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After 1924 Sibelius produced only minor works, he lived for thirty more years and many think he spent much of this time working on his 8th Symphony. He promised the symphony as early as 1930, but never delivered. In letters to his wife he discusses writing it, and there are records that he ordered large amounts of manuscript paper and in the mid thirties had a large worked copied. In 1937 there is a receipt stating that a large work had been bound.
In his old age the composer became extremely insecure and depressed, however. In 1945 his wife recounts seeing him feeding manuscript papers into a fire. Many believe that among these papers was an entire and completed symphony. It is also believed that he destroyed an earlier version of his fifth symphony and an extended version of the Karelia Suite, both of which have today been recovered.
There are mixed messages as to how complete the symphony was, however. Sibelius would tell some that he had several movements written, while others that it still only existed in his mind. Even into the 1950s Sibelius would still say that he was still working on it, but no signs of this remain.
The only signs of the symphony that have survived are some marginalia in a copy of his 7th Symphony. Recently some minor notes about the symphony have been found in the library of Helsinki University.