User:Silence of Järvenpää/Work (†)

Kom nu hit, död (literal English translation: "Come Away, Death"), Op. 60/1, is an art song by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who wrote the piece in 1909 to accompany a Swedish-language production of William Shakespeare's play Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton). The song, which the royal fool attached to Countess Olivia's household sings to guitar accompaniment in Act 2, Scene 3, premiered on 12 November 1909 at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki; a "Herr Qvick" (cast as the fool) was the vocalist.

After completing the piece, Sibelius immediately made an arrangement for vocalist and piano.

In the spring of 1957, just months before his death, Sibelius arranged for bass and orchestra two of his earlier songs; the impetus for this to was a request by the Finnish bass-baritone Kim Borg for a set of new concert items from Sibelius. One of the songs Sibelius selected was Kom nu hit, död, while the other was Kullervon valitus (Kullervo's Lament) from Movement III of his withdrawn 1892 choral symphony Kullervo (Op. 7). By this time, Sibelius's hand tremor had become so severe and his health so poor that he could not himself write down the notes; instead, he dictated the arrangements to his son-in-law Jussi Jalas. As such, Kom nu hit, död retains a degree of historical significance as the final compositional activity of Sibelius eight-decade career, as on 20 September the composer died at the age of 91.

Borg premiered the new orchestral versions of Kom nu hit, död and Kullervon valitus on 14 June in Helsinki during Sibelius Week, with Jalas conducting the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Xxxx published the former in yyyy.

Schlüren

 * ..."is extremely moving due to an archaic reduction of means".
 * "It is one of the last and enduring pieces he created before his death."
 * Says that Jussi Jalas requested Sibelius make the arrangement for Kim Borg... (But Barnett says Borg made the request???)

Wells

 * "this pair of songs originally dates from 1909, a time when death was very much on the composer’s mind, as he was then living in fear of the throat tumour that had developed the previous year."
 * "The song alternates between E minor and a G sharp minor triad, creating an especially macabre colouring on the word ‘död’ (‘death’)"

Tawaststjerna (for BIS)

 * "Kom nu hit, dod (Come hither, death) is one of the peaks of his vocal production. Like the jester in the play, the composer sees through life's masquerade which is reflected in the three keys at intervals of a major third from each other. The tragedy rings out in e minor, the principal key, whose fundamental chord is followed by the deathly shadow of the chord of g-sharp minor. The vanity of life was shown in the tritone tension of the melodic line (e to a-sharp) which, is delineated against the tonic sixth chord's deceitful light - deceitful since the c major key is never definitely established. Similar major-third relationships are also characteristic of the composer's second and fourth symphonies. Sibelius here projects his symphonic-harmonic thinking on a composition in song format".

Discography
The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the 1909 duet version (vocalist with either guitar or piano accompaniment) of Kom nu hit, död:

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the 1957 orchestral version of Kom nu hit, död:

Notes, references, and sources

 * Notes


 * References


 * Sources