The Seven Songs,
Op. 17,[a] is a collection of five
Swedish-language and two
Finnish-language
art songs for vocal soloist and
piano written from 1891 to 1904 by the Finnish composer
Jean Sibelius.[b]
Constituent songs
Ordered by catalogue number, the Op. 17 songs are as follows:
"Se'n har jag ej frågat mera" ("Since Then I Have Questioned No Further"), Op. 17/1 (1891–92); text by the Finnish poet
Johan Ludvig Runeberg[3]
"Lastu lainehilla" ("Driftwood"), Op. 17/7 (1902); text by the Finnish poet
Ilmari Kianto (né Calamnius)[8]
Orchestral version of No. 1
In 1903, Sibelius arranged "Se'n har jag ej frågat mera" for vocalist and
orchestra.
Notes, references, and sources
Notes
^Because Sibelius's Op. 17 songs are sung in Swedish and Finnish, this article gives preference to each song's native title, rather than the English translation.
^All but a few of Sibelius's songs are settings of Swedish-language poems (quantitatively, his favorite poets were
Ernst Josephson,
Johan Ludvig Runeberg,
Viktor Rydberg, and
Karl August Tavaststjerna [
fi])[1] and are with piano accompaniment. While many are of high quality, they largely have been neglected outside the
Nordic realm, due to the limited coverage (in terms of number of speakers) of Swedish (relative to, for example, German or French).[2]
Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press.
ISBN978-0-300-16397-1.
Dahlström, Fabian[in Swedish] (2003). Jean Sibelius: Thematisch-bibliographisches Verzeichnis seiner Werke [Jean Sibelius: A Thematic Bibliographic Index of His Works] (in German). Wiesbaden: Breitkopf & Härtel.
ISBN3-7651-0333-0.
Layton, Robert (1993) [1965]. Sibelius. (The Master Musicians Series) (4th ed.). New York: Schirmer Books.
ISBN0028713222.