Be Still My Soul, Op. 26

The Christian hymn 'Be still, my soul', originally written in German in 1752 by Catharina von Schlegel and translated into English by Jane Laurie Borthwick, is usually sung to the tune of the Finlandia hymn, a serene hymn-like section of the patriotic symphonic poem Finlandia, written by the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. 

Being Sibelius’ opus 26, Finlandia was composed for the Press Celebrations of 1899, a covert protest against increasing censorship from the Russian Empire, and was the last of seven pieces performed as an accompaniment to a tableau depicting episodes from Finnish history. It was premiered in 1900 in Helsinki with the Helsinki Philharmonic Society.

This arrangement marks my 26th major work, with instrumentation for woodwinds, strings and four-part voice. The piece then modulates from its original key in Ab to Bb major with augmentation rhythms and plagal cadences near the end for a meno mosso finale.