Festouverture

Armas Järnefelt (1869-1958) composed his Festouverture (Festive Overture) for the official opening of the Finnish National Theatre on 9 April 1902. This was a great event in the history of Finnish theatre, for it meant that the Finnish Theatre founded by Kaarlo and Emilie Bergbom in 1872 at last had a home of its own.
The Festive Overture is firmly anchored on a jubilant D major and observes the traditional sonata-form scheme. A fanfare introduction lasting 13 bars and based purely on the prolongation of an A-major chord leads to an Allegro with the muscular main theme from which Germanic influences are not far removed. A lyrical second theme that could be described as Finnish national, with slight Sibelian nuances, begins at bar 62.
Music Publisher Fennica Gehrman commissioned a band transcription from professor Robert J. Ambrose as soon as the symphony version score was engraved in 2019. The transcription preserves the work's core values and transfers Järnefelt's musical idiom to the band setting. Ambrose's transcription follows the tradition and makes this excellent work available for band platform. The work is well suited as a concert opener. The overture is a grade 4 work.