Chapter
4.3: The Kantele Traditions of
by
Carl Rahkonen © 1989 All Rights Reserved Back to Table
of Contents
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use of this material should contain a proper reference to this site.
THE
ART STYLE OF KANTELE PLAYING
In my first kantele lesson at the
Later I came to learn that the
traditional style was not a single playing style, but actually a category of
styles which includes all the various ways of playing folk music on the
kantele. In contrast, the art style is
homogeneous and standardized in the way it is performed and taught everywhere
in the country. According to its
players, the name taidetyyli [art
style] refers to the type of music being played, so‑called western
"classical" art music. I also
met folk musicians who resented the application of this name, because they
thought it implied that folk styles of playing were not artistic. I use the name here because it is what the
performers of this style called it, and do not wish to imply that the art style
of playing is better, or more artistic than folk styles.
Anu went on to describe that the art
style is newer and is a "soft" playing style, while the traditional
style is older and a "hard" style.
Later, Ismo Sopanen, chairman of the Kantele League, clarified that the
word "soft" [pehmoinen] refers to the timbre which is produced
while playing in the art style and not necessarily soft [hilja] in
volume. Traditional styles of kantele
playing are likely to have a hard [kova] timbre. This is basically true, but it is also true
that it is more difficult to produce a loud [voimakas literally
"powerful"] sound using the art style of playing.
In the art style of playing, the
kantele is held with the longest string closest to the player. The players say this is done because they
learn pieces from written music.
Perceptually, the way the pitches are written on the staff matches where
the player will find that pitch on the instrument when the lowest pitch is the
closest.
The art style of playing favors a soft,
even tone. The the fingers are placed at
an approximately 25° angle to the strings. The strings are never "plucked" or
"pulled up." They are
"stroked" by pressing down with the soft, fleshy part of the finger,
never the fingernail, and letting the finger "glide" across the
string, releasing it. The right hand is
used to play melodies on the higher pitched strings, usually with the fore finger. The right middle finger, ring finger and
thumb may also be used to play intervals in the melody or for
accompaniment. The left hand plays bass
notes with the thumb and chordal accompaniment with the fore, middle and ring
fingers, which are usually arpeggiated.
The left hand also operates the damping board, with the little finger
and a portion of the palm always resting on this board.
The damping of the strings is
particularly important in the art style.
There are two basic types of damping: The first is done with the
fingers. As the player plays an
ascending passage, the finger is brought down against the string previously
played to damp it. As the player plays a
descending passage, the middle finger trails a string behind, to damp the
unwanted pitches. The purpose of finger
damping is to create a clear, melodic style of playing, avoiding the muddiness
of the sonorities decaying at their own pace.
The second style of damping is the general damping of all the strings by
the damping board, which usually comes between chord changes and at the end of
a piece. This serves the same function
as letting up on the pedal of a piano.
History
of the Art Style
The art style of kantele playing was
not invented by any one person. It
evolved over a period of time beginning in the mid-nineteenth century and
reaching a
Traditionally, the kantele was used
for one's own personal entertainment or for dance accompaniment. As a dance instrument, the most important
qualities of the kantele's sound were that it be loud and in a good rhythm for
dancing. When the kantele began to be
played in concert settings, the context changed from dancing to listening. The quality of the sound became an important
aesthetic criterion, because it was judged in comparison to other western
musical instruments. Such things as
precise intonation and finger damping became important to achieve this sound.
A history of the art style of
playing is really a history of the written music and method books which exist
for the kantele.[1] Among the oldest
kantele pieces in written form were those transcribed in the late 18th century
and published in a book by the Italian explorer Joseph Acerbi (1802). Acerbi's pieces, as well as many later
transcribed kantele pieces, were descriptive rather than prescriptive. During the nineteenth century people began
arranging music and writing method books for kantele.
Carl Axel Gottlund's Suomalaisia
Paimensoittoja: Kantelella ja Sarvella Soitettavia [Finnish Shepherd
Pieces: Playable on the Kantele and Horn], published as part of his Otava
(1831b), features some of the earliest written music for the kantele. Although the pieces are arrangements of folk
music, they clearly show the influence of art music, since most include key
signatures, time signatures, phrase markings, slurs, tempo markings and
dynamics. A. O. Väisänen did not include
these works in his collection of carved kantele pieces, since most have just a
single line of music and none of the polyphony found among the kantele pieces
he collected himself (Väisänen 1928a:XII).
Elias Lönnrot wrote a book for
playing a type of kantele which he had developed himself. Lönnrot's kanteles had seventeen strings, to
which eight chromatic strings could be added if desired. The book contains a short introduction, a
tuning guide and transcriptions of 230 "Finnish and foreign" pieces
written in number notation. In the
introduction, Lönnrot says that the seventeen string kantele may also be played
from hymn book notation or regular musical notation.
At the time the carved kantele was
replaced by the box kantele and the playing style among the folk changed from
the together position to the apart position, church hymns and other spiritual
songs made up a portion of the box kantele repertoire. In Finnish Lutheran Church services, hymns
are sung in unison to organ accompaniment from hymn books which usually contain
only the text of a hymn, not any written music.
At home, hymns were frequently accompanied by the virsikantele,
which had special hymn books with the melodies written in numbered
notation. The same melodies were also
worked out by ear and played on the regular kantele and were among the earliest
western, composed pieces played on the kantele.
Kanteles were played with the
shortest string closest to the player throughout most of the nineteenth
century. No one is certain who was the
first to play with the longest strings closest.
According to the available evidence, one of the earliest was Akilles
Ockenström.
Adolf Akilles Ockenström (1867‑1898)
learned kantele playing from his father, Aleksander (1834‑1882), who was
said to have played kantele with Elias Lönnrot in earlier years. As a boy, Akilles also reportedly heard
Kreeta Haapasalo play. He was blind from
the age of eighteen and was trained as a piano tuner, but was also a fine
kantele player who traveled around Finland giving recitals during the last two
decades of the nineteenth century. He
played at least one concert a year in Rauma between 1888 and 1897 and also
played concerts in St. Petersburg, Estonia and Stockholm, where he played at
the 1896 World's Fair. His programs
included a mixture of folk music, marches and popular music of the day from
Finland and abroad. He was probably well
known among art musicians, since his funeral was attended by such figures as
composer Oskar Merikanto (Kemppi 1984:6‑7).
It is a general belief among players
that the kantele was turned around and played with the longest strings closest
only when players began using written music for learning and performing
pieces. Ockenström, however, was blind
and therefore could not read music. In
spite of his blindness, he is credited as the author of one of the earliest published
kantele music books, Säveleitä kanteleelle [Compositions for the
Kantele] (1898). Ockenström's book was
edited by the Finnish musicologist Ilmari Krohn, who must have played an
important role in its production since it was published after Ockenström's
death.
Säveleitä kanteleelle
features a photo of a kantele player on the cover, presumably Ockenström, with
the longest strings closest to the player.[2]
It contains instructions on how to tune a twenty‑eight string
kantele in C major with the range from G to f'''. If the player owned a thirty string kantele,
they could add g''' to the treble and F to the bass. The first nine compositions are in C major. It describes retuning the kantele to D minor,
by lowering each of the three B strings to B‑flat, and tuning the c'' to
c#''. The last eleven pieces are in D
minor. The author explains that the left
hand plays the bass side and can rest partly on the covering board. The right hand lies freely on the treble
strings. As a starting position, the left
thumb is placed on the G string (the A string in D minor) and plays bass
notes. Usually the left fore finger adds
the third above the bass notes, and sometimes the middle finger adds the fifth. The right thumb is likewise placed on the g'
string (or a' string). The right middle
finger plays the melody and the fore finger adds accompaniment below in
thirds. The right fore finger plays the
melody if it goes below d''. The method
also describes the basics of an art style of playing ‑‑ using the
soft part of fingers and not plucking the strings up, but sideways. The selections are written on a standard
treble‑bass piano staff and are arrangements of twenty folk songs. The second part of Säveleitä kanteleelle
(1901), published under Ilmari Krohn's name, includes finger exercises for the
right and left hands and arrangements of eighteen folk songs.
Simo Eemili Karjalainen, born in the
town of Jaalanka on the banks of Lake Oulu in 1880, played kantele with the
longest strings closest. Karjalainen was
a carpenter who built his own kanteles.
These were relatively large instruments with thirty or more strings and
a unique feature which provided the playing of chromatic pitches. On the ponsi side there was a ridge
attached to the soundboard. The player
could press down on any given string against the ridge, which would shorten its
length and raise its pitch a half step.
Karjalainen was also a choir director and was able to read and write
music. He made arrangements for kantele
and even wrote arrangements for kantele ensemble, which featured different
parts following choir voicing. Some of
his arrangements were published as the third volume of Säveleitä kanteleelle,
which were "checked" by Ilmari Krohn.
In the preface, it mentioned a "transposing board," which was
a piece of cardboard with the markings for the
C strings. As the kantele would
be tuned to different keys, the board could be moved under the appropriate strings. It acted as a kind of movable "do"
for the kantele player (Karjalainen 1984; Sopanen 1986b).
Ilmari Krohn also published a book
entitled Walittuja psalmeja [Expressive psalms] (1903), which contained
psalms with kantele accompaniment. The
melodies and chordal accompaniment are written at the top of each page, and
each chord is assigned a symbol. The
psalm text is written underneath, together with the appropriate symbols for
chordal accompaniment. Krohn mentions in
the preface that the fingerings follow a system developed by Josef Binnemann.
Binnemann was a music store owner in
Helsinki around the turn of the century.
Apparently because no other books were available, he wrote a kantele
instruction book in longhand, which was never published.[3] According to his book, the kantele should be
played with the shortest string closest.
Only the little fingers were not used in playing. The right hand played the highest pitched
strings, closest to the player, the left hand played the lower pitched strings. Binnemann included many difficult technical
exercises and fingerings which, according to Krohn (1903:[II]), are based on
those for concert harp.
Pasi Jääskeläinen, the famous
kantele performer from Haapavesi, published a kantele playing method entitled Kanteleen
soiton alkeita [Introduction to Kantele Playing] in 1903. Jääskeläinen mentions Ockenström's method in
the preface, but says that "a simple introduction is still lacking"
and his method is meant to fill the void.
The cover features a picture of Jääskeläinen playing a right handed
kantele with the longest string closest, which is unexpected because he
patented and marketed left handed kanteles.
He includes illustrations showing diatonic tunings in C major and in C
minor of a thirty string kantele, but he also suggests the use of a short
octave bass, tuning the lowest three strings C, G, F, in descending order of
pitch. He recommends playing with the
longest string closest and plucking the strings sideways. The first few selections are finger exercises
for the right and left hands. The right
fore and middle fingers always play in thirds.
The left hand plays bass notes and usually only one other note of
accompaniment, but sometimes a complete triad, outlining the tonic, dominant
and subdominant harmonies. The musical
selections are arrangements of folk songs or pieces which Jääskeläinen composed
in a folk style.
In spite of Jääskeläinen's published
playing method, most of the kantele players in Haapavesi continued to play by
ear without written music. They did,
however, accept playing the kantele from the long side of the instrument,
plucking sideways rather than perpendicularly and using left handed
kanteles. These changes which
Jääskeläinen brought to kantele playing were adapted into and became a part of
the folk tradition.
Emil Kauppi, Pasi Jääskeläinen's
lifelong friend, "[continued the work which Pasi had started]" (Porma
1948b:292) and published several books containing arrangements for the kantele
and teaching its playing method. Kauppi
was a well known pianist, conductor and composer, as well as a fine kantele
player. He played the kantele, as well
as the piano, in some of Jääskeläinen's concerts and even gave some solo
recitals on the kantele (Härmä 1979:30).
Kauppi wanted to develop the kantele as a true art music instrument.
[Emil
Kauppi took the promotion of the kantele as his life's work. Where Kauppi had received instruction in
kantele playing is a totally unknown matter.
Kantele playing was not part of the program at the music school he
attended. He spoke on behalf of the
kantele and explained the character and playing technique of the instrument at
the kantele concerts which he held. Emil
Kauppi's greatest dream was that the Finnish kantele would be a true folk and
orchestral instrument. He dreamed of an
orchestra, whose core would be made up of 40‑50 kanteles of different
sizes] (ibid:36; from Tarpila 1952:15).
Kauppi's Oppikirja
kanteleensoitossa [Teaching book for kantele playing] (1908) was written to
be used with a 28 string kantele, with a range from F to g'''. It gives a basic description of kantele
playing, mentioning that the bass side is closet to the player, the right hand
plays the treble, the left hand the bass and accompaniment, and the strings are
not plucked up, but stroked from the side.
The students practice a number of scale and rhythmic exercises with each
hand similar to those for piano or harp players. The book continues with three additional
sections. The second section contains songs with kantele accompaniment; the
third, five pieces for solo kantele; and the fourth, pieces for kantele duet.
The Oppikirja was the first
in a series of kantele books produced by Kauppi. A second book (1909) contained "Songs
and Dances" arranged for the kantele.
A third (1911) featured "Songs Accompanied by the Kantele"
composed and arranged by Kauppi. A
fourth (1911) consisted of "Ten Oskar Merikanto Songs" accompanied by
the kantele and arranged by Kauppi. The
second and third books contained mostly folk song arrangements. The third and fourth books included some of
the earliest genuine western art music arrangements and compositions written
for the kantele.
All of Kauppi's kantele books were
issued in new, larger and "improved" editions in 1922. The Oppikirja received the title Kantelekoulu
itseoppimista varten [A Self‑teaching Kantele School] and was now
meant for a thirty‑string kantele, with a range extended down to D. It features two photographs of Kauppi playing
which show that he played a left handed, presumably a Pasi Jääskeläinen model
of kantele. In the new editions, Kauppi
briefly mentions experiments to make the kantele chromatic. He added two additional kantele books in
1922, the first with arrangements of thirty folk songs and the second with
arrangements of forty folk songs.
In 1909, Olli Suolahti published a
playing method called Käytännöllinen opas kanteleensoittajille [A
practical guide for kantele players].
Suolahti is shown on the cover playing with the longest string closest,
but with the interesting difference that his hands are reversed; the left hand
is playing the treble strings and right hand the bass strings. He prescribes that the fingers of the left
hand, mainly the thumb, should be used on the upper strings to play melodies,
while the thumb and next three fingers of the right hand play accompaniment on
the lower strings. In the preface,
Suolahti explains that his intent was to produce a truly practical kantele
guide, especially for those who had not taken to the "art of reading
music." All the selections have
just their melodies written out on a treble staff. The chordal accompaniments are given in
complex system of roman numerals developed by Suolahti. The player is free to arpeggiate the chords
or not. Suolahti's guide is one of the
first to mention the use of dynamics in playing. He says there is no better instrument for
quiet, beautiful playing than the kantele.
To play softer, he recommends moving the hand closer to the covering
board; to play louder the hand should be moved to the middle of the
strings. The music selections are primarily
arrangements of folk songs
Kaksitoista kansanlauluja kanteleen
säestyksellä [Twelve Folk Songs with kantele accompaniment] by Aapo Similä
(1927) was meant to be used with the machine kantele invented by Paul Salminen,
even though the cover features a picture of a box kantele. The arrangements are noticeably more
difficult and complex, being similar to what piano arrangements would look like
for the same pieces. Similä was a widely
known kantele player in the 1930s and was reported to have played concerts in
Karelia on a chromatic (i.e. Paul Salminen) kantele (Jakonen 1983).
Paul Salminen's first kantele book, Suurkanteleen
soiton opas [Guide for large kantele playing], was published in 1927. The cover shows Salminen playing a modern
kantele. This is significant since two
years earlier Salminen's patent application pictured the tuning machine added
to a straight‑sided box kantele.
The Guide describes the kantele as having either thirty or thirty‑two
strings. Salminen gives a basic description
of playing in the art style, the only new information being that the side of
the left hand rests lightly on the damping board. Nothing specific is mentioned about damping,
except that the damping board will damp all the strings. The hand positions and finger damping are not
mentioned. The Guide contains a number
of advanced exercises to learn proper fingerings, such as the playing of scales
and chords, which are similar to concert harp or piano exercises. The music selections are mostly arrangements
of folk songs and are at a high technical level.
Salminen's Kantelekoulu
[Kantele School] was published in February of 1949, in honor of the Hundredth
Anniversary of the New Kalevala. In Kantelekoulu
there is a full description of the art style of playing, which has not changed
substantially since. Salminen includes
instructions on the playing position, how the strings are stroked and proper
fingerings. There is a detailed section
on finger damping and use of the damping board and even a section on "Care
of the Fingers." The preface
explains:
...
The practical instructions given here offer, in spite of their brevity, all
that is essential to know about the technic [sic] of playing the kantele. The kantele, after all, is no virtuoso
instrument, properly speaking, so advanced technical exercises are not
needed. A substantial part of this
volume consists of arrangements for the kantele of folk songs and some art
songs, which undoubtedly are the kinds of pieces best suited to the kantele
(Salminen, Paul 1949:2).
Kantelekirja
(1950) provided additional arrangements and, together with the Kantelekoulu
arrangements, still makes up an important core of machine kantele
repertoire.[4]
Salminen also gives instructions on
how to tune the machine kantele, which has to be tempered by tuning the octaves
exactly [perfect tuning], but contracting the fifths slightly. He then provides some tests of the tuning
throughout the range and, as the tuning machine makes it possible to play in
different keys, tests for each new key.
While the basics of the art style
playing technique are rather straightforward and simple, their proper
application comes only after a great deal of practice. It is similar to playing the violin or piano;
the basic description of how the instrument is played is simple, but the
achievement of playing skill is difficult.
Salminen himself had dozens of students, most of whom took kantele only
as a hobby (Salminen, Jorma 1984:6).
Only a handful became truly outstanding players, who became widely known
in Finland and among Finns elsewhere.
Another notable kantele player from
the Salminen era was Väinö Hannikainen (1900‑1960) who was a harp player
in the Helsinki City Orchestra from 1923‑1957. Paul Salminen, who played trombone in the
same orchestra and also repaired concert harps, was a personal friend. In addition to playing the harp and kantele,
Hannikainen was a composer and arranger who made numerous arrangements for the
concert kantele. He collected
approximately three hundred northern Karelian folk songs and dances. Hannikainen may have had a strong influence
on Salminen in developing the art style of kantele playing.
Contemporary
Art Style Players and Teachers
Perhaps the most well known art
style kantele player of the post‑Salminen era is Ulla Katajavuori. Her father was a kantele player, who learned
to play "by ear" and was reported to have had a gift for rhythm. She became interested in the kantele in her
early childhood. Later, she studied
voice and piano at the Helsinki Conservatory and kantele playing with Paul
Salminen and Väinö Hannikainen.
By
the early 1930s, Katajavuori had already developed into a virtuoso player of
the machine kantele and was performing concerts all around Finland and on
Finnish radio, for example on A. O.
Väisänen's radio program "A Half Hour of Folk Music." She has given hundreds of performances, both
in Finland and on tours to Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Canada and the
United States. She also became well
known from her many sound recordings. In
most of her performances she played the kantele as a solo instrument, but she
has occasionally accompanied singers. She
has not performed with orchestras because, as she puts it, "[the sound of
the kantele is too small and quiet, and will not withstand orchestral
accompaniment]" (Katajavuori 1986).
She gave her last formal performances in 1980 and estimates the total
number of performances in her career in the thousands (Katajavuori 1985).
Katajavuori has also been a prolific
teacher of art kantele playing, teaching at the Helsinki and Hämeenlinna Music
Conservatories, and in recent years to private students. She estimates the total number of students
she has taught in the hundreds. Perhaps
her best known student is Tellervo Haikonen, who is also recognized as a first
rate concert artist. Katajavuori says
that she has developed her own system of playing and teaching, based on Paul
Salminen's method. She emphasizes
clarity in kantele playing, which is achieved by precise finger damping. Her husband, Eero Koskimies, arranged most of
her concert repertoire, a portion of which was published as Kanteleohjelmistoa
I‑II (1963), which has become an important part of the machine
kantele repertoire.
Tyyne Niikko (b. 1903 in Sortavala)
is also a well known kantele player. Her
father, Pekka Silvennoinen, was a kantele player and her mother, Anna, a piano
and organ player and choir director.
Tyyne began playing kantele and piano simultaneously while very
young. Although she studied voice, choir
direction and music theory, the kantele has
remained her primary instrument.
She did a great deal of concertizing, first in Sortavala and later in
Joensuu, where she moved at the time of the Second World War. She has played many concerts outside Finland
as well, including the United States, Canada, Germany, Austria, Iceland,
Hungary and the Soviet Union. She was
also featured on local Joensuu radio and on Finnish general radio (Niikko
1979).
Tyyne Niikko's greatest impact has
been in her teaching. In Joensuu
beginning in the 1940s, she taught kantele privately as well as at the Vapaaopisto
[Free School]. She believes that the
total number of students she has taught over the years is in the hundreds. Perhaps her most important student was her
own daughter, Anneli Kuparinen, who has continued her mother's work in
Lahti. Tyyne also organized a kantele
group in the 1940s called Karjalan Kantelet. In 1969 she moved to Lahti, where, with her
daughter and son‑in‑law, Teuvo Kuparinen, she founded the Finn‑Kantele
group, which has approximately thirty members.
The Finn‑Kantele group has made sound recordings, played concerts
and toured extensively, most recently touring in the United States with
concerts in New York and Florida in January 1985.
Illus. 56. Tyyne Niikko teaching Antti Vavuli at the
1983 Lahti Kantele Camp.
The Kuparinens and Tyyne Niikko were also influential in
starting the "kantele camp" movement in Finland by founding oldest
annual kantele camp at Ilomantsi in Finnish Karelia, in the summer of
1971. The Kuparinens and Niikko directed
this camp for its first five years. In
the summer of 1975, they established another kantele camp at Lahti, which they
have directed every summer since. In
1985 there were kantele camps in all parts of Finland and even one in Sweden,
with a total enrollment of more than six hundred students (Sopanen 1985b:3).
Tyyne Niikko teaches kantele in the
art style. Her students are taught to
play from the long side of the instrument.
She follows Paul Salminen's methods, emphasizing the hand positions,
using the soft parts of the fingers, and the use of finger damping and the
damping board.
Interestingly enough, when I asked
her to play for me, she played the kantele with the short strings closest to
herself! Her kantele is marked from both
sides, long marks for playing from the short side and short marks for playing
from the long side. She can play from
either side, but prefers the way she originally learned. Likewise, her playing technique is closer to
that of folk players, even though she teaches the technique of art
playing. She explained that her father
could read music, but still played from the short side. She said, "[It is just a matter of
tradition. I do not want to forget how
Finns played in the past, and how I learned to play]." Then she repeated a saying heard often among
kantele players, "[It really doesn't matter from which side the kantele is
played, as long as it is played well!]" (Niikko 1983).
Anneli Kuparinen has taken the
primary role in directing the Finn‑Kantele group and Lahti Kantele Camp
in recent years. Her husband, Teuvo,
acts as the business manager of the group and camp and occasionally performs
with the ensemble as a singer. Anneli
has refined her kantele play-ing and teaching to a high degree. Many of her students have become the most
outstanding young art style players, for example my own kantele teacher, Anu
(Rummukainen) Itäpelto. For beginners,
she emphasizes the technical aspects of playing, such as finger positions and
damping. The students practice these
technical aspects until they come automatically. Then the students are taught to read music in
order to play exercises consisting of scales, arpeggios, and chords. These exercises develop the basic components
which will be used in playing. The
students are finally introduced to pieces of repertoire, which they practice
and memorize for concert performance.
Students usually work on a single piece until it is perfected. The teaching then emphasizes elements of
interpretation, such as tempo, dynamics, and overall clarity.
Kantele ensemble teaching follows a
similar pattern. Since all the kanteles
in a Finnish ensemble are generally of the same type, there are no set
"sections" based on graded sizes of instruments, as may be found in
kantele ensembles in other Baltic countries.
Usually, in a Finnish ensemble there are only two or three parts which
are played simultaneously. Finnish
kantele ensembles allow beginners to join with more advanced students, because
the beginners may play just the bass, or the accompaniment of the piece, while
the more advanced players play the melody as well as bass and
accompaniment. Ensemble playing has an
advantage in that the sound is more powerful when combined in numbers. A disadvantage is in trying to tune a group
of kanteles, each of which covers a five octave range, so that they all play in
tune with each other.
Anneli still recognizes the symbolic
significance of the kantele as a folk instrument and the national instrument of
Finland. She feels that tradition is
still at the foundation of kantele playing and is valued by all kantele
players. The art style players want to
develop playing as far as it can go, to be able to play classical music or any
other style of music, which can only come after years of practice. The dividing lines among kantele players are
not entirely clear because many players who study art playing also perform folk
music. She feels that "[the
artistic possibilities are increased in a developed style of playing, which
does an additional service to our most beautiful folk songs]" (Kuparinen
1983).
Illus.
57. Anneli Kuparinen teaching a large
kantele class at the 1983 Lahti Kantele Camp.
Partially as a result of the kantele
camp movement and increasing prominence of kantele teaching in general, today
there are literally dozens of first rate art style kantele players. This has been quite a dramatic turn around
since the 1950s and 1960s, when there were relatively few concert artists of
the kantele. Among the better known
figures from this era were Ulla Katajavuori, Tyyne Niikko, Marjatta Puupponen
(currently: Markkula), Urpo Pylvänäinen and Mauri Saikko. By the early 1970s a newer generation of
first rate art style kantele players had appeared which included Anneli
Kuparinen, Tellervo Haikkonen, Ismo Sopanen and Hannu Syrjälahti.
Ismo Sopanen (b. 1941) began
studying kantele at the age of ten with Marjatta Puupponen. After learning the basics, he began to develop
his playing skill on his own. Ismo has
fit his playing technique to himself. He
is left handed, so he plays the upper strings with his left hand and the lower
strings with his right hand, although he teaches his right‑handed
students the standard hand positions.
Ismo has served as the Chair of the Kantele League since its founding
and is also an outstanding kantele teacher, teaching at the Tampere
Conservatory of Music as well as private students, and previously directing the
Ilomantsi and Haapavesi Kantele Camps.
He and his three daughters, all of whom are first rate kantele players,
frequently perform together as a family group.
Hannu Syrjälahti (b. 1950 in Kymi)
received basic instruction in playing the kantele when, at the age of fourteen,
he joined a group of Karelian immigrants near his home town who started a
kantele ensemble, which was led by Mauri Saikko from Iitti. After a short while, he played on his own and
continued to search for more repertoire.
He received a small grant from a Karelian organization in the Kymi
Valley to further his instruction, so he contacted Ulla Katajavuori. He was already playing at such a high
technical level that he did not go for regular private lessons and was merely
encouraged to continue on the same course.
The refinements in his playing skill were largely self‑taught.
Syrjälahti has given hundreds of
performances, both in Finland and abroad, and has been featured on numerous
sound recordings, most significantly two solo albums, Kanteleella (1982)
and A Kantele Escapade (1986). He
is one of the few kantele artists to have performed professionally in ensembles
with other western musical instruments, such as in the work "Equivocations
for Kantele and String Trio" by the Finnish composer P. H. Nordgren (1981). In addition to his performances, he has made
valuable contributions in composing and arranging pieces for the machine
kantele, particularly mainstream art music, such as Bach and Chopin. He has also taught kantele privately and in
recent years at the Espoo Music School and Sibelius Academy (Syrjälahti 1986).
Although many have attained a
professional level in their playing ability, there are no current kantele
players who earn their entire livelihoods from playing. Most of the best kantele artists have
combined teaching with their playing careers, as have Ulla Katajavuori, Tyyne
Niikko and Martti Pokela. Other
outstanding soloists have had other professions. For example, Urpo Pylvänäinen was a
policeman; Hannu Syrjälahti is a Lutheran minister. Ismo Sopanen was a fish
resources planner and Martti Pokela earned his college degree in agronomy. The same holds true for most of the younger
outstanding players. Many have begun
careers in music teaching or other fields to augment their kantele playing careers. Part of the problem in establishing
professionalism in kantele playing has been that in the past the kantele has not been an instrument
which could be studied at music conservatories and thus it was not possible to
earn a degree in kantele performance or teaching. But in more recent years this situation had
started to change.
Promotion
of the Kantele
A
major vehicle for the promotion of the kantele has been the kantele camp
movement. There are many kantele camps
held each summer in various locations around Finland. Children, and some adults, go to a camp
location, usually a school, for as short a time as a weekend or as long as two
weeks to learn to play the kantele. Food
and lodging is all arranged and is usually quite reasonably priced. Typically, a camp will include private
lessons in large kantele playing, group work in kantele ensembles, group
classes in five‑string kantele playing, then perhaps some specialized
classes, such as music theory or simple folk instrument building or playing. In the summer of 1983, I visited five such
camps.
The Lahti kantele camp had nine
kantele teachers, one music theory teacher and sixty students in the following
age categories: 6‑10 = 8, 11‑15 = 27, 16‑20 = 9, 20+ =
16. Among the students, there were four
males and fifty‑six females. The
teachers were all female. The Ilomantsi
kantele camp had fourteen kantele teachers (two male and twelve female) and
eighty‑one students. The students
were divided in age and gender as follows:
age: number:
21+ 13
18‑20 3
males: 11
13‑17 30
7‑12 35
females: 70
‑‑‑‑‑‑ ‑‑‑‑‑‑
Totals: 81 81
The Haapavesi and Iisalmi camps were
devoted to teaching folk styles of kantele playing. The demographics were very similar to the
Ilomantsi and Lahti camps: mostly
children and overwhelmingly female. The
figures seemed to show a fall off in interest among teenage students. This figure was perhaps balanced out by the
fact that a significant portion of the teachers were older teenagers. The various directors of the camps offered
several explanations for the lack of interest among males. Perhaps the kantele is not seen as masculine
an instrument as, for example, electric guitar or drums. Also, some believed that young men did not
have the patience to practice enough to learn to play well. Still others felt that it simply reflected
the feminization of all fine arts in recent years.
The Kanteleliitto [Kantele
League, formerly called the Kantele Players' Association] was established in
1977 with the express purpose of promoting the kantele. One of the main goals of the Kantele League
has been to make the kantele an equal among all other western musical
instruments. This has been
accomplished in part by lobbying the Finnish Parliament and Ministry of
Education to have the kantele used as a school instrument and by developing
kantele performance degree programs at several Finnish music schools and
conservatories.
Illus.
58. Participants at the 1983 Lahti
kantele camp.
The image of the kantele as the
national instrument is both an asset and a liability. It helps when arguing for funds from the
Finnish government. If this instrument
is not supported in Finland, it will not exist.
At the same time, in the minds of average Finns, the kantele is a
primarily a mytho‑poetic symbol, so the actual instrument in tangible
reality is not taken seriously enough. Thus another major task of the Kantele
League is overcoming prejudices.
The Kantele League has been working
to overcome these prejudices by a concerted information campaign. The League publishes a quarterly journal, Kantele,
which helps distribute information to all interested persons. The League also sponsors local and national
kantele competitions in various parts of the country, which receive good press
coverage. In addition, there is a large
annual kantele concert, called the Kanteleparaati [Kantele Parade],
which is held in various locations around the country and usually draws a good
audience. The League has also been
involved in giving special awards, such as honorary memberships to outstanding
older players and builders for lifetime achievement. Recently, the league has
begun awarding special medals to outstanding players of folk styles.
One would expect to find friction
between those who promote the art style of playing and those who promote
preservation of folk styles, but this has generally not been the case. These two groups have found it more beneficial
to work together towards common goals.
Originally there was some resistance among art players to the promotion
of the five‑string kantele. But
today, the five‑string kantele is widely used as an elementary school
instrument, so that students will become acquainted with "the most Finnish
of all musical instruments." The
five string kantele is also taught at virtually every kantele camp. This is in the hope that the best players
will move on to the larger kanteles and study the art style of playing or
perhaps one of the many folk styles.
Only recently has it been possible
to major in kantele performance at music conservatories in Finland. The Sibelius Academy offers kantele courses
through its folk music program, but it is also possible to take lessons in the
art style of playing. The music
conservatory at Lahti, where Anneli Kuparinen teaches, awarded the first
degrees ever in kantele performance to Aino Meisalmi and Susanna Heinonen in
1986 (Sopanen 1986a).
There have been problems in
promoting the kantele to the level of other western instruments. The first of these involves the performance
repertoire of the kantele and the second involves the kantele itself. Even the most advanced form of the kantele,
the machine kantele, is still basically a diatonic instrument. The tuning mechanism allows it to play in all
keys, to change keys quickly, and to play most accidentals, but highly
chromatic passages are still impossible.
This limits the repertoire which can be played. All published kantele music are arrangements
or compositions made specifically for the kantele. Unfortunately, this repertoire is relatively
small compared to the repertoire of other instruments. Also, until recently, there has been
relatively little music which combines the kantele with other western instruments.
During the last few years the
Kantele League has actively promoted new compositions and arrangements. The attitude of many top kantele players is
that composers should write with the kantele specifically in mind. Hannu Syrjälahti said, "[You can't play
a Beethoven piano concerto on the violin]" (Syrjälahti 1986), meaning that
new compositions should be tailored to the limitations of the kantele. Because it has an intimate and softer sound
than many other western instruments, the kantele would be best suited as a
chamber music instrument. There have
only been limited experiments in this area.
In 1985, the Kantele League sponsored a kantele concerto competition which
resulted in three new concertos, by composers Andras Fekete, Ahti Karjalainen
and P. H. Nordgren. Such efforts
continue and an increasing amount of kantele music is published every year.
The
Karelian Kantele Movement
In addition to the machine kantele,
there is a growing movement in Finland to play art music on fully chromatic
kanteles based on those used in Soviet Karelia.
This movement has been started and led by Kari Dahlblom, a former
champion machine kantele player who became interested in the Karelian
instrument. Dahlblom received basic
instruction in its playing style from Hanna Pirhonen, a former member of the
professional Soviet Karelian kantele ensemble from Petrozavodsk, who currently
lives in Raahe. He later received
additional instruction from other members of the Soviet Karelian ensemble when
they toured Finland. Dahlblom has, in a
relatively short period of time, become a master player of the Karelian kantele
and has actively tried to promote it in Finland, not as a replacement for the
standard modern Finnish kantele, but as a supplement to it. After all, he reasons, there are many
different types of kanteles and many different playing styles which are
currently used in Finland, so why not add another?
Some features from carved kantele
playing are still preserved in the playing style of the modern Soviet Karelian
kantele. For example, the kantele is
held with the shortest string closest to the player's body and the fingers
stroke the strings in the together position, meaning that they are basically
crossed and the playing alternates back and forth from one hand to the
other. There is no clear‑cut
division between melody and accompaniment.
Music is notated on a single staff, rather than the double
"piano" staff used for the machine kantele. The lack of separate accompaniment is made up
for by the fact that the Karelian kantele is typically played in ensembles of
graded‑sized instruments, each with its own
range
and part. The instrument has no damping
board, so players have to practice precise finger and hand damping. The basic rule is that each finger returns to
damp the same strings it has plucked.
Because this type of kantele
originated in Eastern Karelia, the playing position is different than that
typically practiced in Finland. The
longest side of the instrument is placed across the lap and the shortest side
against the chest, placing the soundboard in a vertical slant. This matches the "vertical
position" used by carved kantele players in areas where the influence of
Russian dance music was the strongest (Tõnurist 1977a). Finnish kanteles are usually played in a
horizontal position.
In the vertical position, it is
difficult for the player to see the surface of the instrument. There are no markings for the pitches of the
strings as on modern Finnish kanteles.
Players find their place strictly by feel. Since the chromatic pitches are in a plane
slightly lower than the diatonic pitches, the strings for the pitches B and C
and the pitches E and F are together on the upper plane. The player can feel a gap between all the
other strings except these and thus finds their location on the instrument.
Illus.
59. Kari Dahlblom at his home in
Tikkakoski, 1986.
Illus. 60. Hanna Pirhonen at Kaustinen, 1983.
Kari Dahlblom has written a playing guide for the Karelian kantele
(1987), which is loosely based on the playing guide for the instrument
published in Petrozavodsk. He has begun teaching some students privately and at
the Mikkeli Music Conservatory and there are plans for him to teach some
lessons in this type of kantele playing at the Sibelius Academy. In addition, Hanna Pirhonen has taught
several students in the Raahe area. Kari
has taken the playing style of the Karelian kantele one step further and has
come up with a type of "free accompaniment" which can be used to
accompany almost any kind of folk music.
Free accompaniment has never been used by the players in Soviet Karelia
and is a new technique taught only in Finland.
Since the use of the Karelian kantele has only recently come to Finland,
it remains to be seen what kind of impact it will eventually have on art music
playing.
Current
State of the Art Style
The art style of kantele playing is
basically an urban phenomenon. It is
transmitted by the existing western art music teaching infrastructure. As degree programs in kantele performance have
become established, various aspects of performance technique and repertoire
have had to be codified. With the
exception of the Karelian kantele movement, the art style of kantele playing
has become more homogeneous. There is
little variation in the way it is taught at various conservatories and kantele
camps. As it becomes homogeneous, it
establishes a standard for kantele playing.
Before, when everyone learned on their own, there was too great a
variation in style among individuals to make valid comparative value
judgments. Today, there are numerous
concerts and competitions where these comparisons take place.
In spite of its connection with
western art music, there are many things which the art style has in common with
all other styles of kantele playing.
Although it is slowly changing, a major portion of the repertoire for
the machine kantele continues to be folk music, though in arrangements which
have been made to fit the standards of art music. Paul Salminen in his Kantelekoulu
preface tells that he did not conceive of the kantele as a "virtuoso
instrument" and felt that folk music still best suited its character. The basic timbre and natural vibrato of the
Finnish kantele has remained the same, and is valued by folk and art music
players alike. It is very significant
that until recently, even the best art music players learned a major portion of
their skill on their own. Most of the
kantele playing guides were geared for self instruction. After learning the basics, they merely played
the instrument and worked out the details of their own individual styles, which
is very similar to the learning process used by most folk players. Perhaps the most important thing uniting all
kantele players is the strong symbolic value of the kantele. It is believed by many to be an ancient
instrument ‑‑ a gift from the proto‑Finns to our day ‑‑
so it symbolizes the roots of Finnishness.
Notes:
[1]
I am indebted to the scholars at the Folk Music Institute at Kaustinen, who
provided copies of early kantele method books for my examination.
[2] Tobias Norlind published
a picture of Akilles Ockenström, whom he also calls Aatto Wirtta, taken in
September 1896 which shows Ockenström playing with the shortest strings closest
(1923:55). On the following page
(ibid:56), he published another picture taken in 1905 of a kantele player, who
now has the longest strings closest.
[3] A copy of the manuscript
is located at the Folk Music Institute, Kaustinen.
[4] An additional book of
Paul Salminen arrangements was collected and edited by Anneli Kuparinen (1986).
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