Finlandia

Finland’s ancient culture, stored in its sagas and distinctive language, had been suppressed but not destroyed under long years of Swedish rule and a shorter yet equally unwelcome period of dominance by tsarist Russia. Music played a central part in shaping Finnish national identity at the end of the 19th century and helped focus minds on securing independence. On New Year’s Day 1900, Jean Sibelius wrote, “Well, we shall see now what the new century brings with it for Finland and us Finns. The judgement of history is not against us and the knowledge that our cause is right lends us dignity and peace of mind.” The composer had already channelled the mood of the times into a sequence of tableaux for the Days of the Press, a thinly veiled attack on Tsar Nicholas II’s recent attempt to limit freedom of speech in the so-called Grand Duchy of Finland. The last tableau, first performed in November 1899 under the title “Finland Awakens”, was revised the following year and later renamed Finlandia. The snarling brass chords that open Finlandia were originally part of a tableau called “The Great Hate”, a chilling depiction of the brutal occupation that followed the Russian Army’s invasion of Finland in 1714. Sibelius’ tone poem, with its agitated fanfares and stirring hymn theme, was taken up by orchestras around the world and universally recognised as an emblem of Finland’s nationhood. Part of it was recorded as early as 1909, a decade before the declaration of Finnish independence; the composition’s hymn tune, meanwhile, was set to diverse texts, “Be still my heart” and “Dear friend of mine” among them, that touched audiences far beyond Finland.