Compositions for brass septet by Jean Sibelius

All six pieces are scored for torviseitsikko [fi] (in Swedish: hornseptett), a "specifically Finnish" kind of brass septet^[1] that originated in 1870^[b] when the Finnish composer, music arranger, and military band leader Adolf Leander [fi] founded the first torviseitsikko within the Guards' Band,^[c] the premiere ensemble of the Finnish Defense Forces (then in service to the Russian tsar, Alexander II).^[3] The standard consists of the following instruments:^[2][4]

• 1 soprano cornet (in E♭), 1 alto horn (in E♭), and 1 tuba (in E♭)
• 1 euphonium (in B♭)
• 2 cornets (in B♭) and 1 tenor horn (in B♭)

At the time, it was typical to place the euphonium in the center, with the E♭ instruments grouped to one side and the B♭ instruments grouped to the other.^[2] A torviseitsikko can also include percussion ad libitum.^[2] Indeed, both the Allegro and the Preludium include parts for triangle,^[5] while Tiera calls for bass drum and cymbals.^[6]

On 29 May 1889, Sibelius graduated from the Helsinki Music Institute, the star pupil of the institute's director, Martin Wegelius.^[7] That summer, the Sibelius family vacationed for the second straight year at the seaside resort town of Loviisa, staying in the home of his paternal grandmother and aunt. Breaking with his habit from the previous three summers, Sibelius at this point did not produce a new piano trio;^[d] rather, he wrote a flurry of new works, including his first composition for torviseitsikko: the Overture in F minor.^[1] This piece Sibelius probably composed for his friend, the German-born horn player and band leader Christian Haupt,^[e] who in 1888 had become the kapellmeister in Loviisa.^[8] In this role, his duties included conducting the septet attached to the local volunteer fire brigade.^[1] No evidence, however, has been found indicating that the Overture was performed in Sibelius's lifetime.^[9]

With arrival of fall, Sibelius set out in September 1889 for Berlin,^[10] where he would continue his music studies (now as a post-graduate) under the German composer Albert Becker. Nevertheless, Sibelius found time to compose more personal works on the side, one of which was his second piece for torviseitsikko: the Allegro in G minor.^[11] This piece Sibelius wrote for a competition held by the Finnish Society for Popular Education [fi] (in Finnish: Kansanvalistusseura), which in December 1888 had run an advertisement in the music magazine Säveleitä [fi]^[12] promoting a contest for new torviseitsikko compositions; the primary requirement was that the entry be a "fantasy" (rather than an arrangement) of a Finnish folk song. Sibelius's Allegro, which he submitted under the pseudonymous initialism 'n–l–s' (for Jea – N • Sibe – L – iu – S)^[13] made use of two songs: Hevonen kuin koirasteeri and Tuomi on virran reunalla. However, the Allegro failed to win the prize of 500 Finnish markka,^[11] perhaps because the three judges—the organist, composer, and professor Richard Faltin [fi]; the conductor Ernst Schnéevoigt; and Leander—concluded it was "far too difficult and therefore impractical for amateur bandsmen".^[13]

An ad promoting a brass septet competition, to which Sibelius submitted his Allegro without result

The military band leader Adolf Leander [fi] founded the first torviseitsikko within the Guards' Band

Sibelius wrote the Andantino and Menuetto, his third and fourth compositions for torviseitsikko, while staying in Loviisa during the summer of 1890;^[14] as with the Overture from the previous year, the new pieces were intended for Haupt's septet.^[13] This was a period of transition for the young composer, as two momentous decisions soon followed: in September, he and Aino Järnefelt secretly engaged;^[15] moreover, he selected Vienna for his second year of post-graduate study (where he eventually apprenticed under the Hungarian composer Karl Goldmark and the Austrian composer Robert Fuchs).^[14] At this time, Sibelius turned seriously to the task of orchestral composition,^[f] and his production of chamber music decreased dramatically. One of the few new chamber pieces to defy this general metamorphosis of artistic expression, however, was a fifth composition for torviseitsikko, the Preludium, which he composed in Loviisa during the summer of 1891,^[18] again for Haupt's band.^[13]

Sibelius's final piece for torviseitsikko is the "tone picture" Tiera, which arrived in eight years later in 1899. (A minor character in the Finland's national epic, the Kalevala, Tiera is a comrade of the amorous, swashbuckling hero Lemminkäinen.) The Finnish musicologist Kari Kilpeläinen has speculated that Sibelius may originally may intended Tiera as part of the Music for the Press Celebrations Days (JS 137, 1899), the occasional score from which the composer subsequently excerpted Finlandia and the Scènes historiques I.^[19] Tiera was the only of Sibelius brass septet pieces to be published in his lifetime,^[a] which the Society for Popular Education printed in 1900 and paired with another piece for torviseitsikko, Aamulla varhain (Early in the Morning, 1900) by Sibelius's brother-in-law, the Finnish composer and conductor Armas Järnefelt.^[21][g]

Sibelius's remaining five pieces were relegated to "almost a century of obscurity", forgotten and unplayed, until their rediscovery in the 1980s: the Overture, Antantino, Menuetto, and Preludium were among the manuscripts that the Sibelius family donated in 1982 to the University of Helsinki Library,^[23] while the Finnish horn player and music educator Holger Fransman [fi] in 1987 located the Allegro^[21] within the archives of Haupt's Loviisa septet.^[24] A year later, Fransman arranged the Preludium, Andantino, and Menuetto as the so-called "Petite Suite for Brass Septet", respectively, as movements Nos. 1–3; this Fazer Music [fi] (now Fennica Gehrman) published in 1988, along with the first edition of the Overture.^[25] The Allegro, however, remains in manuscript.^[12]