Jean Sibelius' great love for, and understanding of the theater led to the composition of twelve scores of incidental music for various plays. Some of these scores, such as the music for Kuolema (which contains the famous Valse Triste), consist of a handful of individual numbers to be inserted into the drama at appropriate moments—either when the drama demands musical reinforcement, or when music is specifically called for by the story-line (again the Valse Triste is a prime example). Other entries in the genre, such as the extensive score for a 1925 Copenhagen production of Shakespeare's The Tempest, go more in the direction of full-length, continuous accompaniment. Sibelius' very first work of incidental music, the music for {-King Christian II}, composed in 1897 and 1898, falls into the former category.

The play King Christian II concerns the love of the historical King Christian, ruler of all Scandinavia, for a commoner named Dyveke. During late 1897 Sibelius composed four numbers to accompany the successful February 14, 1898 theatrical premiere; three additional numbers were added to the score during the following summer.

The "Elegy," scored for strings alone, was originally meant to serve as a prelude to the entire production, and is not at all the kind of grim music that one so often associates with the title, "elegy." The charming "Musette" that follows, originally intended as a dance piece for Dyveke, the King's love-interest, was somewhat well-known during the early years of the century. Although string parts were later added to the score, the piece was originally played by just a pair each of clarinets and bassoons—street musicians in the play.

Following the "Musette" is a Minuet, scored lightly for flutes, clarinets and strings, and then the touching and witty "Fool's Song of the Spider," the colorful instrumentation of which (voice, harp, strings, and triangle) serves to immediately establish its composer's identity.

The three works that follow are distinguished from their predecessors in several regards: they are all somewhat later compositions, they are all scored for full orchestra, and—with the possible exception of the "Serenade"—they are all sewn from musical silk that is at least one grade lower in quality than that of the original four pieces. The "Nocturne" is a lyrical movement that makes striking use of the tambourine. The "Serenade" is intended to preface the third act of the play; its sweeping melody looks forward to the lush ideas in the Finale of the First Symphony. The boisterous "Ballade" that concludes the incidental music is the kind of stormy scene that dramatic composers so often attempt and so rarely succeed at; a quick comparison of this effort with one of Verdi's, or, sure enough, Sibelius' own Tempest a quarter-century later, will reveal the Ballade's shortcomings. While the main, rhythmic idea, has something of the physical drive that we find in the Finale to the First Symphony, the working-out of this movement is far too repetitive and generally uninspired to succeed very well.



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