Chapter
4.2.2: The Kantele Traditions of
by
Carl Rahkonen © 1989 All Rights Reserved Back to Table
of Contents
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SAARIJÄRVI STYLE PLAYING
Saarijärvi is a small town in
central
In 1883, two brothers, Frans and
Fredrik Krank moved to Saarijärvi from Lehtimäki in
The
Covering Technique
Just as in the
According to Hannu Saha (1983), the
covering technique was more widely used in
It is not certain if the covering
technique came to Saarijärvi from elsewhere or if it was independently
discovered. The informants I interviewed
there believed that the technique may have come from the Krank brothers, who
moved to the Saarijärvi area from
In 1983, I was able to interview two
players of the Saarijärvi style, Veikko Manninen (b. 1904) and Arvi Pokela
(1914‑1984) (no relation to Martti Pokela). These gentlemen together with the violinist
Pauli Hiekkavirta (b. 1918) made up an ensemble called the "Saarijärvi
Folk Players," which had been
performing at various events for around ten years.
Veikko
Manninen
Veikko Manninen was a particularly
valuable informant who had a fine basic understanding of the Saarijärvi
tradition. His father, Robert Manninen,
was a kantele player but did not use the covering technique; he played the
kantele with his fingers. Veikko's
brother, Eino (1903‑ 1981), was an expert kantele player using the
covering technique. He played at dances
and at movie houses for silent films.
Eino learned the covering technique from Eino Nyrönen and Aati
Tarviainen, who learned it from a well‑known Saarijärvi kantele player,
Taavetti Häkkinen. According to Veikko,
his brother Eino could play in a "melodic style", using his right
forefinger to strum the strings, as well as an "accompanying style"
in which he used a hard plectrum, such as a match stick. Veikko said that Taavetti Häkkinen also used
the softer sound of his fore finger for playing solos and a harder plectrum for
ensemble accompaniment.
In earlier times, the typical
Saarijärvi dance ensemble was made up of one kantele, playing in the
accompanying style, and one violin, playing melodies. Veikko mentioned that the dances in those
days were lighter and more frivolous than today, so the kantele and violin fit
particularly well. Eventually, as the
dance styles changed, the ensemble also incorporated a pimpparauta
[triangle], which was used to keep the beat, and a two-row [button] accordion
to fill out the melody and accompaniment.
This kind of ensemble had a much stronger sound and sometimes the sound
of the kantele would be lost, especially in the old days, when kantele strings
were not as good as they are today. The
kantele eventually began to be left out of the ensemble. The Saarijärvi Folk Players performed pieces
in several different combinations of these instruments, since Veikko also
played pimpparauta and Arvi Pokela also played two-row accordion.
Illus.
42. Veikko Manninen at his home in
Saarijärvi, with fiddle player Pauli Hiekkavirta, 1983.
Veikko Manninen learned to play
kantele only in the accompanying style using the covering technique. Consequently, he rarely plays alone and
usually accompanies some other melodic instrument, such as violin, another
kantele, or accordion. Veikko learned to
play as a boy, but left his kantele playing when he became a lumberjack and
travelled around
Veikko's kantele is set up a little
differently than typical Finnish kanteles.
He has a thirty‑two string instrument, where the top twenty
strings are tuned diatonically but the bottom twelve strings are tuned in three
courses of four strings each, to the tonic, dominant and subdominant, in
descending order of pitch. The twelfth
string, the fourth string of the tonic course, is tuned one octave lower. The overall tuning of the kantele is in C
major. The pitches of the lowest strings
were as follows:
F F F F G G G G c c c C d e f g a b c' d' e'
f' ...
Veikko explained that the courses of
bass strings are necessary because the player has to reach quickly all the way
across the instrument to play a bass note and having a course of bass strings
makes a more certain target to hit. Most
Saarijärvi kanteles are set up like Veikko's for playing bass notes while using
the covering technique. The number of
bass strings in each course may vary. Some Saarijärvi kanteles had just single
bass strings, or courses of two bass strings, but with a large space between
them.
Veikko owns a second kantele which
he called his puoliääni [half sound] kantele. The name refers to the tuning which is in C
minor, rather than C major. It has
thirty‑six strings and is set up the same as his C major kantele, except
that the thirteenth string (the fifth string of the tonic course) is tuned to
the contrabass tonic, followed by twenty‑three diatonic strings in C
minor up to e'''.
The actual covering of the strings
is done according to various patterns.
Veikko's patterns come by anchoring the thumb of his left hand on the
f'' string throughout all the patterns.
Using the thumb to anchor and measure is a common feature between this
style and the
Veikko strumed the strings with a
match stick in his right hand. While
strumming the chord, he also emphasizes the string carrying the melody at any
given point. He will lift the
appropriate finger if the melody happens to cross one of the covered strings,
including the thumb, if the melody requires an f. In this way, he not only accompanies the
melody instrument, but also augments its melody. He always strums toward himself, from the
lower to higher pitched strings. The
strumming is done to a fast rhythm to fit the melody. If the piece is in three beats, he will strum
a bass course on the down beat and the fingered treble chord on the off
beats. For four beats, he will strum a
bass course on the first beat and sometimes on the third beat as well, with the
treble chord on the off beats.
Illus.
43. Veikko Manninen's covering patterns.
1 = thumb 2 = forefinger 3
= middle finger 4 = ring finger 5 = little finger
= strumming distance
Arvi
Pokela
Arvi Pokela was perhaps the best
current kantele player in the Saarijärvi tradition. He lived most of his life in the
Arvi's playing style differed
somewhat from Veikko's in that he not only covered the strings with his left
hand, he also used it to pluck out additional accompanying pitches. Arvi's kantele playing was frequently done as
a solo because it had a full texture which could stand on its own. Erkki Ala‑Könni has called the
Saarijärvi style a mixed style (1963a:423, 1986:37), because in practice the fingers of
the left hand may also be used to pluck the strings, in addition to covering
the strings of unwanted pitches. It may
be less of a mixed style than a single unified style using two techniques. This, according to Arvi, was the "genuine
Saarijärvi kantele playing style" used by the best players when he was a boy.
Illus. 44. Arvi Pokela at Kaustinen, 1983.
Arvi's father, Otto Pokela, was a master of the Saarijärvi
style. When Arvi was eleven years old
his father began to teach him to play, on a kantele made by the master builder
Juho Tamminen. Arvi still played the
same kantele in 1983, almost sixty years later!
He said it was a real celebration when his father brought that kantele
home. It was placed on a special table,
which could not have any kind of dust or table cloth on it, so the kantele
would lie freely and play beautifully.
Arvi learned to play the kantele at
a time of its waning popularity, when it was beginning to be replaced by the
two-row accordion in dance ensembles. In
his later teens, Arvi also switched to the two-row accordion. As he described it, there was a demand for
accordion players and after he bought an accordion and practiced on it for only
a couple of weeks, he was playing in an ensemble. He felt that he rushed into it too quickly
and never became a good accordion player.
But in 1983, he was a very accomplished player and would occasionally
play accordion with the Saarijärvi Folk Players. He also played fiddle and mandolin, though I
did not get a chance to hear him perform on those instruments, and he was quite
a good singer.
The kantele was still Arvi's first
and probably favorite instrument. He
began kantele playing in earnest again in the early 1970s as the Folk Music
Festival at Kaustinen got underway and the kantele again became a more popular
instrument. As folk music researchers
became interested in what he knew about the Saarijärvi style, he became
motivated to practice kantele again. He
also became interested and wanted to learn other traditional styles of kantele
playing and became somewhat of an amateur folklorist, collecting information on
other traditional aspects of life in the rural Saarijärvi area.
Arvi's style of playing is quite
complex and technically demanding. It
undoubtedly took a great deal of practice to become an accomplished player, which
can be seen by comparing earlier and later recordings. In 1978, the Finnish Literature Society and
Folk Music Institute recorded and videotaped Arvi's playing. Later, two of his pieces were published on a
record (Asplund 1983a). Arvi played
these same pieces for me in 1983 and a comparison of the 1978 and 1983
recordings shows that he developed and improved his technique substantially in
just five years. Also, as he continued to practice, he kept raising the overall
pitch of his kantele, perhaps coming closer to the memory of brighter and more
vibrant sound he knew as a boy. During
the final years of his life, Arvi began teaching his style of playing in
courses arranged by the Folk Music Institute and at the
Arvi found it difficult to describe
his playing style, probably because it was innate and only in the later part of
his life did he talk about it or teach it to others. He said it was special because the pieces are
all in a major key. They are happy, free
and easy, with none of the poignancy found in a lot of kantele playing. Even people who had never heard this style
before tended to like it, as did many people at the Kaustinen Folk Music
Festivals. A majority of the pieces he
played were lively dances, but he also sang songs to kantele
accompaniment. These were likewise very
light and lively, with clever words. He
owned a second kantele, which he kept at a lower pitch, and used strictly for
song accompaniment since the lower pitch was better suited for his voice range.
Arvi's first kantele (built by Juho
Tamminen) was diatonic across its full range and had places for twenty‑eight
strings. But the actual number of
strings was fewer, since Arvi set it up for using the covering technique. It had three courses of two bass strings each
tuned to the subdominant (F), tonic (C), dominant (G), in descending order of
pitch. There were spaces of
approximately two inches between each of the bass courses. The other strings were tuned diatonically and
covered a range from g' to e'''.
The covering patterns used by Arvi
were different than those used by Veikko and in some ways were simpler. He anchored his left thumb on the b''
string. The tonic chord pattern had the
thumb and forefinger next to each other and a string between each of the other
fingers (Illus. 45). For the dominant
and subdominant chords, he left the thumb on the b'' string and moved all the
other fingers down one string, so there was a string between each of the
fingers. If he wanted to play a dominant
chord, he strummed the lower half of this pattern, from the other side of the
little
Illus.
45. Arvi Pokela's covering
patterns. 1 = thumb 2 = forefinger
3 = middle finger 4 = ring finger 5 = little finger
=
strumming distance
finger,
to the middle finger. If he wanted a
subdominant chord, he strum-med the upper half of this pattern, from the middle
finger to the other side of the thumb.
Using just two simple finger patterns, he got three chords, which were
all in root position. The basic finger
patterns were also used to test the intonation of the kantele, by making sure
the chords were in tune.
Arvi used the forefinger nail of his
right hand to pluck the strings. He used
a match stick in the past, but felt it was uncertain because the match stick
would break or perhaps it would break a string.
He also experimented using pieces of leather, but had a hard time
finding any that were stiff enough. When
the nail of the forefinger was strong enough, he felt it was best. Also, his finger was more accurate than a
plectrum in hitting specific strings.
Arvi always strummed the kantele towards himself, from the lower to the
higher pitched strings, never the other way.
His right hand, which strummed out
the chords, also had the primary role in playing the melody. It was difficult to pinpoint the exact
melody, because the strumming was variable.
Sometimes Arvi would strum only one string, sometimes two, and sometimes
three or more. This produced a
randomness and mixing of melody and accompaniment similar to that found in the
old carved kantele playing style.
An important technical aspect of
Arvi's playing style were the extra pitches he added with his left hand. He generally used only the fore and middle
fingers to pluck these pitches. When I
asked him about this, he used the word höystää, which means to add some
seasoning, spice or flavor, and said it was the hardest part to teach
others. He played these extra pitches
very quickly, producing a full and moving texture.
Arvi's innate sense of rhythm was
the most important part of his playing style.
His right hand stroking was not always even with the beat; it could be
syncopated or delayed. The bass notes
were also rhythmically variable and were added on the beat, immediately after
the beat, or occasionally on the off beat.
Part of the rhythmic variability in the right hand came from the
physical necessity of reaching all the way across the instrument to play bass
notes, thus there was always some compromise in the rhythm between the bass and
treble. Also, the pitches played by the
fingers of his left hand were added strictly by feel and in a different
rhythm than that of his right hand stroking. The combination of these elements produced a
constantly shifting rhythmic variation in the overall texture. He was truly a virtuoso folk kantele player
and received the Master Folk Musician's title at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival
in 1983.
Possible
Origin of the Saarijärvi Style
Heikki Laitinen, who has studied
Arvi Pokela's playing style in depth, believes that his style may have
developed from the five‑string kantele playing tradition. A. O. Väisänen's article Kantele ja
hyppivä puuhevonen [Kantele and a Jumping Wooden Horse] (1931) mentions
that Aapraham Nekkeli, an old man from Sumiainen (in
Originally, in the five string
kantele playing, each string had its own finger. This system began to break down in
Ostrobothnia by a process of the right hand being removed from the strings and
plucking various strings with the forefinger.
The left hand remained on the strings, each finger plucking its own
string as before. The best example of
this was Antti Rantonen's five string playing technique. His left hand covered
the strings not used in a chord, while his right forefinger stroked the
uncovered strings. At the same time, he
also continued to pluck strings with his left hand. It is possible that the techniques which
originally grew out of carved kantele playing formed the basis of the
Saarijärvi style (Laitinen 1985).
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