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Valse triste (literal English translation: Sad Waltz), Op. 44/1, is a concert piece for orchestra by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, who in 1904 excerpted the piece from the incidental music he had written the previous year to Death (Kuolema), a three-act Symbolist play by his brother-in-law Arvid Järnefelt.

The revised version of Valse triste premiered in Helsinki on 25 April 1904, with Sibelius conducting the Helsinki Philharmonic Society.

Composition
In 1898, Sibelius composed his first music for theatre, King Christian II (Kuningas Kristian II; Op. 27) to a play by his friend, the Finnish playwright Adolf Paul. After the play's premiere at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki, Sibelius excerpted a five-number orchestral suite from his incidental music, which eventually became one of his most popular pieces. Following the success of King Christian II, Sibelius was a natural choice to provide music for a play by his brother-in-law, Arvid Järnefelt. In 1903, he was attempting to stage his third play, the three-act Death (Kuolema).

Premiere and revision
Following the Helsinki premiere, Valse triste was again performed in the city on 30 April, albeit this time under the baton of Robert Kajanus—the Philharmonic Society's founder and permanent conductor—at the final popular concert of the season; according to Merikanto's review, the "strangely charming" piece had to be encored for the at-capacity audience. That same day, at a concert of Sibelius's music in Viipuri (Vyborg), Valse triste and the Romance were removed from the program; apparently, this was done at Sibelius's request, who was not present for the concert and intended to conduct these novelties in Viipuri next autumn. Instead, a excerpt from Erkki Melartin's incidental music for Hannele (EM060) was played as a substitute.

Publication
In preparation for publication, Sibelius also made a piano arrangement of Valse triste.

In 1904, Sibelius sold Valse triste outright to the Finnish publishing house Fazer & Westerlund for 500 Finnish marks: 100 for the orchestral score, 100 for the piano arrangement, and an advance of 300 marks for the complete incidental music to Death (when this failed to materialize, the publisher deducted the advance sum from Sibelius's royalty payments). A year later, Fazer & Westerlund sold their entire Sibelius holdings—including Valse triste—to the German publisher Breitkopf & Härtel. .

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Synopsis


A young boy named Paavali keeps watch over his mother's sick bed; exhausted, he falls asleep in the darkened bedchamber. The mother—delirious with a fever—also slumbers, and her dream-visions fill the stage. A waltz melody—initially faint—grows in volume as the room fills with red light. Paavali's mother rises and begins to sway slowly back and forth in her white nightgown, recalling the memory of a ball she once attended; in time with the music, she beckons with her arms. Suddenly, several ghostly couples fill the bedchamber and begin waltzing to the music. Mingling with the shadowy guests, the mother tries to make eye contact, but all avoid her glance. Shortly thereafter, she collapses in her bed due to weariness; the music stops and the dancers begin to depart. Although the life drains from her body, she gathers her strength and dances once more; the music resumes and the phantoms return. As the tempo quickens, the waltzing becomes increasingly frenetic until it abruptly ends as three knocks sound at the door: Death has come to claim the mother, in the guise of her late husband. Death, who too is dressed in white, leaves his scythe in the hallway and enters the room. The mother is repulsed by him but pleads for mercy: cannot Death spare her for Paavali's sake?—or at least allow her to say farewell?

Music
Valse triste is scored for flute, clarinet (in A), 2 horns (in F), strings, and timpani (in D). The piece is loosely in the key of G major; the time signature is the waltz standard of triple metre. Following the Viennese waltz tradition, Sibelius weaves several continuous sections into Valse triste.

The string section begins the waltz begin with a slow and grim opening evocative of the work's title. First the double basses mark the downbeat with (plucked strings) until they continue under the second violin and viola, which annuciate beats two and three (for measures 1–4, they too play, before switching to ). Both the violin and cello sections enter with the main theme (see below)—an octave apart—while the texeture alternates between major and minor modes, creating an uncertain tonal center. Although marked in G major, the opening melody appears in the somewhat distant key of F-sharp minor. The writer Richard Rodda characterizes this as a "quiet, introspective paragraph":

Although the opening melody briefly lands in its intended key of G major, it soon moves chromatically upwards to A-flat major. The music of the next section is firmly in G major and includes a contrasting string theme at the tip of the bow (marked Spitze). There is an increased rhythmic urgency, variously characterized as a "gossamer strain" and a "a hesitation waltz".

Subject B—again, for strings alone—introduces the actual dance, which contains "glimpses of past happiness":

https://orchestrasounds.com/tag/valse-triste/page/2/

https://www.ncsymphony.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Firebird-EXPANDED-Program-Notes.pdf

https://www.hollywoodbowl.com/musicdb/pieces/4946/valse-triste

You'll want to take a look at the Cunningham source below (link under Websites), because he analyzes the music more than any other source I've found.

Tempo marking: Lento—Poco risoluto—Più risoluto e mosso—Stretto—Lento assai

Global popularity
"... Sibelius's music tries to mirror an interplay between this vivid memory [the mother relives a ball scene from her youth] and the sense of on-coming death ... In Valse triste Sibelius touched on a responsive chord, much in the same way as Strindberg or Munch had done, and uncovered sympathetic resonances that were in the air at the time".

Later opinion's of Sibelius's music

 * "It is difficult to imagine the effect this seductive piece made on its first appearance, so hackneyed has it become."


 * "Valse triste soon became even more maligned than Finlandia. Many have been at a loss to explain why it should have made the composer's name known to the many and injured his reputation in the eyes of the few."


 * "... less sad than macabre ... The blameless but shallow bit of salon music ... it is a medley of waltz tunes deftly [sic] scored for theatre (small) orchestra ... Sibelius is certainly no 'difficult' modern, overturning one's expectations of what is beautiful or useful in music. Some of his output is 'easier' than the rest, beautiful to the lay ear—and useful to the lazy mind".


 * "There is more apparent reason for its ['s] popularity than for that of the Valse triste, which is simply a respectable waltz that could have been written by any one of a hundred composers".


 * "Though this sentimental and often mawkish piece of music took Continental Europe by storm a few decades ago, it is one of the least creditable of Sibelius's works".


 * "Yet many professionals after World War II found Sibelius a dated bore ... Professionals look for consistency in a composer. They distrust a creator who constantly turns out music that is not on a high level, and are apt to regard as freaks those few works that do cause a ripple. How could the composer of Valse Triste ... be taken seriously? It cannot be denied that a large quantity of Sibelius's work—and he was a prolific composer—consists of ephemera ..."

Seventh Symphony's quotation of
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Discography
The sortable table below lists select commercially available recordings of Valse triste:

Notes, references, and sources

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 * Websites