Something for the weekend. Finlandia Hymn by Jean Sibelius. The above video is a tribute to the brave Finnish troops who defended their nation against the Soviet Union in the Winter War of 1939-1940 and the Continuation War of 1941-1944.
An English translation of the Finnish lyrics:
O, Finland, behold, your day is dawning,
The threat of night has been banished away,
And the lark of morning in the brightness sings,
As though the very firmament would sing.
The powers of the night are vanquished by the morning light,
Your day is dawning, O land of birth.
O, rise, Finland, raise up high
Your head, wreathed with great memories.
O, rise, Finland, you showed to the world
That you drove away the slavery,
And that you did not bend under oppression,
Your day is dawning, O land of birth.
This beautiful music has served as the host for many lyrics as we see below.
Here is the entire magnificent Finlandia, of which the Finlandia Hymn forms a portion:
Thanks to Darwin Catholic who inspired me to find these videos by this post of his.
That was moving, and I’m not even a Finn and I don’t understand a single word. Yet you can get the gist of it just from listening to it..
Here’s another version. Janet Sullivan Whittaker has set the text of the Magnificat to the same tune. It’s very lovely and a prayerful metric setting of Mary’s hymn.
Here is the link to the page with the MP3 and sheet music:
http://www.ocp.org/compositions/77775#tab:mp3s
Enjoy!
And you also enjoy this piece, Andante Festivo by Sibelius … imo it sounds so much like a hymn.
In reality, the Finnish military lost some 20,000 plus troops–the Soviet 1,000,000. My father-in-law was (God rest his soul) a Finnish officer in the war. My mother-in-law (God rest her soul) Lotta.
I wish I had some music talent so I could sing along. Being almost 80 yrs old and heard so many songs in my life time, when I hear Finlandia played, it makes me sad and happy all at the same time. No other songhas that effect one me. There has to be something magical, or spiritual about it.
Does anyone know whether the Findlandia hymn tune is still under copyright or in the public domain? I’d like to do a choral arrangement.
I have love the entire tone poem, but especially the hymn since my piano teacher gave me her crumbling copy of the piano arrangement forty or so years ago.