White Town Finlandia-hymni

Composer: Ko Matsushita
Lyricist: V.A.Koskenniemi for Finnish, Ko Matsushita for Japanese

Words from composer:

In the winter of 2001, I was in Finland with my choir. We stayed in the city of Jyväskylä, about 270 km north of Helsinki, where I gave a lecture at Jyväskylä University and had a concert. The city was, of course, covered with snow and extremely cold, but the people were very warm and cheerful and welcomed us.

The people in the cold deeply warmed my heart. I was so happy I could cry. On the bus ride home, I composed “White Town” to express my gratitude to the people, which was to be sung with Sibelius’ “Finlandia”, the second national anthem for the Finnish people. It was a work for two groups of choruses.

Since the choir which visited Finland with me was a women’s choir, the piece was created for women’s voices. It was later published as one of the pieces in “The Etudes for Chorus”, but unfortunately it was left out of the lineup when the new edition was published in 2017. However, it was decided to republish it as the piece will be performed to celebrate the opening of the SALA Music Hall in Hamamatsu City, which will be newly opened in 2021. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude and appreciation to all concerned.

A song is not just “tones”. It is a form of joy and happiness that brings people together.

I hope that “songs” will continue to bring people together all over the world.