(Swed. Åbo).
City in Finland. Early musical life centred on the cathedral, the cathedral school (founded c1276) and the Dominican monastery. There were musicians in the 15th century, and court musicians accompanied Duke John during his residence in the castle (1556–63). Organists were appointed at the cathedral from 1576, and worked also as town musicians, with others drawn largely from Germany, Estonia and Sweden. Among the organists were Johann Caspar Schultz (1664–79) and Christian Kellner (1680-98), both of whom later took appointments at the German church in Stockholm. Johann Lindell (cantor 1751–87) developed church music and made an edition of songs from the collection Piae cantiones. Carl Petter Lenning (organist 1741–88) established in 1747 an orchestra at the university (an institution which, founded in 1640, was moved in 1828 to Helsinki). This was the starting point for orchestral life in Finland. The first public concerts followed in 1773, given by members of the Aurora society, and the Musikaliska Sällskapet i Åbo/Turun Soitannollinen Seura (Turku Musical Society), founded in 1790, had an orchestra of professionals and amateurs which gave regular concerts under Erik Ferling and his successors, among them Johan Christoffer Downer (1823–7) and Conrad Greve (1843–6).
This orchestra continued in existence, with interruptions, until 1924, and was replaced three years later by the Turku PO. In 1952 this orchestra moved into the first purpose-built concert hall in Finland; it has worked since 1964 with Turku Opera Society and since 1982 with the Chorus Cathedralis Aboënsis. The Turku Musical Society's later ventures include the Turku Music Festival (founded in 1960 and including from 1970 onwards the first rock festival in Finland, Ruisrock) and national cello competitions (from 1974). A school for organists and cantors existed between 1878 and 1951. The Swedish-speaking Åbo Akademi, founded in 1918, started an institute for musicology in 1926; its first professor, Otto Andersson, built up important collections which in 1950 were instituted as the Sibelius Museum. Musicology is also taught at the Finnish-speaking Turku University, and in 1962 the Turun Konservatorio (Turku Conservatory) was established. The Åbo Akademi also has notable men's and women's choirs, known as Brahe Djäknar and Florakören respectively.
Missale Aboënse secundum ordinem fratrum praedicatorum (Lübeck, 1488/R)
Manule seu exequiale Aboënse 1522: editio stereotypa cum postscripto (Halberstadt, 1522/R)
O. Andersson: Johan Josef Pippingsköld och musiklivet i Åbo, 1808–1827 [Pippingsköld and the musical life of Turku] (Helsinki, 1921)
O. Andersson: Musikaliska sällskapet i Åbo, 1790–1808 [Turku Musical Society] (Helsinki, 1940)
M. Ringbom, ed.: Turun soitannollinen seura 1790–1965: 175-vuotisjulkaisu [Turku Musical Society 1790–1965: 175 years Festschrift] (Turku, 1965)
Turun kaupunginorkesteri 1927–1977 [Turku PO] (Turku, 1980)
F. Dahlström: ‘Musiklivet på Åbo slott under den äldre Vasatiden’ [Musical life at Turku Castle during the older Vasa epoch], Musiikkitiede (1990), no.1, pp.16–53
I. Tolvas, ed.: Turun soitannollinen seura 200 vuotta: juhlajulkaisu [Turku Musical Society’s 200 years: Festschrift] (Turku, 1990)
FABIAN DAHLSTRÖM