Juhani Aho (Brofeldt) (1861-1921)

The composer appreciated both of the self-made men from Savo, Pekka Halonen and Juhani Aho. The rivalry over Aino Järnefelt with the latter was already a thing of the past by the time the Sibelius family moved to Tuusula, and the friendship with the writer was strengthened by their mutual involvement in the Päivälehti circle. Ainola’s masonry work was underway in the summer of 1904 when Aho wrote his prose poem *My Brother in Foreign Lands*. Sibelius composed it for male choir the same year. In the autumn of 1914, the writer also offered his manuscript *The Bear Killers* to his friend, hoping Sibelius would compose a ballet from it, but the project fell through. *My Brother in Foreign Lands* remained the only result of Aho and Sibelius’s collaboration.

Sibelius always dressed in his finest clothes when going for a walk. Aho, on the other hand, preferred wearing rustic attire at home. On Aho’s yard, Sibelius was bothered by the smell of fish, so their joint walks were soon forgotten, but the two artists still went fishing together on occasion.

They often traveled together to Helsinki as well. Perhaps their discussions touched on the writer’s work *Panu*? At the beginning of 1898, Sibelius had been developing a programmatic, four-part symphonic work. The name of its finale theme was *Jorma’s Heaven*. The connection to Aho’s novel seems obvious. On the last pages of the book, there is a long Kalevalaic poem called *Jorma’s Song*. The composition was never finished, but some of its themes apparently made their way into the first symphony.

The services of Pekka, the horse, ended in 1911 when Aho’s family moved to Helsinki. This caused changes at Ainola. The Sibelius household acquired its own horse and built a stable for it. The property even had to be expanded (See Ainola’s buildings). The connection to the writer, however, was not severed, and Aho’s works were eagerly read at Ainola (See Ainola’s library books).