Finnish Folk Music

Ever since I got to Finland, I began to notice the many things about it that are amazing yet mainly undiscovered to the outside world. One of them is the folk music.

Most of the instruments in traditional Finnish music I had never heard of. Take the kantele (see picture below). Although it's not that similar in the way it's played, I find that it looks a little bit like a hammered dulcimer. The kantele is a traditional plucked string instrument. In my Finnish folk music class, we learned to play the 5-stringed kantele. Kantele is especially unique because it has been used in the past to accompany the singing of traditional poems and stories. Some of these songs/poems were collected and made into the epic poem: the Kalevala (another well-kept secret about Finland).

In my folk music class, we learned melodies that can be sung to Kalevala texts. They are usually 2 lines long, each containing 5 beats. We would sing antiphonally, where 1 person sings the first line and the rest of us repeat that line, etc. We then moved on to learning the kantele. Learning how the music and poetry are interwoven through hands-on experience enabled me to understand the music far better than reading about it in a book or being instructed about it in a lecture format.

We then learned about the many folk woodwind instruments. One day, we had a chance to go to the instrument making workshop in the basement and make our own overtone flutes. I was so proud of my flute and practiced it a lot for a couple days ;) I then realized that I had been holding it the wrong way: with it facing to my left, rather than to the right. Haha. I am obviously not a woodwind player. I plan to continue my practice of the flute when time permits.

And more recently, we learned about the jouhikko. It is 3-stringed and played with a bow and the bottom of it is held between your legs (in the way you would hold a cello). It's really interesting because you have to hold onto it with your left hand (where there's a space in the wood-see above). And you only change the pitch on the string farthest to your right; the other 2 are drones. BUT, instead of putting your fingertips down on the string to change the pitch, you have to move the bottom joint of your left-hand fingers (except for the thumb, which is still holding on) backwards to touch the string. It's really counter intuitive if you grew up playing a violin or cello or guitar (for instance). Also, the bow is used to create a back beat feel, where the drone strings are emphasized on the 2nd and 4th beat. I hope to make a jouhikko in the instrument making workshop spring semester. This, I really WILL practice!


Another intriguing part of Finnish folk music is joiking. It originates from the Sami people in Lapland. When you joik, you're basically singing or chanting on something. For instance, you can joik on your dog or on the tree you just walked by or whatever. It's a way to represent, right now, how you are feeling about or experiencing something. The Finnish band: Rinneradio has a track on their album 'On' that is called Slow Travel, Part 1, which features joiking. Check it out!

The Sibelius Academy has one of the only Folk Music departments in the entire world. It emphasizes playing of Finnish and international folk styles, with less focus on research than an ethnomusicology program. I'm grateful to have had such a great opportunity to learn about Finnish folk music.

KØBENHAVN- My trip to Copenhagen

Nyhaven Canal

In mid-November, I took a long weekend trip to visit my friend Raj. He is also on a Fulbright Scholarship, but at the Royal Danish Academy of Music in Copenhagen. I had a great time in the city and am surprised that it's not a more popular tourist destination for Americans-maybe it's still somewhat undiscovered, especially since Amsterdam is relatively closeby and more of a hot spot for Americans.

One of the best things about the trip was that I could go to a variety of ethnic food restaurants and it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. In Helsinki, things are very expensive and the only ethnic fast food you can get is a kebab. This does get old after a while. In Copenhagen, I went to a Tex-Mex place, an Indian restaurant, a middle-Eastern vegetarian buffet, an Italian restaurant and a Danish cafe.

Tivoli Gardens was one of my favorite places in Copenhagen. For some reason, I expected it to be like the state fair amusement parks in the US: with unhealthy food and sketchy looking guys running the rides. Or, at least, I expected it to be like Six Flags: cool rides but very plastic and fake. At Tivoli, it did cost a lot to get in and then you still have to pay for each ride, BUT, it was such a classy, artistic place. I went at night and the Christmas lights were up. The rides and surrounding buildings were beautiful. It was a very artistic amusement park experience. I highly recommend it. Tivoli hosts regular outdoor and indoor performances and there are nice restuarants on the grounds, as well. Actually, as I was sitting drinking some Glögg (red wine that is heated and spiced with cinnamon, sugar, cloves, etc), there was a group of high school-aged kids performing Christmas carols on brass instruments and strolling through the grounds. The best part was that they were wearing clogs, so they made quite a racket as they walked from place to place.

My last day in Copenhagen, Raj and I took an excursion outside of the city to Kronborg Castle. It is also known as Elsinore, the setting for Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. We were running a bit late and didn't get there in time to go on a tour, but we got a good feel for the place anyway. We then went to the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, which I really enjoyed. The organization and layout of the exhibitions as well as the collection was well done. It's one of the best art museums that I've been to.

Visiting Copenhagen gave me the breath of fresh air that I needed to then go back to Helsinki and have a productive end to my semester. I hope you all have a chance to visit it someday.

Cultural Exchanges-Fish, Pumpkins, and Ice-Cold Lakes

I have had several interesting and unique experiences that I could only have experienced in Finland. I have also, consequently, been able to share a bit of my culture with others. Here are a couple of examples.




First up, the Baltic Herring Market. Once a year, this market sets up stands for a couple of weeks in late Sept/early Oct. Besides herring, you can also get salmon and muikut, tiny fish that look like minnows and are eaten whole after being sauteed with salt and other spices. My friends, Trevor and Ingo, and I got a combination platter of the above 3 fish served with potatoes, fresh and warm from one of the food stands. Also for sale was pickled herring in a variety of sauces, as well as Tyrni products, yellow/orange-colored jelly and juice that is made from sea-buckthorn berries and is made in western Finland. For dessert, we had a Finnish pancake/crepe-like thing, Pannukakku. It was delicious. This was definitely a uniquely Finnish experience. Well, I've never been to a Baltic Herring Market in the US, at least.



















Halloween. This was a way for my American friends and I to show the other exchange students what Americans do on Halloween. Most of the exchange students I know are German-speakers, predominantly from Germany, but also from Austria and Switzerland. Everybody got dressed up and there was pumpkin-carving (something new to the non-Americans), punch, food, pumpkin seed roasting and finally, a viewing of 'The Shining'. These were all very Halloween-appropriate activities and I had a great time.

Pirates!



And finally, Finnish Sauna!! This was an extreme sport-like experience. I'm not even joking!! A bunch of my friends and I trekked up to a public wood-heated sauna (supposedly much better than the electric saunas that most people are familiar with). To me, it felt less dry and smelled smokier than electric saunas. The public aspect of this sauna experience ended up being slightly problematic, mainly because all the other people there were Finns with the most ridiculously high tolerance for heat. I honestly had to stand in the entrance the whole time because if I'd gone up higher to sit, I problably would have burnt my lungs or something. It was nuts. Basically, when you want to heat up the sauna more, you throw water on the hot stones. If it's already quite hot, you get the sensation that your flesh is burning. It's sort of addicting once you get used to it but painful if you're not. Anyway, the Finnish men in this sauna must have won some award for withstanding the hottest saunas ever (actually I did see one guy afterward with a Sauna Olympics T-shirt), because they were constantly throwing water on the stones. I think the Finns figured out that if they wanted to get us out of the sauna, they could just throw more water on the stones, because we definitely went running whenever they did.







Anyway, once you are thoroughly heated up, you either go sit outside (mind you, this is November, so it was pretty cold outside) or, even better, go jump in the lake right next to the sauna (an even colder experience). Of course, my whole reason for going to this particular sauna was to do the lake swimming as well. That is the coldest water I've ever been in. I'm guessing it was 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit, although I honestly don't know. And get this, there was a separate area in the lake where people would go just to swim laps, without even going in the sauna first. This convinced me that Finns have some supernatural resistance to cold. Anyway, I did the back and forth sauna-lake thing about 3 times and was done. I was quite proud of myself for withstanding both the heat and the cold. And afterwards, I felt as though I'd just gone on a 5 mile run. This is the real benefit to doing a sauna/swim, it gives your body a real workout without your having to do much actual exercise.....something about your pores being opened by the heat and then quickly closed by the cold, and also your heart having to work hard to pump blood to your body once you're in the water.

Although I'm making this Finnish sauna thing sound scary, I think it's very healthy. I'm not excited about doing lake swimming anytime soon, but I try to go to sauna (as they say it here) at least once a week and I feel so much better afterwards. It's also good for your skin, as you can tell when you notice that Finnish people have very nice skin. Although saunas are not nearly as plentiful in the US, I hope to keep up this sauna habit when I go back.

Turku and the American Voices Seminar

October 17-18 2008, I spent some time in Turku, Finland during the American Voices Seminar at the University of Turku. The Seminar gathers together the current American Fulbright grantees and scholars and asks each person to give a 20 minute presentation on any topic related to the US. There were 16 of us altogether and the presentations took up about 3 hours on both Oct. 17 and 18.

My topic was American fiddling styles and I talked about and played examples of Bluegrass, Appalachian and Acadian fiddling styles. I also explained about my experience playing in a Contradance band in Connecticut and ended with a short piece by Mark O'Connor that demonstrates a blend of fiddling styles with western-classical playing techniques. It was not only great to develop a presentation on something that really interested me, but it was also nice to hear what everyone else came up with for their topics. This was definitely an academic experience.

In between the hours of presentations, I also got a chance to see some of Turku. Turku is on the southwestern coast of Finland and is a good departure point if you want to take a ferry to Stockholm. It is supposedly the oldest city in Finland and was the capital when Finland was under Sweden's rule (from the 13th century up until 1809). Finland is bilingual, with both Finnish and Swedish the official languages. Although the majority of people in Finland have Finnish as their mother tongue, native Swedish speakers comprise 6% of the population. The Swedish-speaking minority lives mainly in the western part of Finland and hence, there are a sizable amount of Swedish-speaking Finns in Turku.

Although much of Turku was rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1827, there are still some remnants of old Turku, most notably the Cathedral of Turku and the Turku Castle. I didn't get a chance to see the Castle, but walked by the Cathedral many times.

I also took a pleasant walk along the Aura River. There is a beautiful path alongside it.

It was great to get out of Helsinki for a while to discover a new city. It was also nice to meet up with the other Fulbrighters. This led to lots of story swapping, especially about our numerous fun yet silly mishaps as newcomers to Finland. The camaraderie we've developed has been a real comfort to me while in Finland.

A Walk around Töölönlahti (Töölö Bay)

Töölönlahti is centrally located in Helsinki. Because it is near the Sibelius Academy, I often find myself in its vicinity. There is a great walking path around it and I took some pics of it and interesting places near it the other day.





This is the Olympic Stadium, which hosted the 1952 Summer Olympics. It was supposed to host the 1940 Olympics, but it was cancelled due to World War II. This is where I go for my salsa classes. And there's also a youth hostel here.
















The City Winter Garden. A good place to relax.











Nice view of the bay. The building in the distance is the Finnish National Opera (Kansallisooppera).














My favorite trees.










And finally, Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art. The words on the building say something to the effect of: 'I don't quite get it', which I think is great, since many people find contemporary art difficult to understand.

The Finnish Language

Ever heard this tongue twister?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

As much wood as a woodchuck would if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Okay, so the Finnish version of this is even better.

-Kokoo kokoon koko kokko.

-Koko kokkoko?

-Koko kokko.

The translation:

-Pile up together the whole bonfire.

-The whole bonfire?

-The whole bonfire.

Isn't this great?!

The above Finnish tongue twister showcases one of the more unique aspects of the Finnish language: double consonants and double vowels are actually pronounced. For instance, in the first word kokoo; in order to pronounce it correctly, you have to spend more time saying the last part of the word. You have to make the 'oo' last longer, time-wise, than the first 'o'. And then take kokko: to make sure you're pronouncing the double 'k', you almost have to make a stop between the first and second 'k'. You can try looking at it like 'kok ko'. Of course, it is difficult to fully understand this unless you have an aural example, which I don't know how to upload. But, hopefully you get the idea.

Also, an important and unique thing about Finnish is that the first syllable of every word is stressed. This creates an interesting rhythm when you listen to the language. If this is hard to imagine, think of saying the words 'banana', 'america', and 'vacation' with the stress on the first syllable: 'BA-nana', 'A-merica', 'VA-cation'. Make sure you pronounce the vowels the same as you normally would, but just emphasize the beginning of each word. Well, every single word in Finnish is treated like this.

Finnish is also a gender free language. For instance,

1) There is no word for he or she- there is just hän.

2) There are also no gender specific articles that are associated with a noun. The noun stands alone. For instance, in German, there are 3 definite gender articles: 'der' (masculine), 'die' (feminine) and 'das' (neuter). das Buch= the book, and because 'das' is the article that accompanies it, 'book' has a neuter connotation. die Frau= the woman, and it makes perfect sense that the feminine article would accompany this noun. Many western European languages use gender specific articles; Spanish, French, German, Italian. However, Finnish and English don't.

In closing, I think Finnish is an amazing and really interesting language. I'm currently taking a Finnish class in an attempt to eventually understand and speak it and I plan to continue next semester with my Finnish class. However, I'm not going to lie, I sometimes feel like this:

when I try to pronounce even the most basic words in Finnish.

My Backyard

My first weekend, in Helsinki, I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood. I technically live in Helsinki proper, but it is more like a suburb. It's called Koskela and is a 25 min bus ride from downtown Helsinki.

I had seen some paths near my dorm and thought I'd wander along them to see where they would take me. I soon discovered that I practically live in a forest and didn't even know it. Alongside every road is a walking and biking path. But then, if you follow one of the paths that leads away from the road, you'll discover that this additional path also follows the road but just gives you a more scenic route. So, you can either decide to walk near traffic (in case you're walking to catch your bus) or escape into the forest at any given moment. It is amazing. The fact that there is a pedestrian and biking path along each side of every road is unheard of where I'm from.

Making this discovery was great. If I want to go on a hike in the US, I usually have to make plans, get directions, and then drive to wherever I want to hike. Here, I can simply walk out my front door. Or hop on a bus and get off wherever I see a path that looks cool.

Birch trees are plentiful in Finland, which is very comforting to me, because it reminds me of summers spent in the Boundary Waters, Minnesota. They are my favorite trees.

I soon happened upon a blueberry patch, which also was very reminiscent of my summers in Minnesota. During these summers, there were several occasions when I would go blueberry picking with my aunts, who are better known as 'professional blueberry pickers'. It's hilarious and embarrassing how much more they could pick in 1 hour than I could.

I then saw a patch of red berries right next to the blueberry patch. Lingonberries? I have no idea.

And finally, there are tons of these trees with red berries on them. Very beautiful.

My first days in Helsinki

I arrived in Helsinki on Monday August 25th, 2008, after 3 days of travelling. I started in Dayton, Ohio and stopped in NYC and Düsseldorf, Germany. It was an exhausting journey. I then spent the following 3 days in a Fulbright grantee orientation session. It was a great introduction to the city.

One of the first things I encountered was the Rautatientori, otherwise known as the main railway station. Aside from the local and long-distance trains that come in at this point, there are also tram lines, busses and the underground metro that one can catch in the nearby vicinity. There is definitely no lack of public transportation in this city.






During the first day of the Fulbright Orientation, we visited the Ateneum, which houses the largest collection of art in Finland, including many Finnish masterpieces. I became aware of two painters I'd never heard of and who are really amazing: Hugo Simberg and Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Turns out, Simberg was a student of Gallen-Kallela.








We also visited the Helsinki Cathedral (left). Judging from the looks of it, I initially thought it was affiliated with either the Russian Orthodox or Roman-Catholic church. Nope. Most Finns are associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, so this is the Lutheran Cathedral of Helsinki.




After one of several fancy receptions that the Finnish Fulbright Commission put on for us, the Fulbright grantees decided to carry on at nearby Hesperia Park. This park is one of many examples of the way in which Finland incorporates nature into city life. More on that in a later blog. The body of water is Töölönlahti (Töölö Bay), which really seems to be more like a lake than a bay. There are walking paths surrounding it and up on a nearby hill stands an amusement park, Linnanmäki, that I assume is probably open for no more than 4 months a year. It is run by the Children's Day Foundation and donates several million euros to child welfare organizations every year! I don't want to make any uneducated assumptions about the amusement park industry in the US, but I have a hunch that there are few parks that are run by an organization whose sole purpose is to improve the quality of life for all people.