Symphonie funèbre in C minor

Though Joseph Martin Kraus (1756-1792) became the most influential Swedish musician of the 18th century, he was born and educated in Germany and lived only eight years in Stockholm before his early death at the age of 36. Yet in that brief period he had taught composers and created the Swedish school of opera. Kraus’s fascination with theatre is carried over into virtually all of his music and one work which has a particular dramatic circumstance is the Sinfonia in C minor (VB 148), also known as the Symphonie funèbre or the Funeral Symphony for Gustav III. The King’s lingering death after being shot during a masked ball in March 1792 resulted in a more careful planning of the elaborate funeral ceremonies. Kraus, who as court Kapellmeister had already been commissioned to write the cantata for the funeral services, was also directed to compose music for the burial in the royal vault. The result was a symphonic work that was used as incidental music throughout the ceremony. The four movements are periodical in that they all use elaborations of the same themes; a slow funeral march and the burial hymn/chorale. There is no alternation of fast and slow, no use of traditional symphonic formats; rather, Kraus writes four movements that maintain the solemn mood of the occasion.