In 1899, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) wrote a score including six nationalistic musical tableaux for a pageant that celebrated and supported the Finnish press against czarist Russian oppression. In 1900 Sibelius revised the music from the final tableau, “Finland Awakes,” into Finlandia, a tone poem for orchestra. In Finlandia, a turbulent opening motif and subsequent energetic martial music, representing the struggle of the Finnish people, give way to the serene, chorale-like theme that is the subject of this arrangement for trombone (or euphonium) and organ.
Sibelius wrote little devotional music; yet the Finlandia theme was adopted as a hymn accompaniment in the Scottish Church Hymnary (1927) and the Presbyterian Hymnal (1933). It gained immediate and wide acceptance, and appears in numerous hymnals in combination with the hymn text of Katharina Von Schlegel, “Stille, mein Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen” (1752), translated by Jane Borthwick (1855) as “Be Still, My Soul, the Lord is on Thy Side.”
Piano score, bass clef and Bb treble clef trombone/euphonium parts — $5.99