Finlandia-hymni from 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 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 & Härtel only with a German translation by Hellmuth von Hase.

The Finlandia-Hymn with the Finnish text by Koskenniemi is therefore now available at Breitkopf & Härtel 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the version in F major as well as a second version in A flat major, written by Sibelius himself, too, but until now unpublished outside of the complete edition.