For all of its fame, Finlandia has not been much examined from an analytical point of view. Perhaps some commentators have considered this work too self-evident in its meaning and structure to merit extended study. Perhaps the piece's primitivist surface has discouraged close attention – its coarse-grained rhetoric, its thick brush-strokes, its stark primary colours. Or it may be that Sibelius's most widely known composition, a shopworn concert favourite and a national emblem, has seemed to exist in a space beyond commentary. And yet there is much of interest to observe about Finlandia. In addition, recent archival work in Finland, uncovering and recording two early endings for the piece – first presented to the public in 1899 as ‘Suomi herää’ (Finland Awakens) – has invited a reconsideration of the music. It may therefore be appropriate that we ask ‘Suomi herää’ to awaken into the world of more sustained reflection. The following discussion will proceed in two arcs: first, an elementary overview of the music alone; second, a consideration of hermeneutic questions of representation, allusion, and meaning, questions informed especially by an awareness of its original 1899 context.