In memoriam
Funeral march by Jean Sibelius
The composer (c. 1911)
Opus59
Composed1909 (1909), rev. 1910
PublisherBreitkopf & Härtel (1910)[1]
Duration9 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)[2]
Premiere
Date8 October 1910 (1910-10-08)[3]
LocationKristiania, Norway
ConductorJean Sibelius
PerformersKristiania Musical Association

In memoriam, Op. 59, is a single-movement funeral march for orchestra written in 1909 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. It was written in memory of Eugen Schauman. However, he revised the piece in 1910. He conducted the first performance in Kristiania (now Oslo) on 8 October 1910. The piece was also performed at his own funeral.

History

Eugen Schauman, in whose memory the work was conceived

The work was written to commemorate Eugen Schauman who had in 1904 shot Governor-General Nikolay Bobrikov and then killed himself.[4] Sibelius mentioned on New Year's Day of 1905 "that he intended to write a requiem in memory of Eugen Schauman and that he had already started to work on it. – I just hope it will be worthy of its subject matter! After all, it will be the only monument that we can raise for him!"[4]

Only in 1909, after his throat surgery which made him think of death, he returned to the idea. Erik Tawaststjerna assumes that he wrote it also for himself. He composed a first version in 1909, completed on 14 December 1909.[4] His models were the funeral marches of Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 "Eroica" and Wagner's Götterdämmerung. The work in sonata form is introduced by the violins and violas, with a main theme developing "like the approach of a distant cortege".[5] He sent the work to the publisher Breitkopf.[5]

Reading the proofs, Sibelius was not satisfied, especially with the instrumentation. He revised the piece, completing the work in March 1910. Sibelius first performed it on 8 October 1910, played by the Musikforeningen, in concerts in Kristiania, Norway.[4]

In memoriam was played at the funeral of Sibelius in 1957.[4]

Instrumentation

In its revised form, In memoriam is scored for the following instruments,[6] organized by family (woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):

The original version of the piece called for 1 piccolo in addition to the orchestra forces above.[7]

Discography

The British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham and the London Philharmonic Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of In memoriam in 1938 for His Master's Voice (HMV).[6] The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

No. Conductor Ensemble Rec.[lower-alpha 1] Time Recording venue Label Ref.
1 Sir Thomas Beecham London Philharmonic Orchestra 1938 9:03 Koch
2 Jussi Jalas Hungarian State Symphony Orchestra c. 1975 8:51 [Unknown], Budapest Decca
3 Neemi Järvi Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra 1986 7:57 Gothenburg Concert Hall BIS
4 Atso Almila Kuopio Symphony Orchestra 1998 8:48 Kuopio Music Centre Finlandia
5 Leif Segerstam (1) Danish National Symphony Orchestra 1990 13:38 Danish Radio Concert Hall (old) Chandos
6 Osmo Vänskä (1) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (1) 2000 11:21 Sibelius Hall BIS
† Osmo Vänskä (2) Lahti Symphony Orchestra (2) 2004 10:25 Sibelius Hall BIS
7 Leif Segerstam (2) Turku Philharmonic Orchestra 2014 13:15 Turku Concert Hall Naxos

† = original version (1904)

Notes

  1. ↑ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
  2. ↑ [ T. Beecham—Koch (3–7061–2 H1) 1991]
  3. ↑ J. Jalas–Decca (482 331–1)
  4. ↑ N. Järvi–BIS (CD–372) 1987
  5. ↑ A. Almila–Finlandia (3984–23391–2) 1999
  6. ↑ L. Segerstam–Chandos (CHAN 9107) 1992
  7. 1 2 O. Vänskä–BIS (CD–1485) 2006
  8. ↑ L. Segerstam–Naxos (8.573340) 2015

References

  1. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. 275.
  2. ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 273–274.
  3. ↑ Dahlström 2003, pp. 205, 274.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 "Other orchestral works / In Memoriam". Jean Sibelius. Finnish Club of Helsinki. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  5. 1 2 Barnett, Rob (2003). Jean Sibelius (1865–1957). musicweb-international.com. pp. 201–203. ISBN 0300111592. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  6. 1 2 Dahlström 2003, p. 274.
  7. ↑ Dahlström 2003, p. 273.
  • Dahlström, Fabian [in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel. ISBN 3-7651-0333-0.
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