The ''Suite on Finnish Themes'' or Seven Arrangements of Finnish Folk Songs (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

''Семь обработок финских народных песен (Сюита на финские темы)'') is a suite composed in 1939 for soloists (soprano and tenor) and

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

in seven movements by the

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n composer

Dmitri Shostakovich Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...

(1906–75). The composer later disowned the work, and the suite does not have an

opus number In musicology, the opus number is the "work number" that is assigned to a musical composition, or to a set of compositions, to indicate the chronological order of the composer's production. Opus numbers are used to distinguish among compositio ...

. In 1939, before the Soviet forces were to invade Finland, the Party Secretary of Leningrad

Andrei Zhdanov Andrei Aleksandrovich Zhdanov ( rus, Андре́й Алекса́ндрович Жда́нов, p=ɐnˈdrej ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈʐdanəf, links=yes; – 31 August 1948) was a Soviet politician and cultural ideologist. After World War ...

commissioned a celebratory piece from Shostakovich, a theme to be performed as the marching bands of the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

would be parading through the Finnish capital

Helsinki Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...

. Edwards 2006, p. 98 Shostakovich finished composing on 3 December 1939, as the Red Army was advancing in the Finnish front and the puppet regime

Finnish Democratic Republic The Finnish Democratic Republic ( fi, Suomen kansanvaltainen tasavalta or ''Suomen kansantasavalta'', sv, Demokratiska Republiken Finland, Russian: ''Финляндская Демократическая Республика''), also known as t ...

was founded three days earlier. The only early historical source of the suite is a letter which Shostakovich sent his friend

Levon Atovmyan Levon may refer to: Music * "Levon" (song), a song by Elton John and Bernie Taupin * Levon & the Hawks, an original alternative name for The Band *Love for Levon, a concert held on October 3, 2012 in New Jersey as a tribute to the late drummer/sing ...

on 5 December 1939. In the letter, Shostakovich explains that he was unable to come to Moscow as the Leningrad military district had commissioned a suite of Finnish folk songs. The deadline was on 2 December, but he had completed it on 3 December. Manninen 2002, p. 33 The exact commission date is uncertain, but according to the Finnish historian

Ohto Manninen Ohto Heikki Sulevi Manninen (24 March 1943 in Helsinki), is a Finnish historian, PhD 1977. Manninen was 1984–95 associate professor at Helsinki University, 1995–98 professor of Finland's history at Tampere University. In 1998 he became prof ...

, it was probably commissioned on 25 November, though not earlier than 23 November. An earlier date is not likely as Shostakovich sent a

telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...

on 22 November to Atovmyan where Shostakovich was certain he would arrive in Moscow. Manninen 2002, p. 34 The war began on 30 November 1939. However, the Winter War was a bitter experience for the Red Army. The Red Army never entered Helsinki, and Shostakovich would never lay claim to the authorship of this work. It was not performed until 2001. The Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra recorded the suite for BIS in 2002.

Movements

# Energico (orchestral) # Taivas on sininen ja valkoinen (The Sky is Blue and White) # Lento non troppo (orchestral) # Tämän kylän tytöt ovat tilulilulei (The Girls of this Village) # Mansikka on punainen marja (The Strawberry is a Red Berry) # Jos mie saisin jouten olla (If I Could be at leisure) # Minun kultani kaunis on (My Beloved is Beautiful)

References

Citations

Bibliography

* * Finnish Themes Winter War in popular culture {{classical-composition-stub