Study On Structure Of Jean Sibelius' Symphony No.4

Jean Sibelius(1865-1957),an outstanding representative of the 19 th century nationalism in music and a great Finnish composer,wrote the Fourth Symphony in 1911.Perhaps because of the national crisis and the suffering of the composer himself,this profound and philosophical symphony is full of gloom and depression.There are two characteristics of theme generation in this work.One is that some themes embody the characteristics of developing variation,that is,other new themes are directly or indirectly generated according to the core materials of the first movement's introduction themes;One is that some themes embody the characteristics of thematic transformation,that is,on the basis of repeating or modeling the melody line of a theme prototype,changing its rhythm and timbre and other elements to generate a new theme.Its texture structure is characterized by the fact that Sibelius still continues the traditional continuous sound in various forms throughout the whole work,including the long tone,the tone type and the combination of the long tone and the tone type.Its non-traditional tonal scale uses the whole scale,the half scale and the octave scale.They either stand out in linear form,or support the melody as accompaniment part,or even mix the octave and diatonic scale in the melody,showing a deep level of logicality while reflecting its complexity.The structure of the four movements of the Fourth Symphony is respectively the sonata form which omits the main part during reproduction,the complicated juxtaposition complex two part form,Special the two theme variations form and the rondo sonata form reflecting the principle of circulation.Its form structure adopts the traditional four movement Sonata Symphony suite form,which embodies the characteristics of unconventional form on the basis of traditional form structure and highlights the innovation of structure.The theme material of the whole work is concise and the structure is rigorous,which is the characteristic point in the evolution of Sibelius' creative style.