Spring Song (in Swedish: Vårsång; in Finnish: Kevätlaulu), Op. 16, is a single-movement tone poem for orchestra written in 1894 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius.
| Spring Song | |
|---|---|
| Tone poembyJean Sibelius | |
The composer (c. 1895)
| |
| Native name | Vårsång |
| Opus | 16 |
| Composed | 1894 (1894), rev. 1895 |
| Publisher | Fazer & Westerlund [fi] (1903)[1][a] |
| Duration | 8 mins. (orig. 10 mins.)[3] |
| Premiere | |
| Date | 21 June 1894 (1894-06-21)[4] |
| Location | Vaasa, Grand Duchy of Finland |
| Conductor | Jean Sibelius |
| Performers | Orchestra of the Song Festival |
The piece was initially composed as Improvisation for Orchestra, in the key of D major. It premiered on 21 July 1894 at an outdoor festival in Vaasa, organized by the Society for Popular Education [fi] (Kansanvalistusseura). Short, lyrical, and delicately scored, Sibelius's piece was ill-suited for the open-air concert, and the audience received it less enthusiastically than another work on the program: Korsholm, by Sibelius's brother-in-law and friend Armas Järnefelt. Shortly therefore, Sibelius withdrew Improvisation for revision. In 1895, he recast it in F major and retitled the work Spring Song (Vårsång), appending the subtitle "The Sadness of Spring" to that (unpublished) version.[5]
The work is scored for 2 flutes (both doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B♭), 2 bassoons, 4 horns (in F), 3 trumpets (in F), 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, glocken, violins, violas, cellos, and double basses.[6] Spring Song takes about 8 minutes to play.
The tempo marking is: Tempo moderato e sostenuto. The piece contains an optimism that is relatively rare among Sibelius' works. It is known for its prominent use of bells at the end of the song.[7]
The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of Spring Song:
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