Music with Ease > Classical Music > Concert Guide: Nationalist Era > Symphonic Poem, "Finlandia" - Sibelius

The symphonic poem "Finlandia" is an tone picture of Finnish life reflected in the sentiment of an exile on his return home. The introduction begins with a brief but vigorous theme in the brasses, responded to in the woodwinds, and followed by a pathetic passage in the strings. This material leads to an episode in which the opening theme appears in the strings. A change is made to Allegro and a more cheerful theme appears in the strings, followed by a second subject in the woodwinds, afterwards taken by the strings, and then by the cello and first violin. The development of this material closes the work.