83, is a theatre score—comprising 16 numbers—for soloists, mixed choir, orchestra, piano, and organ by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius; he wrote the music in 1916 to accompany a Finnish-language production of the Austrian author Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 1911 play of the same name.

[2] Jedermann, which Max Reinhardt had premiered in Berlin on 1 December 1911 at the Zirkus Schumann, had taken Europe by storm, with subsequent productions in Austria, Denmark, and Sweden.

)[1][c] Sibelius accepted the commission in mid-June,[5] likely—as the musicologist Daniel Grimley has argued—simulated by the play's "images of devotion, sacrifice, pilgrimage, and sacred mission":[6] The essence of Everyman lies in its emphasis on transformation, both bodily and spiritual ...

In the main roles were Urho Somersalmi (Everyman), Eero Kilpi (Death), Hilda Pihlajamäki [fi] (Good Works), Helmi Lindelöf (Faith), and Teuvo Puro (the Devil).

[9] Lahdensuo, who had seen Jedermann in Dresden and had modeled that production's scenography,[1] opted for "as indifferent a background for the action as possible": the front curtain was gone, such that—from the moment they entered the auditorium—audience members could view the stage.

)[1] Writing in Helsingin Sanomat, the theatre critic Erkki Kivijärvi [fi] posited that even though Sibelius's "magnificently generous and wonderfully lucid music" had been the production's "most powerful mood-maker", Hofmannsthal's play remained for the audience merely an "artistic and literary-historical curiosity", its moral comprehensible yet anachronistic:[11] [It is] the same aesthetic pleasure as the spiritual pictorial art of past centuries, the reverential beauty of which arouses in us a wistfulness, but fails to make us feel the religious devotion in which it was created ...

Audience members felt ... [as if] they had been present at a strange occasion, that they had wandered for a moment into a sanctuary that the feverish pulse of life's everyday hustle and bustle could not penetrate ...

IV and IX), Madetoja praised the "masterly skill" with which Sibelius had captured "vividly" the purification of Everyman's soul: "the organ joins the orchestra, and soon we feel as if under the vaults of a Catholic church.

[12] In April 1925, the Berlin-based music publisher Robert Lienau, with whom Sibelius had contracted from 1904 to 1910,[e] wrote asking the composer for a short orchestral work similar in style to the concert suites for Pelléas et Mélisande (1905) or Belshazzar's Feast (1906).

[14][f] While Sibelius never made Jedermann suitable for the concert hall, a revival of play by Lahdensuo in late 1929 again brought the music to Finnish audiences, albeit outside of the capital.

On 7 September, the SS Kuru sank during a storm on Lake Näsijärvi, a tragedy that caused the deaths of 136 people aboard the steamship; as a result, Tampere's Jedermann would serve as a memorial tribute to the deceased.

(By then, the composer had unofficially retired, although the music world breathlessly awaited his reportedly-in-progress Eighth Symphony; his last major work had been 1926's tone poem Tapiola).

[19][21] At his palatial home, Everyman admires his worldly possessions, relates to the Good Friend his plans for luxurious expenditures, and orders the Cook to prepare a feast for tomorrow's banquet.

[25][26] Good Works appears as a sickly woman laying on a filthy bed, symbolizing the lack of compassion and rectitude with which Everyman has lived.

[25][27] Under Faith's guidance, Everyman repents his sins and prays for forgiveness; to the sound of an organ chorale, he has a vision of the Mother attending morning mass and realizing her son has been redeemed (No. XIII).

Having purified his soul, Everyman—now carrying a pilgrim's staff and clothed in a white robe he has received from the Monk—sets out for his grave accompanied by Faith and Good Works (her health restored).

[27] As a final hurdle, the Devil arrives aggrieved, protesting that because Everyman had lived in sin and never had any use for religion, the soul properly belongs him (No. XIV).

However, the two sisters, as well as a group of angels, block his path, and Faith tells the Devil the ringing of the bell now indicates Everyman's eternal life with the Lord God.

XV), as Faith intones: "Now, he has completed his human lot, and appears naked and bare before the Supreme Judge, and only his works will assist him and speak in his favor.

[25] Jedermann is scored for soprano, tenor, baritone, mixed choir, 2 flutes, oboe, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, strings, timpani, piano, and organ.

Given the close symbiosis between Sibelius's score and von Hofmannthal's text, critics have divided over the merits of the music as a concert item divorced from the stage.

Writing in Gramophone, Andrew Achenbach received Jedermann positively, describing it as "a venture that incontestably ignited [Sibelius's] imagination—just sample the searchingly inspired string-writing in [Nos.