Sibelius Piano Concerto

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Lavonna Baldree

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Aug 5, 2024, 5:19:34 AM8/5/24

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TodaySibelius is remembered principally as a composer for orchestra: particularly celebrated are his symphonies, tone poems, and lone concerto, although he produced viable works in all major genres of classical music.[8] While his orchestral works meant the most to him, Sibelius refused to dismiss his miniatures (piano pieces, songs, etc.) as insignificant, seeing them instead as "represent[ative of] his innermost self".[9]

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),[12] promoting works to or demoting them from the catalogue and filling the resulting vacancies without a strict regard for compositional chronology.[13][h] 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 several multi-movement compositions for chamber ensembles.[17][i] Sibelius also demoted his first two orchestral compositions, the Overture in E major and Ballet Scene, which were originally intended as movements in a symphony before the composer abandoned the project.[21]

For works without opus, the convention since the late-1990s has been to follow the supplemental JS numbering system of the Finnish musicologist Fabian Dahlstrm [fi], which he finalized in 2003 with the publication of Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works.[22] 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.[23]

Sibelius sold his music to several publishers over the course of his career. As a relatively unknown composer in the 1890s and early 1900s, he worked with domestic firms in Helsinki, including the eponymous operations of Axel E. Lindgren and Karl F. Wasenius [fi], as well as Helsingfors Nya Musikhandel [fi], a joint venture of Konrad G. Fazer [fi] and Robert E. Westerlund [fi] until the latter withdrew in 1904 to begin his own firm [fi].[24][j] As Sibelius's international reputation grew, the major German firms came calling, and he relished not only the prestige but also the opportunity to free himself from the cumbersome domestic publishing process. He contracted with Berlin's Robert Lienau Musikverlag from 1905 to 1909 and with Leipzig's Breitkopf & Hrtel from 1910 to 1918.[25] The arrival of the First World War in 1914, however, disrupted business with Germany, and Sibelius's royalty payments had to be rerouted through neutral Denmark. Ever in debt, Sibelius churned out undistinguished, "bread-and-butter" violin duos and piano pieces for R. E. Westerlund and A. E. Lindgren,[26] each of whom lacked the means to print the works but viewed them as shrewd investments.[27][k]

The end of the war brought little relief, as famine and civil war gripped newly-sovereign Finland and reparations wrecked the German economy. Breitkopf & Hrtel wrote to the composer in May 1918 to express its regret that it could not accept the Fifth Symphony due to the post-war circumstances.[28] Into the breach stepped Edition Wilhelm Hansen in Copenhagen, which directly contracted with Sibelius in 1920 and, over the next half decade, emerged as Sibelius's leading publisher.[29][l] In 1926, Breitkopf & Hrtel was able to resume its publishing relationship with Sibelius,[29] although it now had to share the composer with Hansen and others. At any rate, Sibelius spent the 1930s battling with the never-realized Eighth Symphony, and by the 1940s he had drifted into quasi retirement. Following his death in 1957, many compositions remained in manuscript, and the process of publishing his works posthumously began. Over the following decades, the Sibelius family agreed to allow several first editions variously by Hansen, Breitkopf & Hrtel, and Musiikki-Fazer [fi].[30][m]

In 1991, the Finnish musicologist Kari Kilpelinen published The Jean Sibelius Musical Manuscripts at Helsinki University Library: A Complete Catalogue, in which each manuscript received a Helsinki University Library (HUL) identifier.[34] The JS and HUL numbering systems, moreover, are compatible; for example, Sibelius's destroyed Eighth Symphony is numbered JS 190 by Dahlstrm, with the surviving so-called Three Late Fragments that have been tentatively connected to the Eighth Symphony labeled as HUL 1325, HUL 1326/9, and HUL 1327/2 by Kilpelinen.[35] A third notable acquisition occurred shortly after Kilpelinen published his book, when in 1997 the National Library obtained manuscripts that had belonged to Edition Wilhelm Hansen.[33] Finally, in 2020, the institution purchased a 1,200-page collection from Robert Lienau Musikverlag.[36] In 2021, the UNESCO National Committee of Finland inducted the National Library's Jean Sibelius Musical Manuscripts into the country's Memory of the World Register, describing it as a "carefully nurtured national cultural treasure ... [that] has crucially expanded and shaped the image of how Sibelius composed and produced his works".[34]

Within Finland, additional manuscripts are held by the Sibelius Museum at bo Akademi University in Turku, the Sibelius Academy (the composer's alma mater, formerly the Helsinki Music Institute), the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra (which premiered most of his orchestral works), and the National Archives of Finland.[37] It is not legally possible to export Sibelius's manuscripts from Finland without permission, which in any case the Finnish authorities would probably not give.[38] Outside of Finland, Breitkopf & Hrtel possesses the most notable collection of Sibelius manuscripts.[39]

A second important survey is The Sibelius Edition recording project by the Swedish label BIS, for which the Sibelius biographer Andrew Barnett served as project advisor.[43] Released from 2007 to 2011, this 13-volume series, which sought to record every surviving "note [Sibelius] put down to paper", comprises 80+ hours of music over 68 discs and also includes the original versions of works the composer revised.[44][o]

Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Gisli Magnason - 21 Nov 06:58PM Hide picture Hello everyone!

Does anyone know if it's a possibility to convert a whole orchestral score into a piano score for the purpose of rehearsing?

Someone told me that one could do this, but I don't have a clue of how to... Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Laurence Payne - 21 Nov 07:56PM Hide picture You can try Note Input/Arrange, choosing one of the Keyboard Reduction styles. But it can get very messy with a large score - it's more suited to e.g. turning SATB into a piano score.

If the score is at all complex, I think it will take musical brain-work rather than automation. Maybe just the string section could be reduced, and used as a basis? It all very much depends on the style of your music.

FAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/sibelius.html

If you want help with a score, attach the sib file! Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Richard Hatton - 21 Nov 09:17PM Hide picture As Laurence has said it takes a lot of musical brainwork and tedious analysis to produce a piano part. To do it you need to look at the score and decide which instruments are really necessary and work with them a few bars at a time. The instruments will change as the score progresses.

Having done that you will end up with a very messy piano part which will need re-writing to make something sensible. Takes a long time. I've done this on octets and nonets and also on one small orchestral score (one of the Beethoven romances) but it is not a thing to be undertaken lightly - especially if like me you are not a pianist!

Richard Hatton

Sibelius 7.1.3 and Photoscore Ult. 7.0.2; Windows 7 64 bit; quad core i7, 16GB ram; core I5, 8 GB ram also with Sibelius 6 Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Derek Bourgeois - 22 Nov 09:21AM Hide picture Whenever I write a work for voices and orchestra, or a Concerto for solo instrument and orchestra, I incorporate a Piano reduction part in the score. This can be hidden entirely, but it's a great way to turn the whole score into a vocal or rehearsal score.

I don't bother to do this for a purely orchestral score because it's not often that anyone wants a piano reduction.

Derek

Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit - Intel [email protected] Ghz - 24GB RAM - NVidia Quadro 5000 with 6143 graphics memory - 3 TB hard disks (of which 2 TB SSD), Sibelius 7.1.3, Vienna Symphonic Library Special Edition plus full percussion library. East West QL Symphonic Orchestra and Choirs. Sibelius 7 Sounds. M-Box. Living in UK Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Tony Wakefield - 22 Nov 11:37AM (edited 22 Nov 11:38AM) Hide picture When reducing orchestra to wind 5tet I do it on the fly just extracting the important `melodic, harmonic content, bass` as I go.

But again, I don`t specifically require what you`re after - a rehearsal part. But if you were to set to work this way, it may turn out to be a quicker way than looking at a mass (mess!) of computer work out.

Alternatively, you could mute what unessential `bits` there may be to enable an `approximate` rehearsal part. This may give the `arrange` facility an `easier to view` rehearsal part.

Win XP with newish bits/bytes inside a very old box (at least all the wires are out of sight): Sibelius 6: EWQLSO (when it works): GPO4: JaBB3. Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Richard Hatton - 22 Nov 05:32PM Hide picture If all you are really wanting is a basic vamp with cues for rehearsing that is rather easier to do.

You need to create a piano part that just includes the following bits from the score:

Bass line, important rhythmic parts and the relevant melodic bits and ignore the counter melodies and fancy harmonies.

Richard Hatton

Sibelius 7.1.3 and Photoscore Ult. 7.0.2; Windows 7 64 bit; quad core i7, 16GB ram; core I5, 8 GB ram also with Sibelius 6 Back to top Allthreads Re: Sib. 7.0: Score to piano

Posted by Wim Hoogewerf - 23 Nov 08:27AM Hide picture A good tip, from my own experience: first reduce to a FOUR stave piano and then reduce the four staves into TWO. This is especially helpful with very complex scores.

Eventually, a piano opera repetitor prefers to have more notes than he can actually play and accepts to have three staves sometimes.

The arrange function, if you don't expect spectacular results in one go, is very helpful: Select, say, two instruments with a few bars of melody and counter-melody, copy and reduce into a single piano staff. That works all the time.