7th Folk Music Researchers’ Symposium: Abstracts 28 February 2026
Get to know the presentation topics and workshops of the second day of the symposium.
Sandra Joyce
“Samhradh Samhradh” and Beyond: Irish Song as Environmental Archive
Irish traditional song is a complex and diverse art form. Like any song practice, meaning is subjective – it is created, negotiated and communicated individually and collectively, and is influenced by many factors, including performance context and audience expectations. Societally relevant meanings, with connections to land, sea and other aspects of nature, are often reflected in nature-based metaphors, as are community contexts and social relationships. A glance at the text of many of the most popular songs supports this – the seasonal details of animals, plants and insects in ‘Samhradh Samhradh’ (‘Summer Summer’); or the descriptions of seafaring in ‘Ten Thousand Miles Away’.
Consideration of metaphorical meaning in songs reveals that human behaviours/relationships can often be framed in terms of natural imagery, further connecting the human characterisations within the songs to nature. Performance is integral to these processes. These songs contain a wealth of knowledge on biodiversity and the relationship of humans to their environment, issues which have particular resonance with the current climate crisis.
This research-led performance paper serves to interrogate this knowledge in terms of past and current practice, in order to gain an understanding of how this repertoire can contribute to our engagement with environmental issues today. Extracts of Irish traditional songs reflecting environmental issues will be performed and contextualized in this presentation.
Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä and Outi Valo
The concept of folk music in Finland in the 2020s: perceptions, politics, and visions
In our presentation, we examine the meanings attributed to folk music in 2020s Finland. Furthermore, we explore the perceptions of cultural heritage, political perspectives related to power struggles, and visions of the future that these meanings reflect. The presentation is grounded in an online survey that is scheduled to be initiated in December 2025 and will be stored in the archives of the Folk Music Institute. The survey will be disseminated to folk music professionals, enthusiasts, and other networks. The paper will consider the contemporary significance of the concept of folk music and the social debates to which it is connected.
The theoretical framework of our study is based on previous research on traditional and cultural heritage concepts associated with Finnish folk music (e.g., Ala-Könni 1961; Blomster and Mikkola 2017; Haapoja 2017; Haavio 1948; Hill 2009; Laitinen 1991; Saha 1998; Timonen and Kastinen 2023; Valo 2022; Valo and Mäkelä 2025; Väisänen 1990) and their placement on the timeline of historical changes and developments, as well as more recent research on intangible cultural heritage. The latter has considered, for example, how the past and cultural heritage have previously been protected and preserved, but now they have begun to be seen as a resource that is hoped to protect people (Bortolotto 2025). In light of the material we have collected, we will examine the extent to which these conceptual developments can be seen in the field of Finnish folk music. Are previous nationalistic conceptions of folk music overlapping or even being replaced by the idea of folk music as a “salvific” resource of the past that can be used to create more culturally sustainable and dynamic futures (see also Timonen and Westerlund 2025)?
Aurora Fustinoni
Christina Nordqvist – den finlandssvenska kantelekulturens traditionsbärare
Kandidaatin tutkielmani Christina Nordqvist – den finlandssvenska kantelekulturens traditionsbärare käsittelee suomenruotsalaistaa kantelekulttuuria, jota lähestyn analysoimalla kanteleensoittaja Christina Nordqvistin (1948–2020) soittotyyliä tekemieni analyyttisten transkriptioiden pohjalta. Käytän tutkimuksessani laadullisia menetelmiä (tyypittelyä, teemoittelua ja etnografiaa). Kanteleensoittajana, jonka juuret vievät ruotsinkieliselle Pohjanmaalle koen tärkeäksi kirjoittaa suomenruotsalaisesta kantelekulttuurista, ja tehdä sekä kanteletutkimuksessa että kansanmusiikin tutkimuksessa suhteellisen tuntematonta aihetta näkyväksi.
Haen työlläni vastausta erityisesti siihen, millä keinoin Christina Norqvist saa aikaan tanssillisen ja rytmisesti monipuolisen soittotyylinsä. Haluan nähdä, miten soiton tyylipiirteet ilmenevät eri tanssilajeissa ja kappaletyypeissä sekä nähdä tyylin muutoksen vuosikymmenten varrella. Lisäksi haluan selvittää, minkälaisia kanteleita maamme ruotsinkielisillä alueilla soitettiin. Millä tyyleillä ja millaisissa tilanteissa? Entä miten suomenruotsalaista kantelekulttuuria on dokumentoitu?
Tutkielmani alkuun esittelen suomenruotsalaista kantelekulttuuria yleisellä tasolla. Tämän jälkeen keskityn Christinaan ja hänen soittotyylinsä. Käytän transkriptioideni pohjana äänitteitä, joista ensimmäinen on kesältä1960 ja peräisin Svenska litteratusällskapetin arkistoista (SLS 1962:3). Toinen äänite on vuodelta 1993 ja peräisin yksityisestä kotiarkistosta. Kappaleet – kaksi hengellistä sävelmää, sottiisi, valssi ja kaksi polkkaa valikoituivat aineistoksi äänitysajankohdan sekä edustamiensa kappaletyyppien mukaan. Tutkimustavoitteideni vuoksi halusin sisällyttää analyysiini eri vuosina äänitettyä ohjelmistoa, jotka edustavat monipuolisesti kaikkia kappaletyyppejä, joita Christinalla oli ohjelmistossaan.
Tutkielman muuta aineistoa ovat kuvat, mustasaarelaisen ääniteknikon kanssa tekemäni haastattelu vuodelta 2024, Minna Torpan Saarijärvi soi! -nuottikirja (2013) ja Per-Henrik Lithénin Traditionella låtar från Singsby -nuottivihko (2011). Teoreettisen kehykseni muodostavat Ann-Mari Häggmanin artikkeli Pärtfiol och blänkande harmonika- de österbottniska spelmännens instrument 1850–1930 (1994), Nicklas Nykvistin tohtorintutkielma Från bondson till folkmusikikon (2007), Pauliina Syrjälän artikkeli Kantelepelimannit Arvi, Aarne ja Alfred – tikkusoiton soiva tyylintutkimus (2018), Hannu Sahan tohtorintutkielma Kansanmusiikin tyyli ja muuntelu (1996) ja Pirkko Moisalan artikkeli Soittotyylin analyysi (1993). Muita lähteitäni ovat Joyce E. Hakalan kirja Memento of Finland – A Musical Legacy (1997), Risto Blomsterin, Pekka Jalkasen, Heikki Laitisen, ja Anna-Liisa Tenhusen kirja Kantele (2010), Arja Kastisen Kizavirzi-kirja (2013) ja Kari Dahlblomin kirja Keski-Suomen kantele (2012).
Pihla Perämäki
Laajennetut soittotekniikat improvisoivan kansanmusiikkiviulistin työkaluna
Tutkimukseni käsittelee viulun laajennettuja soittotekniikoita ja miten käytän niitä omassa soitossani. Maisterikonserttiini Joka kevät on ainoa kevät (12.11.2025) ohjelmassa yhdistyvät postikorttimaiset viululaulut ja niiden maailmaan sopivat sooloviuluiprovisaatiot. Sekä omissa sävellyksissäni että improvisaatiossani käytän laajennettuja soittotekniikoita sävyttääkseni soittoa ja luodakseni kiinnostavia sävymaailmoja. Miten viulun sointia voi muuttaa laajennetuilla soittotekniikoilla?
Miten laajennettuja soittotekniikoita voi hyödyntää kansanmusiikissa? Työssäni avaan tarkemmin omaa suhdettani laajennettuihin soittotekniikoihin sekä tarkastelen kokeellisen viulismin kenttää neljän esimerkkiviulistin avulla. Näiden viulistien musiikki ylittää genrerajoja tai pakenee määritelmiä, ja he käyttävät soitossaan laajennettuja soittotekniikoita. Pohdin myös, kuinka tekniikoita käytetään kansanmusiikissa. Lisäksi tutkin alkuvuodesta ja keväällä 2025 tallentamaani neljää videota, joilla improvisoin. Tutkin, millaisia soittotekniikoita käytän improvisoidessani, ja miten niillä voi muuttaa viulun sävyjä.
Viulun laajennetuista soittotekniikoista on kirjoitettu vähän suomeksi ja vielä vähemmän kansanmusiikin näkökulmasta. Aihe kietoutuu myös yhteen maisterikonserttini ohjelmistoon, ja työ on samalla dokumentointia konserttiin valmistautumisestani.
Tuula Sharma Vassvik
Luohti as radical empathy – embodying the land
Birgejupmi, the closest term for sustainability existing in north Sámi, is a noun derived from the Sámi verb birget – how to live a good life. In Sámi worldview oktavuohta, our relationship to everything inside us and surrounding us, is central to sustainability because birgejupmi is to uphold these relationships with respect and care.
Juoiggus (yoiking), Sámi traditional vocalization, shows the way birgejupmi or sustainability is a practice embodying oktavuohta and the ability to live a good life. As a PhD Fellowship student in Sustainability Studies through Artistic Practice and Indigenous Perspectives, I look at sustainability through a holistic lens, emphasizing oktavuohta and the way it is embodied in the Sámi knowledge tradition juoiggus.
A form of radical empathy, you never yoik about someone or something, juoiggus is to become that which one is yoiking. An ancient practice, juoiggus is central to the relationships we have to ourselves as parts of nature and the world around us. Therefore, mountains, rivers and streets, animals and humans have their own luohti (a yoik).
Historical sources confirm that juoiggus always has been central to Sámi wellbeing and survival, children yoiking before talking, dovdna (children’s first own luohti) is essential as a grounding, strengthening and pedagogical practice, guiding them and affirming the child’s oktavuohta to their ancestors, the geographical area, their community and themselves.
In my project I am reconnecting to my father’s homeplace Gáŋgaviika, the northernmost village on mainland in the Norwegian part of Sápmi, to better understand the coastal Sámi oktavuohta and ways of birget through juoiggus. In a coastal Sámi area like Gáŋgaviika where Sámi culture typically has been undermined by Norwegianization, can we mend oktavuohta through juoiggus? What can we learn about luohti and the way it facilitates connections with nature?
Alina Kivivuori and Suvi Oskala
Workshop: Folk it! camp’s pedagogical goals and practices
Workshop requirement: Take your own instrument with you! There are only a few instruments for the workshop at the premises.
Workshop goal: To demonstrate the arranging process in the small ensembles of Folk it! camp.
Folk it! is a music camp for 12–18-year-old music enthusiasts arranged as a collaboration project by a handful of music institutes from the capital region of Finland. The camp has been held once a semester since August 2021 and it gathers a group of about 40–50 like-minded participants for each camp. The pedagogical goal of these camps is to support and enhance the student’s own creativity and the skills for making music together with the pedagogical methods of folk music and dance. The camp also creates bonds between teenage musicians that can last well into adulthood and for some even professional careers in music.
During the camps the students learn about folk music and its phenomena by playing in small ensembles created at the camp and in a large ensemble that gathers all the participants of the camp. In the small ensembles the arrangements of the tunes are created together as a band with the help of the band’s assigned teacher. The tunes are often suggested by the teacher, but they can also be brought to the camp by the students. The music played by the large ensemble is folk music from Finland or abroad arranged, and sometimes also composed, by the teachers of the camp.
On each Folk it! camp the students also have a dance workshop by Nordic Dance Helsinki. The dance workshop gives the participants an opportunity to experience the bond between folk music and dance first hand. For many this physical experience gives a new perspective to why music is played in a certain way. In summer 2025 the camp had concerts at the Kaustinen Folk Music Festival and the danceability of their set was especially remarked on.
Folk it! camps support the creation of a lasting life-long relationship with music and give the students the courage and tools to pursue their own visions in music. Folk music provides a loose framework for creation, which the players can expand from if they wish. The students are guided step by step, taking into account their age and skill level, away from teacher-led arranging and performing of music. At the camps they learn band democracy and, above all, how to make music together. Their musical self-esteem is supported so that later, when they leave the music institutes, playing does not end because of lack of creativity, arranging skills or relationships with like-minded musicians. The most important thing is the joy of making music and discovering new things. In a socially equal situation, young people’s creativity blossoms and there is no limit to what they can do!
In this workshop you get to experience how the arrangement process works in the small ensembles and to hear more about how the camp came to life. Come and join us in music making!
Language: English and/or Finnish
Olof Misgeld
Hearing movement, seeing music
In my recently published dissertation Music–Dance Mediations: Performative Explorations into an Asymmetrical Type of the Swedish Polska (Misgeld, 2024), rhythmic and metric articulation in the polska is examined as both musical and dance practice. A central part of the study draws on sound recordings and motion data collected using optical motion capture technology (MoCap), where Ami Dregelid and Andreas Berchtold dance to my (Olof Misgeld’s) fiddle playing.
This presentation is based on an ongoing, collaborative investigation in which we, as musicians, dancers, and pedagogues, explore how these materials can be used to understand and articulate our practice, with particular emphasis on the interaction between music and dance.
We ask:
- How sonifications and visualizations of MoCap data offer reorientation and new sensory points of entry into our music and dance practice.
- How our understanding of such mediations is reflected in the concepts used in our artistic and pedagogical practice.
- How the collaborative exploration between dancers and musician can be conceptualized on the basis of the musical qualities that emerge in the interaction.
By collectively and individually watching, listening to, moving to, and playing to the material, the goal is to engage in a reflective dialogue in which our experiences are articulated in relation to the sensation of a shared space of sonic and embodied articulations of phrase, rhythm, and pulse.
Emmi Kujanpää
Applying Intersectional Feminist Pedagogy in a Transnational Folk Singing Collaboration in Finland and Bulgaria 2018–2022
My presentation explores the implementation of intersectional feminist pedagogy to artistic practice in collaboration between Finnish and Bulgarian female folk singers in 2018–2022. The presentation is based on a sub-area of my doctoral research. The research material of the presentation consists of a music video trilogy (2019–2022) based on my solo album Nani (2020) and ethnographic interviews. Both the artistic and the ethnographic research data were produced in collaboration with singers from the Bulgarian Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares choir.
In this study, intersectional feminist pedagogy was applied to transnational folk singing collaboration by paying particular attention to power relations arising from economic inequalities. The research also analyses the roles and opportunities of women folk musicians both within the European folk music field and more broadly in society. The study suggests that considering intersectional feminist perspectives can both support transnational artistic collaboration and strengthen musicians’ agency. Such an approach may also contribute to the social and cultural sustainability of societies by creating a counter-agency to contemporary extremist phenomena, such as the rise of anti-gender movement. Accordingly, the research emphasises the importance of considering gender perspectives more widely in EU cultural policy-making.
The study introduces the concept of feminist folk music composition, in which archival folk singing materials and personal experiences are interwoven with gender-related questions. It proposes that this artistic approach is particularly characteristic of the Finnish folk music scene. The presentation also illustrates the impacts of both the COVID-19 pandemic and the escalation of the war between Russia and Ukraine on transnational collaboration and artistic practice.
Keywords: feminist folk music composition, Finno-Karelian folk singing, Bulgarian folk singing, transnationalism, intersectional feminist pedagogy
Anni Järvelä
Folk music and cultural sustainability in higher music education: Centria University of Applied Sciences’ music pedagogy program as a case study
Oona Sinkko
Kolme esimerkkiä kansanmusiikin opetuksen toteutumisesta musiikin taiteen perusopetusta tarjoavissa oppilaitoksissa 2020-luvulla
Tutkielman tavoitteena oli selvittää rehtoreiden näkemyksiä kansanmusiikin ja paikallisen kulttuuriperinnön opettamisesta musiikin taiteen perusopetuksessa vuoden 2017 valtakunnallisen opetussuunnitelmauudistuksen jälkeen. Uudistuksen myötä vuoden 2002 opetussuunnitelmassa mainitun musiikillisen kulttuuriperinnön opetuksen lisäksi opetuksessa tulisi huomioida myös paikallisen kulttuuriperinnön opetus.
Tutkimuskysymykset ovat:
- Miten taiteen perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman vuoden 2017 lisäykset ja tarkennukset paikallisen kulttuuriperinnön ja uudistuvan kulttuuriperinnön osalta ovat tulleet huomioiduiksi oppilaitoksissa ja miten niitä tulkitaan?
- Miten edellä mainitut muutokset ovat vaikuttaneet opetuksen painotuksiin ja miten muutokset vaikuttavat opetuksen toteutukseen jatkossa?
Tutkielma on luonteeltaan kvalitatiivinen, ja sen tarkoituksena oli kartoittaa kolmen taiteen perusopetusta tarjoavan oppilaitoksen rehtorin näkemyksiä kansanmusiikin opetuksen toteutuksesta omissa oppilaitoksissaan. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa kerättiin tietoa kansamusiikin toteutumismuodoista kyseisissä oppilaitoksissa. Aineistonkeruun menetelmänä käytettiin puolistrukturoituja teemahaastatteluja. Tutkielma nojaa vuosien 2002–2017 taiteen perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelmiin ja Suomen allekirjoittamaan Unescon vuoden 2003 yleissopimukseen aineettomasta kulttuuriperinnöstä. Kirjallinen aineisto koostuu ajankohtaisista suomalaisista ja kansainvälisisistä kansanmusiikin ja musiikkikasvatuksen alan julkaisuista vuosilta 2002–2024. Tutkimuksellinen viitekehys aiheesta on suppea ja tutkimuksella kannustetaan oppilaitoksia ammentamaan opetukseensa yhä enemmän vaikutteita Suomen alueen paikallisperinteistä.
Tutkimuksessa selvisi, etteivät vuoden 2017 opetussuunnitelman lisäykset vaikuttaneet haastateltavien musiikkiopistojen opetussuunnitelmiin tai koulutuksen toteutukseen merkittävästi tai ollenkaan. Musiikkiopistojen opetussuunnitelmat ovat melko yleisluontoiset eikä tarkkaa määritelmää kulttuuri- ja paikallisperinteistä ole. Oppilaitoksissa pidetään kuitenkin tärkeänä paikallisuutta ja kansanmusiikin opetusta, jota toteutetaan yksilö- ja ryhmäopetuksissa. Opettajan roolilla on kansanmusiikin opetuksen toteutuksen kannalta suuri merkitys.
Janeta Österberg
Insamlingen av Finlandssvensk folkmusik i Replot och Björköby – en sammanställning över Olof Reinhold och Wilhelm Sjöbergs samlingar samt en komparativ analys av dessa
Mitt skriftliga arbete handlar om insamlingen av finlandssvensk folkmusik, och mera specifikt, material som samlats in av familjen Sjöberg stationerade i Replot. Jag har under en längre tid forskat i folkmusiken från Replot, som idag är en del av Korsholm där jag är hemma ifrån. Det finns en stor mängd material insamlat därifrån, även den största delen av den ligger orörd i arkiven. Syftet med mitt skriftliga arbete är att djupdyka i folktraditionen från Replot, med fokus på insamlingsarbetet och samlingarnas innehåll.
Efter en kort historisk översikt över insamlingen av finlandssvensk folklore, redogör jag för Olof Reinhold Sjöberg och hans son Wilhelm Sjöberg, som tillsammans har samlat in den största delen av folkmelodierna från Replot och Björköby. Syftet här är att sammanställa ett enhetligt infopaket om insamlarna, då de tidigare presenterats mera i korthet samt utspridda i olika källor. Som grund för sammanställningen är artiklar skrivna av erkända finlandssvenska sakkunniga inom folklore, samt intervjuer med Sjöbergs släktingar, bevarade i SLS arkiv.
Efter det presenterar jag deras skriftliga samlingar som även det finns tillgängliga vid SLS databas.Vidare analyseras materialet, med ett särskilt fokus på melodins förekomstort, tidsspann, meddelare, vilken information som finns nämnd i samband med uppteckningarna, samt egna kommentarer om hur samlingarna är uppbyggda samt ”kvalitén” på uppteckningarna. Baserat på dessa observationer, jämför jag också Olof Reinholds och Wilhelms arbeten, som på dessa punkter delvis skiljer sig från varandra. Inte minst gällande vilken information man dokumenterat i samband med uppteckningen, samt vilka områden insamlingsarbetet utförts på. Mitt intryck är ändå att deras insamlingsarbeten tillsammans bildar en bred och högkvalitativ helhet, som är ovärderlig för bevarandet av folktraditionen där. Utan Olof Reinholds och Wilhelms arbete, skulle folkmusiktraditionen från Replots skärgård inte finnas bevarad idag i lika stor utsträckning som nu.
Sanni Virta
Workshop: Equity & Accessibility in Folk Music Educational Framework – Practices and Applications to Implement in Folk Music Pedagogy
Equality and accessibility are themes that should permeate all the practices and pedagogy of folk music. The Finnish Non-Discrimination Act (2014) obliges reasonable accommodations: everyone has an equal right to education. This presentation reviews key terminology in the field and the conceptual distinctions between terms such as equality, equity, diversity, inclusion, reasonable accommodation and accessibility.
The conference presentation highlights cultural policy and theoretical perspectives, conceptual reflections offers professionals in the field up-to-date information grounded in the latest research (University of the Arts Helsinki’s ArtsEqual project 2021) and case examples concerning the realization of equality in the folk music sector. Such knowledge will enhance that (professional) folk music education will, in the future, be more widely available to minority groups, the futures of social sustainability, accessibility, and inclusivity.
The workshop will address concrete practices such as ways to implement equity in communication, accessibility in digital communication, and diversity. The session includes discussion and analysis of situations that may arise in everyday teaching from the perspective of equity. Participants will also receive a comprehensive information package on where to find resources for promoting equity for various minority groups.
The purpose of the workshop is to clarify the legal obligations placed on educational providers, while also offering practical solutions for implementing equity equity-promoting methods into folk music practices. The key conclusion is that attitudinal equity permeates all aspects of the work and positioning equity as a key concept in folk music education.
Vilma Timonen
Community-Driven Approaches and Living Heritage as Foundations of Folk Music Education
This presentation examines the pedagogical implications of community-driven approaches when living heritage is conceptualised as a cultural–ecological system. It positions folk music traditions as emergent properties of interconnected social, material, and environmental relations, maintained through context-dependent practices and creative processes of transmission. Emphasising the ecological embeddedness of musical knowledge, the presentation highlights how learning occurs through participation in community-based networks that sustain and regenerate these practices in the present and for the future. By decentering institutionally bounded models of curriculum design and foregrounding the ecological dynamics of heritage production, the approach proposes pedagogical frameworks that support resilience, co-creation, and the continual evolution of vernacular musical practices.
Kristiina Ilmonen
Developing the Pine Flute for Contemporary Practice: Instrumental Ecologies in Folk Music
Jo Asgeir Lie
Folk Culture education as a pedagogical principle
Innovative practice in collaboration between local folk music associations and culture schools in Norway
How can we create an ecological and culturally sustainable education in folk music and folk dance? For over 20 years, a pedagogical program has been developed in Norwegian municipalities and culture schools focusing on teaching local traditional culture to children aged 4–6. This presentation will give an introduction to the pedagogical principles and ideas underlying this educational model.
Since 2003, folk-cultural early childhood education has been offered in several cultural schools and kindergartens in Norway for children aged 4–6. The programme provides instruction in local traditions, with song and dance constituting its core components.
Pupils are also introduced to a range of traditional instruments (e.g., Hardanger fiddle, diatonic button accordion, cromatic accordion, jew’s harp, willow flute) and are given the opportunity to experiment with them. A distinctive feature of this educational model is that it additionally incorporates instruction in local craft techniques, food traditions, and regional legends and folktales. The programme functions as a low-threshold initiative that fosters social and cultural sustainability within the local community. Each municipality or cultural school retains the autonomy to adapt and further develop the model according to available expertise, local traditions, and institutional conditions. The model has been applied in two educational contexts:
a) as an offering within cultural schools, and
b) as a project implemented in kindergartens.
This form of education is significant from a sustainability perspective: it provides insight into traditional craft practices; it relies on oral transmission of knowledge from source to learner; and it constitutes a low-threshold learning arena that depends on substantial local expertise while equipping new generations with knowledge that can be carried forward.
Åse Àva Fredheim
Stories of Reclaiming Yoik
In this paper I unfold the reclamation of yoik for Sámi people from excessively assimilated areas. Currently, numerous Sámi whose cultural heritage has been weakened, are working to strengthen culture, rights, and connection to our lands—taking-it-back. For a time, there were laws against yoik in certain Sámi areas, and the tradition was not passed on to the next generations. Some local yoik dialects have disappeared, rendering reclamation of specific dialectical traditions virtually impossible. Consequently, we must find other ways to reclaim yoik. Weaving yoik into musical arrangements (modern yoik) is one place to begin.
In this study, I apply qualitative methods within an Indigenous research paradigm. This emphasizes that knowledge acquisition stems from reciprocity and relationality, and that research as practice and embodied engagement is intrinsic to research processes. I unfold connections between listening and our relationships with yoik by engaging with field recording as method to explore multi-sensory approaches to listening. An expanded understanding of what it means to listen is reflected in the Sámi word guldalit, which means to listen, but also to feel or touch and to test or try—contrary to a normative Western definition of listening as a single-sensory activity. This methodological approach aims to contribute to wider decolonization processes, including the decolonization of my own mindset and artistic practices.
Such endeavors raise numerous concerns. For instance, whether it is culturally accepted to learn from knowledge bearers outside one’s own area. I argue that for Sámi culture to grow, develop, and be passed on, it is counterproductive to narrow possibilities by demanding local connectedness between sharer and receiver of knowledge. However, engaging with modern yoik, or yoik influenced music styles, may relieve experienced expectations. This paper includes autoethnographic reflections and conversations on reclaiming yoik, attending to relationships with our ancestral lands and cultural heritage.
Keywords: Yoik, Cultural Tradition, Decolonization, Indigenous, Sámi
Piia Siirala
Omat kenttäaineistot ja kenttämuistiinpanot tšuktšien henkilölaulua koskevan tutkimuksen pohjana
Tutkimukseni pohjana on kolliseen Siperiaan suuntautuneilla kenttämatkoillani tallentamani aineisto. Vuosina 2004–2019 tein seitsemän kenttämatkaa, ensin Sahaliniin (2004 ja 2006), sitten Kamtšatkaan (2008) ja Tšukotkaan (2009, 2016, 2017 ja 2019), missä kuulin ja äänitin paleosiperialaisten alkuperäiskansojen lauluperinnettä. Tallentamani laulut ovat pääasiallisesti tšuktšien lauluja, mutta sen lisäksi äänitin myös korjakkien, jupikkien, tšuvaanien ja eveenien lauluja. Aineisto koostuu yli 1400 laulusta.
Kenttämatkojen äänitykset sisältävät laulujen lisäksi useita kymmeniä tunteja keskusteluja, joissa tšuktšit kertovat elämästään. Videotallenteille olen kuvannut lauluja, keskusteluja ja ihmisten arkea alkuperäiskansojen kylissä ja poropaimentolaisten leireissä. Lisäksi aineisto sisältää tuhansia valokuvia sekä kenttämuistiinpanoja kaikilta matkoilta.
Aineisto on tallennettu laajalta alueelta Tšukotkaa sekä koillisesta Kamtšatkasta ja itäisestä Jakutiasta (Saha). Kooltaan se noin 700 GT, ja tällä hetkellä raakamateriaali on säilössä hallussani olevilla kovalevyillä. Minulla ei ole tiedossa, että missään muualla olisi vastaavaa kotiympäristöissä tallennettua aineistoa tšuktšien henkilölauluperinteestä.
Myös matkapäiväkirjat ovat tärkeä osa aineistoani. Päivittäin kirjaamani tapahtumat, kokemukset ja niiden päivämäärät antavat ensikäden tietoa siitä, millaisia kenttämatkat olivat ja mitä sain niiden aikana selville. Merkinnät keskusteluista eri ihmisten kanssa päivämäärineen ovat täydentäneet äänitteitä ja videoita. Valokuvat ja niihin liitetyt päivämäärät ovat auttaneet asioiden muistamisessa ja matkapäiväkirjan aukkojen täyttämisessä.
Tšuktšit, jotka ovat laulaneet minulle, tai auttaneet aineiston keräämisessä, ovat pyytäneet, että julkaisisin aineiston verkossa, jotta he voisivat tutustua siihen. Suurin osa laulajista on jo kuollut, ja monet paikallisasukkaista eivät koskaan ole kuulleet heidän laulujaan. Aineiston julkaisemiseen liittyy monia eettisiä kysymyksiä, joka täytyy käydä läpi harkiten. En kuitenkaan voi sivuuttaa näiden ihmisten toivetta. Tutkijoihin verrattuna he näkevät aineistoissa vielä paljon muuta: he tunnistavat omat perinteensä, omat laulunsa ja laulajat, jotka saattavat olla heidän edesmenneitä sukulaisiaan.
Viliina Silvonen
Karelian laments and cultural ownership
The cultural ownership of the Karelian lament tradition and its various contemporary adaptations has led to disputes between young Karelian activists and lamenters in Finland. The contentious debates began in autumn 2021 and lasted a couple of years. The criticism was not only about lament; rather, the discussions were broader in scope, addressing the status, uses, and applications of Karelian culture in Finland. Behind the criticism, there was the misrecognition – or even the lack of recognition – of the ethnolinguistic Karelian minority in Finnish society and the activists’ emotions linked to the Finnicisation of Karelians and the lost Karelian cultural roots. The criticism reflects discussions of Indigenous and minority rights, and one concept invoked is cultural appropriation.
In the background of the debates, there are, on the one hand, divergent conceptions of what lament actually is, and, on the other hand, questions about the diversity of Karelian identities; most of the criticised actors in the lament scene identify as Karelians, yet they have not necessarily expressed it publicly. In this research, I perceive the Karelians as an ethnolinguistic minority; however, Karelian identity is not limited to this interpretation or identification, which emphasises the Karelian language in particular. Karelian identity can also be based on, for example, identification with the area of residence, Finnish-speaking Karelian identity, or family roots. Cultural identification does not, therefore, clarify this complex scene and its contradictions sufficiently; thus, I analyse the contemporary lamenters’ relation to Karelian culture from the perspective of agency and power relations. I ask: 1) What kinds of agencies do the lamenters have in relation to Karelian culture and identity? 2) What kinds of positions do the lamenters have on the scene and in relation to Karelian culture? 3) How are the contemporary lament practices linked to Karelian culture, if at all? The framework of my research is ethnomusicological minority studies.
The topic of my paper is connected to cultural and social sustainability, as it increases knowledge about the various Karelian identities and, in turn, supports cultural rights, inclusion and equality. In Finland, ethnolinguistic Karelians have been classified as Finns, and this remains the case in popular discourse. The ethnolinguistic Karelian minority has faced discrimination, and in contemporary society, they lack a legally recognised status and adequate resources to uphold and develop their language and culture.
Minna Koskenlahti
Workshop: Redefining social structures as a female percussionist
The world (society) today still revolves around the structures on which it was once built. We learn by observing, and we are also taught what is acceptable for someone to do and what is not. We see who should do what, so that what we do is valued. We are given clear instructions to internalise our place. We are helped to identify areas where we should not step. But then it can still happen that you go and do something that doesn’t fit into the pattern. Even if you don’t understand it when you start or find yourself doing something that others think you shouldn’t do, they will make it clear to you gradually, little by little, endlessly. The world will not change unless the structures change. And structures change (too) slowly.
In the workshop I will discuss inclusiveness in the folk music scene, through my own experiences. I will examine how folk music scene reflects the sctructures created elsewhere in the society. I will present my own artistic practice, and share my thoughts about why did I continue playing when I could have stopped? I invite the audience in a dialogue.
Puro Paju and Elisa Seppänen
Workshop: Intercultural Music Education – Multisensory and Creative Methods
This workshop introduces intercultural music education through multisensory, creative, and embodied learning approaches. Developed within the context of the Sibelius Academy (University of the Arts Helsinki) course Intercultural Music Education, the workshop offers practical and reflective tools for teaching in culturally diverse educational settings.
Inspired by Orff-Schulwerk and contemporary intercultural pedagogy, the session explores how sound, movement, rhythm, voice, and creative collaboration can support inclusion, dialogue, and a sense of belonging. Participants engage in hands-on, participatory activities that highlight music as a shared space for learning, listening, and co-creation.
The workshop encourages educators to reflect on their own musical identities and pedagogical choices while gaining adaptable strategies for fostering cultural awareness, creativity, and respectful interaction through music.
Unni Løvlid
Workshop: Your tonality is not my tonality -meetings between the performer, the composer and the (micro)tonality
The project is an exploration into using different tonalities from a performer’s perspective. Today’s performers relate to several types of tonality as performers and listeners and must regularly movebetween microtonal, tempered, modal or pure-toned systems. The newly written compositions and improvisations in the project have tonality as a consistent theme butare also inspired usingfolk music. We will develop methods to embody microtonality to include it in our music performance.
The folk singer Unni Løvlid and the contemporary music cellist Marianne Baudouin Lie are performers from different genres with different practices and experiences; folk music and classical/contemporary music. We experience our difference as a resource and strength in our work. We both have extensive experience of working across genres, and the deliberate linking of artistic fields in this project opens more perspectives. There is a lot of research into microtonality, and composers such as Grisey and Fongaard use it extensively. There is less research on tonality from a musician’s perspective, and with a view to developing teaching methodology. The duo wants to explore how we can internalize and embody the diversity of tonalities through the inner ear, which we can then use freely to interpret and create music. The focus of the project is to create new artistic insights for both composed and improvised music, and to strengthen the discourse on the tendency towards a standardization of tonality, versus diversity.
The project will benefit the artistry, our working environment, our students, and the field. We strengthen each other’s methodology by exploring different rehearsal strategies, where listening-based work has an important focus. The project will have an educational aspect with creating methods and techniques to embody and develop our “inner ear” and the understanding of tonality that sometimes conflicts with the balanced tempered scale. What do microtonality, quarter tones and pure intervals mean for performers of different traditions, andfor different composers? We do not want to conclude about what tonality is, but to increase knowledge and reflection about what can be normal and to be a counterweight to autotune. In a society where autotune is becoming more and more the norm, we lose the sense of how microtonality can enrich the music. Anything but autotune sounds out of tune. We have a vision to increase understanding of tonal diversity in musical life and inspire students, musicians, and composers around us as well as ourselves.
The project’s theme is important and relevant for a society with a need for musicians who can relate to a diversity of music. The project opens new artistic perspectives and wants to convey new insights, both through artistic contributions in the form of sounding music, newly written music, educational work, documentation and further as a long-term professional artistic development work with collaboration with other European artists and disciplines.
Anneli Kont
Kansanmusiikkiin pohjautuvan viulunsoiton opettamisesta Virossa 1990-luvun alussa
Esitelmässäni kerron kansanmusiikin opettajuuteni varhaisvaiheista itsenäistyvässä Virossa 1990-luvulla. Puheenvuoroni valottaa virolaisen musiikkikoulutuksen yhteyttä muuttumassa olleeseen yhteiskuntaan.
Vuonna 1990 sain kutsun Etelä-Virossa sijaitsevaan Viljandi Kultuurikolledžiin kansanmusiikin opettajaksi. Viljandiin oli perustettu Viron ensimmäinen kansanmusiikin koulutuksen kurssi, jonka opiskelijoiden oli määrä valmistua soitinyhtyeiden ohjaajiksi.
Viron pelimanniperinteen luonnollinen jatkumo oli katkennut lukuun ottamatta muutamia kanteleen ja virolaisen haitarin soittajia. Arkistojen suojissa oli kuitenkin runsaasti 1900-luvun alkupuoliskolla tallennettua pelimannimusiikkia. Kansanmusiikkielämä oli jakautunut kahtia. Yhtäältä oli soitinyhtyeitä, jotka harjoittelivat partituurisovituksia ja ”kansanmusiikkihenkistä” sävellettyä musiikkia. Tätä musiikkia arvioitiin vuotuisissa valtakunnallisissa katselmuksissa, joiden päämäärä oli yhtyeiden tason ja sisällön sopivuuden arviointi. Ryhmät toteuttivat neuvostoliittolaista kulttuuripolitiikkaa, jossa ulkoisesti ”kansallinen” kuori oli valjastettu esittelemään neuvostoihmisten onnellista ja iloista elämää. Toisaalta nousi yksittäisiä, omaa alkuperäistä kansanperinnettä harrastavia ryhmiä. Näihin kuului usein perinteentutkijoita ja alan opiskelijoita, jotka pääsivät käyttämään myös arkistoaineistoja. Ryhmät olivat periaatteessa jonkin kulttuurielimen alaisia, mutta toimivat virallisen kulttuuripolitiikan ulkopuolella, ja osallistujat olivat vastarinnassa suhteessa hallitsevaan ideologiaan. Tämä suuntaus laajeni 1980-luvun lopulla itsenäisyyspyrkimysten nostettua päätään.
Olin saanut jo omakohtaisia kokemuksia Sibelius-Akatemian kansanmusiikkiosaston opiskelijana ja nähnyt, millaisia tuloksia saavutetaan määrätietoisella perinnemusiikkiin pohjautuvalla korkeakouluopetuksella. Into uudesta suunnasta ja oppisisällöstä oli silloin Viljandissa korkealla, mutta oli myös vastoinkäymisiä. Ideologiset riskit liittyivät siihen, pantaisiinko koulutuksen neuvostokulttuurin malleista poikkeava sisältö merkille ja nähtäisiin liian kansallismielisenä. Lisäksi kyseenalaistettiin ”pelkän” kansanmusiikin riittävyys opintojen sisällöksi. Esteettiset epäilykset kohdistuivat vanhojen pelimannien musisoinnin amatöörimäiseen laatuun. Materiaaliset ja musiikilliset vastoinkäymiset liittyivät oppimateriaalin, soittimien ja infrastruktuurin puutteeseen sekä siihen, että musiikilliset ja soittamisen taidot oli opittu klassisen musiikin kautta. Minulle oli selvää, että kansanmusiikin opetuksen pääpaino pitäisi olla virolaisessa perinteessä, jonka vanhempi kerrostuma oli unohtumassa ja joka ansaitsi tulla nostetuksi uudelleen tietoisuuteen.
Yhteiskunnallinen muutosvoima heijastui kansanmusiikin ja muiden perinnemuotojen koulutuksen piirissä tapahtuviin kehityskulkuihin ensin yksittäisten ihmisten innokkuutena ja rohkeutena, muutaman vuoden sisään kasvavana nälkänä oman musiikkiperinteen hallitsemiseen ja kehittämiseen.
Suvi Oskala and Kirsi Vinkki
Workshop: Accompaniment skills as a tool for teaching courage, improvisation and understanding of groove and other musical phenomena to violinists
Workshop requirement: Take your own instrument with you! There are also a few instruments at the premises for the workshop.
Workshop goal: To demonstrate how drone based free accompaniment can be taught to violinists of all ages.
Teaching accompaniment skills on violin is one of the easiest ways for reaching versatile skill on the instrument and supporting the formation of a lifelong relationship with music.
Free accompaniment as part of instrument studies enhances the understanding of musical phenomena regardless of the instrument played. Especially for melody instrument players, like violinists, examining the chords on their own instrument is important in order to dig deeper into the essence of music.
The easiest way to start accompanying on the violin is to start with drone based accompaniment. While playing the drone the player can familiarize themselves to the pulse of the tune without having the pressure of changing tones. Variation to drone accompaniment can be found from for example various rhythmic variations.
When the violinist becomes confident at accompanying by using the drone with rhythmic variations, the next step is to add some melodic gestures. With these melodic gestures and their double stops most players start automatically creating chord progressions even without any knowledge or analysis of chords. And from there it’s easy to move on to analysing the already existing chords and progressions. Thus understanding of harmony develops by listening to the melodic gestures and the chords created by them.
Accompanying skills are also skills of listening. As an accompanist one should always support the melody player and remember that whatever one plays impacts the melody player’s interpretation. When accompanying with a drone, changing from one note to another can be a challenge for the player in the beginning. Playing the melodic and rhythmic gestures accurately to the pulse and groove of the tune needs repetition and practice, but with time accompaniment by ear becomes a natural part of playing. When accompanying, the player also gets to be a part of the tune’s groove and it is often easier to understand the groove as a corporeal phenomenon than when playing only the melody.
Accompaniment skills are an integral part for creating a life-long relationship with music. If the player is limited to only playing melodies and/or from sheet music, it is often harder for them to form their own ensembles and to contribute to their repertoire. At best the accompaniment skills also give the player the confidence to improvise to all kinds of music.
In this workshop you get to experience and hear how accompaniment can be taught from the very beginning to students of all ages and levels. The workshop is held by Kirsi Vinkki and Suvi Oskala. They are both alumni of the Folk Music Department of the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy and work as teachers at music institutes, on folk music courses and at the University of the Arts Helsinki. Between 2010 and 2013 they created four online courses as part of Sibelius Academy Development Centre’s project which examined ways of teaching music online. Three of these courses, Accompaniment on Fiddle 1 and 2 and Ornaments in Folk Music, are still a part of the University of the Arts Helsinki’s Sibelius Academy’s Folk Music Department’s curriculum. The courses are held once a semester and each of them last for 8 weeks.
Language: Finnish and/or English