Editing Jean Sibelius (section)

===Early years===
[[File:Hameenlinna Sibelius House 1.jpg|thumb|Sibelius's birthplace in [[Hämeenlinna]]]]
Sibelius was born on 8 December 1865 in [[Hämeenlinna]] ({{langx|sv|Tavastehus}}) in the [[Grand Duchy of Finland]], an autonomous state within the [[Russian Empire]]. He was the son of the [[Swedish-speaking population of Finland|Swedish-speaking]] medical doctor Christian Gustaf Sibelius and Maria Charlotta Sibelius (née Borg). The family name stems from the [[Sipoo|Sibbe estate]] in [[Eastern Uusimaa]], which his paternal great-grandfather owned.{{sfn|Ringbom|1950|p=8}} Sibelius's father died of [[typhoid]] in July 1868, leaving substantial debts. As a result, his mother—who was again pregnant—had to sell their property and move the family into the home of Katarina Borg, her widowed mother, who also lived in Hämeenlinna.{{sfn|Goss|2009|p=19}} Sibelius was therefore brought up in a decidedly female environment, the only male influence coming from his uncle, Pehr Ferdinand Sibelius, who was interested in music, especially the violin. Pehr Ferdinand gave the boy a violin when he was ten years old and later encouraged him to maintain his interest in composition.{{sfn|Goss|2009|p=53}}{{sfn|Lagrange|1994|p=905}} For Sibelius, Uncle Pehr not only took the place of a father but acted as a musical adviser.{{sfn|Murtomäki|2000}}

[[File:Sibélius as a schoolboy.jpg|thumb|upright|11-year-old Sibelius in 1876]]
From an early age, Sibelius showed a strong interest in nature, frequently walking around the countryside when the family moved to [[Loviisa]] on the coast for the summer months. In his own words: "For me, Loviisa represented sun and happiness. Hämeenlinna was where I went to school; Loviisa was freedom." In Hämeenlinna, when he was seven, Sibelius's aunt Julia was brought in to give him piano lessons on the family's upright instrument, rapping him on the knuckles whenever he played a wrong note. He progressed by improvising on his own, but still learned to read music.{{sfn|Barnett|2007|p=4}} He later turned to the violin, which he preferred. He participated in trios with his elder sister Linda on piano, and his younger brother Christian on the cello. ([[Christian Sibelius]] was to become a  [[psychiatrist]], still remembered for his contributions to modern psychiatry in Finland.)<ref>{{cite web |title=Sibelius |language=sv |year=1926 |publisher=Nordisk Familjebok |url=https://runeberg.org/nfcr/0165.html |access-date=11 June 2015 |page=281 |archive-date=14 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150714181955/http://runeberg.org/nfcr/0165.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Sibelius soon began playing in quartets with neighboring families, furthering his experience performing chamber music. Fragments survive of his early compositions of the period, a trio, a piano quartet and a ''Suite in D Minor'' for violin and piano.{{sfn|Ringbom|1950|pp=10–13}} Around 1881, he transcribed a short [[pizzicato]] piece ''Vattendroppar'' (Water Drops) for violin, possibly as an [[etude]] or musical exercise.{{sfn|Murtomäki|2000}}<ref>{{cite web |title=Music becomes a serious pursuit 1881–1885 |work=Jean Sibelius |publisher=Finnish Club of Helsinki |url=http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/sib_musiikkiharrastus.htm |access-date=21 June 2015 |archive-date=1 February 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150201063455/http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/sib_musiikkiharrastus.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The first reference he made to himself composing is in a letter from August 1883 in which he writes that he composed a trio and was working on another: "They are rather poor, but it is nice to have something to do on rainy days."<ref name="childhood"/> In 1881, he began violin lessons with the local bandmaster, Gustaf Levander, immediately developing a particularly strong interest in the instrument.{{sfn|Barnett|2007|p=6}} Setting his heart on a career as a great violin virtuoso, he soon became an accomplished player, performing [[Ferdinand David (musician)|David]]'s Concerto in E minor in 1886 and, the following year, the last two movements of [[Violin Concerto (Mendelssohn)|Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto]] in Helsinki. Despite such success as an instrumentalist, he ultimately chose to become a composer.{{sfn|Grimley|2004|p=67}}<ref name="sih"/>

In 1874, Sibelius attended Lucina Hagman's Finnish-speaking preparatory school as a native Swedish speaker. In 1876, he continued his education at the Finnish-language [[Hämeenlinna Normal-Lycée|Hämeenlinna Normal Lyceum]] where he was a rather absent-minded pupil, though did quite well in mathematics and botany.<ref name="childhood">{{cite web |title=Childhood 1865–1881 |work=Jean Sibelius |publisher=Finnish Club of Helsinki |url=http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/ |access-date=19 June 2015 |archive-date=19 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619134631/http://www.sibelius.fi/english/elamankaari/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Despite having to repeat a year, he passed the school's final examination in 1885, which allowed him to enter a university.{{sfn|Ringbom|1950|p=14}} As a boy he was known as [[Janne]], a colloquial form of Johan. However, during his student years, he adopted the French form [[Jean (male given name)|Jean]], inspired by the business card of his deceased seafaring uncle. Thereafter he became known as Jean Sibelius.{{sfn|Ekman|1972|p=11}}