March of the Pori Regiment – in Finnish Porilaisten marssi – is called Björneborgarnas marsch in Swedish. Björneborg is the alternative name of the town of Pori on the west coast of Finland.
Previously, Swedish was used extensively along the west coast. Today only 0.6 percent of the Pori population regard Swedish as their mother tongue. However, English and Swedish are compulsory school subjects, so bi- or trilingualism is not uncommon.
The original melody of the marsch is most likely French in origin, and was composed by an unknown composer in the 18th century and subsequently arranged and re-arranged multiple times.
The march remained popular throughout the 19th century in Sweden and Finland. The original lyrics were published in Swedish in 1860 by the Finnish national poet Johan Ludvig Runeberg in his epic poem The Tales of Ensign Stål (Swedish original title: Fänrik Ståls sägner, in modern Finnish: Vänrikki Stålin tarinat).
The poem describes the events of the Finnish War (1808–1809), in which Sweden lost Finland to Russia but got Norway as compensation some years later as part of an agreement during the Napoleonic Wars.
The influence of Tales of Ensign Stål on Finnish culture is considerable because it portrays common people as heroes, despite the hardship experienced during the war. Albert Edelfelt drew the accompaning illustrations between 1894 and 1900 (incl. the iconic painting at right).
Today, the march is quite often performed in Finland and Estonia. Since 1918 it has been the honorary march of the Finnish Defence Forces. It is also the official honorary march of the Estonian Defence Forces.
The anonymous band arrangement offered here was once issued on march cards in Norway, now having been modernized.
The sound clip was generated using sampled sounds (AI).
Transcriptions and descriptions are not AI generated.
