Song of the Earth (Sibelius)

Song of the Earth (in Swedish: Jordens sång; subtitled "Cantata for the Inaugural Ceremonies of Åbo Academy University 1919"), Op. 93, is a single-movement, patriotic cantata for mixed choir and orchestra written in 1919 by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. The piece, which is a setting of the Finnish author Jarl Hemmer's Swedish-language poem of the same name, is chronologically the seventh of Sibelius's nine orchestral cantatas; in particular, it belongs to the series of four "little known, but beautiful" cantatas from the composer's mature period that also includes My Own Land (Op. 92, 1918), Hymn of the Earth (Op. 95, 1920), and Väinämöinen's Song (Op. 110, 1926). Song of the Earth premiered on 11 October 1919 in Turku, Finland, with Sibelius conducting the Turku Musical Society and an amateur choir.

Instrumentation
Song of the Earth is scored for the following instruments and voices, organized by family (vocalists, woodwinds, brass, percussion, and strings):


 * Mixed choir (SATTBB)
 * 2 flutes, 4 clarinets (or 2 oboes and 2 clarinets), and 2 bassoons
 * 3 horns, 2 trumpets, and 2 trombones
 * Timpani
 * Violins (I and II), violas, cellos, and double basses

History
In 1918, Åbo Academy University relocated from Helsinki to its original home of Turku (nine decades earlier, it had moved to Helsinki from Turku following the Great Fire of 1827); the university commissioned Sibelius to compose a piece for its inauguration, originally scheduled for the spring of 1919.

Discography
The Ukrainian-American conductor Theodore Kuchar and the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra made the world premiere studio recording of Song of the Earth in April 1987 for MILS; they were joined by two academic choirs associated with Åbo Akademi University: Florakören (a female choir) and Brahe Djäknar (a male choir). The table below lists this and other commercially available recordings:

Notes, references, and sources

 * Notes


 * References


 * Sources