Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius

Jean Sibelius was a Finnish composer of the later Romantic period whose music played an important role in the formation of the Finnish national identity. His mastery of the orchestra has been described as "prodigious."...

 composed the King Christian II Suite in 1898. The concert suite is a selection from Sibelius's own incidental music

Incidental music

Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....

—originally composed for the Scandinavian historical play King Christian II (written by his friend Adolf Paul

Adolf Paul

Adolf Paul was a writer in the German, Swedish, and Finnish languages...

).

The original play deals with the love of King Christian II

Christian II of Denmark

Christian II was King of Denmark, Norway and Sweden , during the Kalmar Union.-Background:...

, ruler of Denmark, Sweden and Norway, for a Dutch girl Dyvecke, a commoner.

A complete performance of the suite takes about 25 minutes.

Movements

The suite consists of five movements

Movement (music)

A movement is a self-contained part of a musical composition or musical form. While individual or selected movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, a performance of the complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession...

:

Movement	Type	Tempo	Notes
1	Nocturne Nocturne A nocturne is usually a musical composition that is inspired by, or evocative of, the night...	Molto moderato	A love scene.
2	Elegy Elegy In literature, an elegy is a mournful, melancholic or plaintive poem, especially a funeral song or a lament for the dead.-History:The Greek term elegeia originally referred to any verse written in elegiac couplets and covering a wide range of subject matter, including epitaphs for tombs...	Andante sostenuto Sostenuto In music, sostenuto is a term from Italian which means "sustained." It occasionally implies a slowing of tempo, though more often it refers to a very legato style in which the notes are performed in a sustained manner beyond their normal values....	The original introduction to the incidental music. Scored only for strings.
3	Musette Bal-musette Bal-musette is a style of French music and dance that first became popular in Paris in the 1880s.Auvergnats settled in large numbers in the 5th, 11th, and 12th districts of Paris during the 19th century, opening cafés and bars where patrons danced the bourrée to the accompaniment of musette de...	Allegretto	Dyvecke's dance. Originally scored for clarinets and bassoons, but strings added for the incidental music.
4	Serenade Serenade In music, a serenade is a musical composition, and/or performance, in someone's honor. Serenades are typically calm, light music.The word Serenade is derived from the Italian word sereno, which means calm....	Moderato assai (Quasi menuetto)	Taken from the prelude to the third act of the play (music for the court ball).
5	Ballade	Allegro molto	The tempestuous music reflects the anger of the King.

The Incidental music included an additional movement: the Fool's Song of the Spider.