Carl Rahkonen

From Sibelius to Sallinen : Finnish nationalism and the music of Finland

The Historical Perspective Pre-Sibelian Music of Finland Sibelius and Finnish Nationalism The Patriot The Composer in Search of His Own Voice The Watershed and Its Aftermath The Sibelian Legacy Post-Sibelian Instrumental Music Stage and Vocal Music in Finland Bibliography Discography Index

Polkabilly: How the Goose Island Ramblers Redefined American Folk Music (review)

(American Anthropologist 61(6): 927–54, 1959) and “Song Structure and Social Structure” (Ethnology 1(4):425–51, 1962). In these articles, Lomax becomes the first to link the vocal cords with the sex organs, insisting again with broad generalization that courtship patterns conditioned vocal style around the world. Stated simply, the more repressed a culture, the more constrained the singer’s vocal production— never mind the exceptions. He had become the Alan Lomax, authority on folk music around the world. Even then he was still promoting folk music. If the revival had moved past him, if he had outlived his Rooseveltian times, he has still left his mark.

Nordic Art Music: From the Middle Ages to the Third Millennium (review)

The last, summarizing chapter enlarges an understanding of allusion by touching on theories of play, irony, mythology and, most encompassingly, symbolism. These intellectual forays rely in part on such high-powered thinkers as Hans-Georg Gadamer, Johan Huizinga, August Wilhelm von Schlegel, and Goethe. In fact, capsulized handling of book-length topics, e.g., the establishment of the canon, the nineteenth-century audience’s interpretive responsibilities, and genres as sets of compositional guidelines, is featured in the book generally. So, too, is recourse to a mélange of literary and philosophical sources, from Mikhail Bakhtin to, say, Arthur Schopenhauer. Nor will anyone doubt Reynolds’s knowledge of the current musical scholarship, which usefully supplements his own discoveries in the relevant musical repertories. Thus, crammed with argument and information, Motives for Allusion by its close has virtually postulated a quasi-secret allusive art in German Romantic music. Not all readers will be convinced of the existence or significance of this doctrine. But the multifaceted character of Reynolds’s effort and his care in citing and illustrating individual instances of allusion go a long way toward making the case.

Scandinavian Fiddling for String Teachers

closely related languages. Finland and Iceland are also often included, though, as a group, all five are usually referred to as Nordic countries. Fiddling has been a strong tradition in all the Nordic countries, but the center of Scandinavian fiddling, at least as practiced in the United States, comes from Norwayand Sweden. Fewer tunes are played from Denmark, Finland, and Iceland. The sound of Scandinavian fiddling can be traced to the influence of older instruments in the culture, representing a parallel tradition: In Norway, it is the hardingfele and, in Sweden, the nyckelharpa. Many traditional fiddle players also play these instruments. The hardingfele is shaped like a regular violin, but is more arched-so much so that looking from the side of the instrument, you can see the soundpost through the F hole. Norwegians call regular violins flat fiddles. The hardingfele is often highly ornamented with etched designs and inlaid mother of pearl. The contemporary version has eight strings, four that are played and four that run under the fingerboard and through the middle of the bridge for sympathetic resonance. Every note played on a hardingfele produces a proliferation of resonant sounds. The fingerboard is shorter and flatter, and the bridge is flatter than a regular violin, making it easier to play the multiple lines and double stops continually called for by the music. It is typically tuned at least a half step higher than standard violin tuning, making the sound even brighter. The nyckelharpa is a keyed fiddle. The body is long and narrow, with a structure closely related to the hurdy-gurdy. The player pushes rows of keyswith vertical tangents to stop the stings, so vibrato in the usual sense is impossible. The nyckelharpa is played with a much shorter bow than a regular violin bow. The modern chromatic version has sixteen strings: three melody strings and one drone, plus twelve strings for sympathetic vibration. The sound of a nyckelharpa, like the hardingfele, is very resonant with multiple harmonics. Thus, the overall sound of Scandinavian fiddling favors resonant harmony. A regular fiddle player must learn to use little or no vibrato, play with flawless intonation, and obtain harmony by playing /CANDINAVIAN

Mountains of Music: West Virginia Traditional Music from Goldenseal@@@Play of a Fiddle: Traditional Music, Dance, and Folklore in West Virginia

Shedding new light on a region that maintains ties to the cultural identities of its earliest European and African inhabitants, Gerald Milnes shows how folk music in West Virginia borrowed rhythmic, melodic, and vocal forms from the Celtic, Anglo, Germanic, and African traditions. These elements have come together to create a body of music tied more to place and circumstance than to ethnicity. Milnes explores the legacies of the states best-known performers and musical families. He discusses religious music, balladeering, the influence of black musicians and styles, dancing, banjo and dulcimer traditions, and the importance of old-time music as a cultural pillar of West Virginia life.

Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942

v. 1. Western Europe -- v. 2. Slavic -- v. 3. Eastern Europe -- v. 4. Spanish Portuguese, Philippine, Basque -- v. 5. Mid-East, Far-East, Scandinavian, English language, American Indian, international -- v. 6. Artist index, titl index -- v. 7. Record number index, matrix number index.