Voces intimae (Sibelius)

Voces intimae
String quartet by Jean Sibelius
The composer in 1913
Key	D minor
Catalogue	Op. 56
Composed	1909 (1909)
Performed	25 April 1910 (1910-04-25)
Movements	5
Scoring	2 violins viola cello

Voces intimae ("Intimate voices" or "Inner voices"), Op. 56, is the title of a string quartet by Jean Sibelius. He composed the work in D minor, structured in five movements, in 1909. It is the only major work for string quartet of his mature period.

As a student, Sibelius composed several works for string quartet. In 1885 he finished a string quartet in E-flat major, followed in 1889, after quite a few individual movements for this combination, by a string quartet in A minor. The first string quartet to receive an opus number was in 1890 the quartet Op. 4 in B-flat major. Afterwards he wrote no string quartets until Voces intimae in 1909. Composed between his Third and Fourth Symphony, it remained "the only major work for string quartet of Sibelius's mature period".

Sibelius composed the quartet from December 1908, working on it in London in early 1909. The Latin title, translating to "Intimate Voices" or "Inner voices", marks a "conversational quality" and "inwardness" of the music. The composer wrote about his work in a letter to his wife: "It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. I will say no more." Sibelius showed it to his publisher Lienau () on 15 April 1909.

The first performance was on 25 April 1910 at the Helsinki Music Institute on 25 April 1910. A review in the Helsingin Sanomat noted: "The composition attracted a great deal of attention, and it is undoubtedly one of the most brilliant products in its field. It is not a composition for the public at large, it is so eccentric and out of the ordinary." Sibelius later wrote about the composition: "The melodic material is good but the harmonic material could be 'lighter', and even 'more like a quartet.'"

Sibelius structured the quartet in five movements:

The work opens with a dialogue of violin and cello. The first movement contrasts "murmurous figuration with firm chords". The second movement is a scherzo in A major, connected to the first by musical motifs. The central slow movement has been described as a "soulful quest for serenity in F major". It contains "three detached, soft chords in E minor, remote from any of the previous harmonic implications", to which Sibelius added the "voces intimae" in a friend's score. A second scherzo is also connected by motivic similarity to the first movement. The finale, "with more than a hint of folk fiddling", grows in intensity by markings from Allegro to "sempre più energico" (always more energetic), described as "fiercely accented music of forceful contrasts but irresistible momentum".