Jean Sibelius : Finlandia

SKU: BR.OB-5658-30

ISBN 9790004344415. 10 x 12.5 inches.

It is the new, young Finland that will be described, and the composer gives us the description in the form of a song, a simple, four-part chorus, peculiar due to certain rhythmic accents [...]. It is a whole new folk song, or more correctly, [...] the song of our democratic Finnish folk. This is how Karl Flodin described his first aural impression of the tone poem Finlandia in 1899. In the aftermath of the February Manifesto implemented on 15 February 1899 by the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, artists expressed their support for the press and the freedom of speech in diverse cultural events arranged in Finland in the beginning of November 1899. A group of artists joined forces in arranging a performance of six historical tableaus. Jean Sibelius composed Music for the Press Celebration Days for this occasion. After several revisions, the music composed for the last tableau, Suomi heraa (Finland Awakes), became known as the tone poem Finlandia op. 26. As an independent work Finlandia quickly became part of the repertoire and is now one of the most frequently played and best known works by Sibelius. Today there are quite a number of arrangements of this popular composition. The original version is now published in our established Urtext-quality based on the complete edition Jean Sibelius Works.Compatible with the study score PB 3318.

SKU: BR.OB-5658-16

ISBN 9790004344378. 10 x 12.5 inches.

It is the new, young Finland that will be described, and the composer gives us the description in the form of a song, a simple, four-part chorus, peculiar due to certain rhythmic accents [...]. It is a whole new folk song, or more correctly, [...] the song of our democratic Finnish folk. This is how Karl Flodin described his first aural impression of the tone poem Finlandia in 1899. In the aftermath of the February Manifesto implemented on 15 February 1899 by the Russian Emperor Nicholas II, artists expressed their support for the press and the freedom of speech in diverse cultural events arranged in Finland in the beginning of November 1899. A group of artists joined forces in arranging a performance of six historical tableaus. Jean Sibelius composed Music for the Press Celebration Days for this occasion. After several revisions, the music composed for the last tableau, Suomi heraa (Finland Awakes), became known as the tone poem Finlandia op. 26. As an independent work Finlandia quickly became part of the repertoire and is now one of the most frequently played and best known works by Sibelius. Today there are quite a number of arrangements of this popular composition. The original version is now published in our established Urtext-quality based on the complete edition Jean Sibelius Works.Compatible with the study score PB 3318.

SKU: BR.CHB-5371-02

ISBN 9790004413012. 7.5 x 10.5 inches. Finnish.

The hymn from the tone poem Finlandia op. 26 for orchestra, one of the best-known works of Jean Sibelius, became the unofficial national anthem of Finland with the text of Veikko Antero Koskenniemi (1906-1962). In a time of great insecurity after the attack of the Soviet Union in 1939, Koskenniemi managed to capture the rising national consciousness and the hope of the Finns for an imminent solution of the conflict. Sibelius had already written an arrangement of the hymn for male choir on a different text in 1938, but after a suggestion by his publisher Roger Lindberg, he decided to write a version for mixed choir, too, on the by now better known text by Koskenniemi. This version in F major was published in 1949, but at Breitkopf & Hartel only with a German translation by Hellmuth von Hase. The Finlandia-Hymn with the Finnish text by Koskenniemi is therefore now available at Breitkopf & Hartel for the first time, as Urtext of the complete edition Jean Sibelius Works. The edition includes both the version in F major as well as a second version in A flat major, written by Sibelius himself, too, but until now unpublished outside of the complete edition.