Composing Finland

It’s beginning to look like Christmas

Christmas is coming and Northern Finland is illuminated by a beautiful white snow cover. The sun shines at this time of year here in Oulu, which is located 200 kilometres south from Polar circle, for just over 3.5 hours, and during the whole day it does not rise to the high sky. If you drive 450 kilometers further north to Enontekiö in “Finland’s arm”, there is less than an hour between sunrise and sunset. The date when the day is at its shortest and the polar night is at its deepest is less than a week from today on December 21st. After that, the day starts to lengthen towards the endless summer day.

Sunshine at 2 pm.

Some Finns suffer from darkness. I have always loved Finland’s four seasons and the slowly diminishing daylight during the autumn makes me look forward to Christmas. Candles and Christmas lights stand out beautifully when there is not much other light. And I have to say that there is no darkness of night here during winter days allthought the sun doesn’t shine. The snow lights up the nature surprisingly much. One would think that in order to illuminate the dark, Finns would use a very large variety of Christmas lights outdoors, but the Finnish style is very subdued: a yard tree dressed in Christmas lights, lanterns, candles and some part of the house lit with a beautiful light decoration. Finns are known for their modesty. Maybe this is shown in Christmas decorations also.

The colorlessness of winter nature is beautiful. When walking outside, it feels like all the colors have disappeared. The only colors in nature are from gray-green to white. The frozen trees are breathtakingly beautiful with their snow cover.

Finnish winter nature has once again inspired me to compose. This piano piece is called Winter Breeze. There are many words in the Finnish language that describe winter winds. The wind in this piece isn’t icy cold, but in my own mind, this reflects a milder day when the wind makes small swirls of snow coming out of the trees and snow quarters.

Tiina Kukkula playing Winter breeze

If you can’t see the video, you can see it from YouTube.

You can find the sheet music of this piece here. You can download them now at Christmas time for free.

I wish you all Happy holidays and Merry Christmas! I hope you can spend your Christmas with your loved ones despite of this covid-19 pandemic. Stay safe. <3

Recommended Articles

2 Comments

  1. Good website! I truly love how it is simple on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified when a new post has been made. I’ve subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day!

    1. Hi! Thank you for visiting my website! My blog has been on a break for a while. I’ve been studying and working and it has taken all of my time. But now I’m starting to write again. I hope you’ll visit my website again.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *