Jean Sibelius
1865–1957 · Romantic
Composer
wrote a musical score for six historical tableaux in a pageant that celebrated and supported the Finnish press against Russian oppression. In 1900 Sibelius revised the music from the final tableau into FINLANDIA, a tone poem for orchestra. The chorale-like theme that emerges out of the turbulent beginning of this tone poem became the hymn tune. FINLANDIA was first used as a hymn tune in the Scottish Church Hymnary (1927) and in the Presbyterian Hymnal (1933). The melody features several repeated and varied 667