Johann Julius Christian Sibelius is born

Today in Masonic History Johann Julius Christian Sibelius is born in 1865.

Johann Julius Christian Sibelius, later know as Jean Sibelius, was a Finnish composer.

Sibelius was born in Hämeenlinna in Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire.

In Sibelius's youth Romantic Nationalism was sweeping through Europe. In Finland this mean that Latin was being pushed aside for it's national languages Finnish and Swedish. Although he attended a Finnish school, Sibelius would speak Swedish as his primary language all of his life. Romantic Nationalism would play a very important role in Sibelius's music and political leanings.

After graduating high school Sibelius attended the Imperial Alexander University in Finland (now the University of Helsinki) majoring in law. Sibelius cared little for law and having been a violinist since the age of 15, he decided to study music instead. He shift his studies to the Helsinki Music Institute, now renamed to the Sibelius Academy. Graduating from the Institute in 1889, Sibelius continued his studies over the next two years, first in Berlin and then in Vienna.

While in his post graduate studies, Sibelius came to a difficult realization. Since the age of 15 his dream had been to become a violin virtuoso. On giving up the violin Sibelius was quoted as saying:

"It was a very painful awakening when I had to admit that I had begun my training for the exacting career of a virtuoso too late".

Up until mid 1920's Sibelius worked on his body of work including 7 symphonies that he composed as well as several other individual works. After 1926 Sibelius produced little music except for Freemasonry in Finland. In 1927 he composed music to go along with Masonic ritual and would update the music in 1946. He would compose some additional revisions to his ritual compositions in 1948 and they would be some of his last works.

Sibelius was a founding member of Suomi Lodge No. 1. This was during the resurgence of Freemasonry in Finland after the fall of the Russian Empire, Freemasonry having been been banned under Russian rule. Sibelius was also the Grand Organist for the Grand Lodge of Finland.

This article provided by Brother Eric C. Steele.