Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 105
Jean Sibelius (1865-1957)

THE STORY

At a concert in Stockholm in 1924, Sibelius conducted a premiere of his latest orchestral work: the Fantasia sinfonica. However, before its publication the following year, the Finnish composer removed the title, opting for the generic yet enigmatic “Seventh Symphony.” This curious appellation was owed to the composer’s compression of the symphony to a single movement, a bold departure from the traditional and standard four movements. One-movement symphonic pieces most commonly took the form of a tone poem with extramusical associations, such as a story, a fictional character or hero, or even perhaps a painting or landscape. Yet Sibelius’s Seventh contains no program and charted a path quite unprecedented in the symphonic literature.

Ideas for the work had begun as early as 1918 while completing his Fifth Symphony and also starting his Sixth. Sibelius had imagined a three-movement work. Yet what emerged was the single-movement symphony with distinct tempo markings: an opening Adagio, a quasi-scherzo and rondo, and a return to the Adagio at its conclusion.

Sadly, Sibelius had begun to notice hand tremors during this time, and was frequently plagued with bouts of alcoholism and depression. Although there is evidence of his having sketched an Eighth Symphony (and destroying it!), the Seventh would be his last in the genre. And along with the symphonic poem, Tapiola, it would  be one of his last major works. He stopped composing for nearly a quarter century before his death at the age of 91 in 1957.

LISTEN FOR

• A long introduction initiated by a drum-tap and strings’ ascending scales
• Seemingly disjunct themes and fragments of themes coalesce towards the grandiose trombone theme, which appears three times throughout the symphony
• A scherzo-like dance section
• A triumphant semi-tone rise to the blazing, pure key of C at the work’s conclusion

INSTRUMENTATION

Two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, three trumpets, three trombones, timpani, strings