Finlandia, Op.26

In the struggle for independence from Russian domination Finland needed a national composer just as much as Sibelius needed an audience. Finlandia, which did as much to awaken the national spirit as any piece of music could, was written originally to accompany a scene called Finland Awakes at the end of a series of six historical tableaux presented at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in November 1899. Arranged as an independent concert work in 1900, it was known first as Suomi, which would have meant little to the Russians, and was given the more challenging title of Finlandia a year later. Even without a nationalistic title, the allusion to Emil Genetz’s well-known song Arise, Finland! (Herää Suomi!) and the progressively triumphant demeanour of the work can have left no doubt in the Finnish mind as to what the message was meant to be.

There is nothing more Finnish than Sibelius’s Finlandia. It was written originally for a scenic piece called Finland Awakes, which was presented at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in protest against the drastic suppression of political freedom by Finland’s Russian masters in the February Manifesto of 1899. Arranged as an independent concert work in 1900, it was known first under the discreetly Finnish title Suomi and was given the more challenging title of Finlandia a year later. Only the musically sophisticated of Finnish patriots would have been able to associate the grim opening bars of Finlandia with Beethoven’s similar image of political oppression at the start of the Egmont Overture. But the atmosphere of oppression would have been palpable enough and, if not, the allusion to Emil Genetz’s well-known song Herää Suomi! (Arise, Finland!) and the progressively triumphant demeanour of the work can have left no doubt in the Finnish mind as to what the message was meant to b

In the struggle for independence from Russian domination Finland needed a national composer just as much as Sibelius needed an audience. The patriotic tableaux organised in protest against the drastic suppression of Finnish political freedom in the February Manifesto of 1899 were just the kind of occasion both of them needed. Finlandia, which did as much to awaken the national spirit as any piece of music could, was written originally to accompany a scene called Finland Awakes at the end of a series of six historical tableaux presented at the Swedish Theatre in Helsinki in November 1899. Arranged as an independent concert work in 1900, it was known first as Suomi, which would have meant little to the Russians, and was given the more challenging title of Finlandia a year later.

Only the musically sophisticated of Finnish patriots would have been able to associate the grim opening bars of Finlandia with Beethoven’s similar image of political oppression at the start of the Egmont Overture. But the atmosphere of oppression would have been palpable enough and, if not, the allusion to Emil Genetz’s well-known song Arise, Finland!    (Herää Suomi!) and the progressively triumphant demeanour of the work can have left no doubt in the Finnish mind as to what the message was meant to be.