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User:Silence of Järvenpää/Work (j)

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Music

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Jedermann is scored for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed choir, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets (in KEY), bassoon, 2 horns (in KEY), 2 trumpets (in KEY), strings, timpani, piano, and organ.[1]

  • Goss (2009): "Sibelius made the most of the age-old musical associations of the devil with the tritone and chromaticism and of the heavenly with the Dorian mode and the diatonic, associations simple enough for every man and woman to grasp".[2]
  • Barnett (2007): "Everyman is one of the most uneven of all of Sibelius's theatre scores .. it was never intended to be performed independently of the action on stage, and does not really work as a concert item unless at least some dialogue is included"[3]


  • No. II:
"A bleak, discordant number ... here the piano and bells establish the interval of a fourth which will prove important later in the score"[3]
"The A-flat major of the strings combined with the piano's bell-like intonation of E and A creates a bitonal relationship. The bells' hollowly-resonating motif of a fourth is connected with Everyman's future fate".[1]
  • No. III:
"gently bustling string writing, which is [later] condensed into a four-bar dance motif [No. IIIa]".[3]
"The dance music is characterized by its use of modality. The texture is colored by strings, clarinets, basson and the tinkling of the triangle ... A brief, four-bar recollection of the previous dance melody also acts as a bridge to the banquet scene"[1]
  • No. IV:
"a strophic song ... is one of the most attractive movements in the score. Its trochaic pizzicato string accompaniment above held woodwinds and brass chords is reminiscent of Peer Gynt's Serenade from Grieg's famous incidental music".[3]
"perform a three-strophe song in Aeolian minor for Everyman, in which the solo singers alternate with a chorus of friends. The pizzicato of the strings are reminiscent of a guitar accompaniment. Behind this we hear the gentle sonority of woodwind and horns".[1]
  • No. VII:
"madrigal ... is more characteristic on account of its slow 3/2 metre and of its theme, which has similarities with runic melodies and is, indeed, very close to one of the main themes in Sibelius's Karelia music."[3]
"The singer of another, madrigal-style song suggestion ... manages to make another guest repeat the short initial extract, and finally they perform the song together".[1]
  • No. VIII:
"the lively song"[3]
"He sings a song of love, and the other guests join in. In the middle of this song, however, the dull sound of bells is heard ... the sound of this death-knell".[1]
  • No. IX:
"the melody of the madrigal returns, as a canon for the choir"[3]
"the guests start to sing the previous song ... on this occasion it is sung in canon".[4]
  • No. X:
"wholly characteristic Sibelian style, takes up and expands material from the banquet preparations"[5]
"The music is a development of the material heard at the beginning of the banquet (No. 3)".[6]
  • No. XI:
"a long, meandering chromatic piece of mood music ... scored for muted strings and sinister, booming timpani—that evokes an uneasy atmosphere comparable to that in the music to Ödlan (1909). Gradually the intensity grows and motifs start to take shape".[5]
"This scene is characterized by a fugue for divided, muted strings; its theme moves chromatically ... the timpani boom fatefully behind the strings texture".[6]
"The mood completely shifts at the start of the second half [of the play], which is through-composed (like the score for Scaramouche ... [No. XI] is a sparse, searching Largo, resembling some of the most chromatic and remote-sounding music from the first movement of the [[Symphony No. 4 (Sibelius)|Fourth Symphony]" ... Musch of the music for the second half of Everyman is underscore, intended to be played beneath spoken dialogue".[7]
  • No. XII:
"The muted strings continue to dominate the texture, which becomes more diatonic and flowing".[6]
  • No. XIII:
"here the organ chorale theme and Bach-like string writing allude to the clichés of religious music in a way that is most unusual for Sibelius"[5]
"which Sibelius emphasizes in the organ part. The organ plays a chorale-like theme which is colored by the strings' quaver figurations".[6]
  • No. XIV:
"an expressive, chromatic string motif"[5]
"The Devil's appearance is characterized by muted strings, which repeat the Devil's intense chromatic motif about twenty times, each occasion being clearly separated by pauses. The bells are also heard ... indicates the beginning of eternal life".[6]
  • No. XV:
"solemn, processional music"[5]
"Music in 2/2-time, colored by the organ and the ringing of bells, accompanies Everyman's journey to the grave".[6]
"But the closing sequence creates a striking parallel with the end of the Fifth Symphony: the bell that calls time for Everyman bears a striking resemblance to the swinging horn fifth for the symphony's climactic 'swan hymn'.[7]
  • No. XVI:
"a chorus of angels sings 'Gloria in excelsis Deo' while the male voices have a few bars of strange, very modern-sounding Sprechgesang, and the score ends ... with thematic reference back to the very beginning".[5]
"The musical material too links the beginning and the end of the play. The song of the angels (women's chorus) is combined with a remarkable section for male chorus".[6]
  1. ^ a b c d e f Kurki 1995, p. 6.
  2. ^ Goss 2009, p. 384.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Barnett 2007, p. 263.
  4. ^ Kurki 1995, pp. 6–7.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Barnett 2007, p. 264.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g Kurki 1995, p. 7.
  7. ^ a b Grimley 2021, p. 168.
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