Finlandia-hymni, op. 26

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 agreed to use the text by Koskenniemi in 1940 while also participating in the revision process. After a suggestion by his publisher Roger Lindberg, he decided to write a version for mixed choir with the same text. This version in F major was published in 1949, but at Breitkopf & Härtel only with a German translation by Hellmuth von Hase.

The Finlandia-hymni with Koskenniemi’s text is therefore available at Breitkopf & Härtel for the first time as Urtext of the complete edition Jean Sibelius Works. The two editions include the version for male choir in A flat major and the versions for mixed choir in F major and A flat major, respectively, the latter of which published for the first time outside of the complete edition.