focused on the idea of continuously evolving cells and fragments culminating in a grand statement.
The completeness and organic feel of this synthesis has prompted some to suggest that Jean Sibelius began his works with a finished statement and worked backwards, although analyses showing these predominantly three- and four-note cells and melodic fragments as they are developed and expanded into the larger "themes" effectively prove the opposite.
Jean Sibelius started work on his Symphony No 1 in E minor, Op.
Now taking a purified approach, Jean Sibelius sought to offer "spring water" rather than cocktails, making use of lighter flutes and strings rather than the heavy brass of the Fifth.
The single-movement tone poem was possibly inspired by the Icelandic mythological work Edda although Jean Sibelius simply described it as "an expression of [his] state of mind".
Originally conceived as a mythological opera, Veneen luominen, on a scale matching those by Richard Wagner, Jean Sibelius later changed his musical goals and the work became an orchestral piece in four movements.
Finlandia, probably the best known of all Jean Sibelius's works, is a highly patriotic piece first performed in November 1899 as one of the tableaux for the Finnish Press Celebrations.
The work, praised upon its premiere as "the finest evocation of the sea ever produced in music", consists of two subjects Jean Sibelius gradually develops in three informal stages: first, a placid ocean; second, a gathering storm; and third, a thunderous wave-crash climax.
Valse triste is a short orchestral work that was originally part of the incidental music Jean Sibelius composed for his brother-in-law Arvid Jarnefelt's 1903 play Kuolema.
Jean Sibelius wrote six pieces for the 2 December 1903 production of Kuolema.
In 1904, Jean Sibelius revised the piece for a performance in Helsinki on 25 April where it was presented as Valse triste.
When Freemasonry in Finland was revived, having been forbidden under the Russian reign, Jean Sibelius was one of the founding members of Suomi Lodge No 1 in 1922 and later became the Grand Organist of the Grand Lodge of Finland.
Jean Sibelius loved nature, and the Finnish landscape often served as material for his music.
Jean Sibelius savoured the spring blossoms every bit as much as he did autumnal scents and colours.
Indeed, Jean Sibelius exerted considerable influence on symphonic composers and musical life.
Jean Sibelius's impact is perhaps the greatest in English-speaking and Nordic countries.
Walton's composer friend Constant Lambert even asserted that Jean Sibelius was "the first great composer since Beethoven whose mind thinks naturally in terms of symphonic form".
The esteem was mutual: Jean Sibelius dedicated his Third Symphony to the English composer, and in 1946 he became the first President of the Bantock Society.
The British conductor Thomas Kemp has suggested that Jean Sibelius might be, in fact, viewed as a proto-minimalist.
Adams in particular has a strong affinity towards Jean Sibelius, citing him as a substantial influence on his compositional style.
Later in life, Jean Sibelius was championed by the American critic Olin Downes, who wrote a biography of the composer.
In 1972, Jean Sibelius's surviving daughters sold Ainola to the Finnish state.
Jean Sibelius has been memorialized by art, stamps, and currency; the Finnish 100 mark bill featured his image until 2002 when the euro was adopted.
Jean Sibelius kept a diary from 1909 to 1944, and his family allowed it to be published, unabridged, in 2005.
Several volumes of Jean Sibelius's correspondence have been edited and published in Swedish, Finnish and English.
The legacy of Jean Sibelius is celebrated through an array of statues, monuments, parks, and similar honours.
In 2021, the music manuscripts of Jean Sibelius were included in the Memory of the World Programme by the UNESCO.