Finlandia

Jan 26

Patriotism is not unique to the United States. For example, it found wonderful, musical expression in composer Jean Sibelius’s (1865-1957) tribute to his native country, Finlandia (8 minutes).

This transcendently beautiful work, Sibelius’s most famous, is a wonderful example of a tone poem or symphonic poem. In Sibelius’s Finlandia, the beautiful, serene final chorus, emerges from the storm and stress of the first part of the piece. It is still sung today in churches to the lyrics “Be Still My Soul.”

The tone poem was invented by composer Franz Liszt (Hungarian composer 1811-1886). The music of a tone poem often is inspired by a literary poem.

I love this late Romantic musical form. Some of my favorite tone poems are Debussy’s (French composer 1862-1918) Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn, Dukas’s (French composer 1865-1935) Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and Smetana’s (Bohemian composer 1824-1884) Ma Vlast (My Country).

Listen to Sibelius’s Finlandia here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fE0RbPsC9uE

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Edward Wolfe

Edward Wolfe has been a fan of Christian apologetics since his teenage years, when he began seriously to question the truth of the Bible and the reality of Jesus. About twenty years ago, he started noticing that Christian evidences roughly fell into five categories, the five featured on this website.
Although much of his professional life has been in Christian circles (12 years on the faculties of Pacific Christian College, now a part of Hope International University, and Manhattan Christian College and also 12 years at First Christian Church of Tempe), much of his professional life has been in public institutions (4 years at the University of Colorado and 19 years at Tempe Preparatory Academy).
His formal academic preparation has been in the field of music. His bachelor degree was in Church Music with a minor in Bible where he studied with Roger Koerner, Sue Magnusson, Russel Squire, and John Rowe; his master’s was in Choral Conducting where he studied with Howard Swan, Gordon Paine, and Roger Ardrey; and his doctorate was in Piano Performance, Pedagogy, and Literature, where he also studied group dynamics, humanistic psychology, and Gestalt theory with Guy Duckworth.
He and his wife Louise have four grown children and six grandchildren.

https://WolfeMusicEd.com

Finlandia

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Edward Wolfe