Water Drops (Sibelius)
# Water Drops (Sibelius)

Water Droplets (in Swedish: Vattendroppar; in Finnish: Vesipisaroita; occasionally translated to English as Water Drops, JS 216, a chamber piece for violin and cello pizzicati written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (then known as Janne) when he was a schoolboy. The duo, for which the autograph manuscript is lost, is believed to be Sibelius's earliest surviving composition, perhaps dating to 1875 (age 9). Some scholars, however, have posited that, because Janne began violin lessons in the autumn of 1880 with Hämeenlinna's Gustaf Levander, Water Drops is more likely to date to 1881. A mere 24 bars long, a typical performance of the piece lasts about 45 seconds.

## Discography

The sortable table below lists commercially available recordings of the Op. 23 songs:

| Violin | Cello | Runtime | Rec. | Recording venue | Label | Ref. |
| - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
| Violin | Cello | Runtime | Rec. | Recording venue | Label | Ref. | Yoshiko Arai [fi] | Seppo Kimanen [fi] | 0:44 | ? | ? | Ondine |
| Jaakko Kuusisto | Taneli Turunen [fi] | 0:45 | 2003 | Järvenpää Hall [fi] | BIS | |
| Daniel Rowland | Maja Bogdanović | 1:47 | 2019 | ? | Challenge Classics | |

## Notes, references, and sources

### Notes

* ↑ All runtimes are official, as printed on CD or LP liner notes.
* ↑ Refers to the year in which the performers recorded the work; this may not be the same as the year in which the recording was first released to the general public.
* ↑ Y. Arai & S. Kimanen–Ondine (ODE 850–2) 1995
* ↑ J. Kuusisto & T. Turunen–BIS (CD–1924/26) 2009
* ↑ In this recording, the performers repeat the piece.
* ↑ D. Rowland & M. Bogdanović–Challenge Classics (CC72833) 2020

### References

* ↑ Tawaststjerna 2008a, pp. 16, 20–21. sfn error: no target: CITEREFTawaststjerna2008a (help)
* 1 2 Barnett 2007, p. 5.
* ↑ Gimley 2021, pp. 20–21. sfn error: no target: CITEREFGimley2021 (help)

### Books

* Barnett, Andrew (2007). Sibelius. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. ISBN 978-0-300-16397-1.
* Grimley, Daniel (2021). Jean Sibelius: Life, Music, Silence. Reaktion Books. ISBN 978-1-78914-466-6.
* Tawaststjerna, Erik (2008) [1965/1967; trans. 1976]. Sibelius: Volume I, 1865–1905. Translated by Layton, Robert. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-24772-1.
