Importance
Although the Seventh apparently first existed in embryonic form in D major, it eventually attained the home key of C major. There was a time when composing in C was considered fruitless — it had "nothing more to offer." But in response to the Seventh, the British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams said that only Sibelius could make C major sound completely fresh. Peter Franklin, writing of the Seventh in the Segerstam/Chandos cycle of Sibelius symphonies, calls the dramatic conclusion "the grandest celebration of C major there ever was."
Sibelius lived for 33 years after finishing the Seventh, but it was one of the last works he composed. He did complete one more important orchestral work, his symphonic poem Tapiola. However, despite much evidence of work on an Eighth symphony, it is believed that Sibelius burned whatever he had written. He left the Seventh to stand as his final statement on symphonic form.
Read more about this topic: Symphony No. 7 (Sibelius)
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