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IMPROMPTU CONCERT WAS GREAT FUN

Will Kilpela & Friends Band performed in Fairport Harbor’s Veterans Memorial Park on Saturday, June 13. The group, “is actually 3/5ths or 60% of our normal strength” joked leader and accordionist Will Kilpela, “but it is still great music.”  Many of the small crowd tapped their feet, nodded their heads, and sometimes sang along with the music. The crowd especially enjoyed the song, “stolen by those Spaniards,” said Kilpela, “called ‘Espanjalaisen Silmat.’ ” The tune brought real laughs when the audience correctly deduced the song as the original “Spanish Eyes!”

The Marquette Michigan band is en route to a concert in Connecticut and performed an hour long medley of traditional Finnish folk songs using accordion, drums, guitar, spoons, voices and bones to carry the tunes to their happy ends.

Finnish Music: "Then and Now"
by Kathy Kuivinen

The opening chords of Jean Sibelius’ Finlandia sounded the call to begin.  Finlandia is one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world even if listeners don’t know its title or who wrote it.  It has been used in movies and church hymns have been written to the melody.  It seems to speak many languages.

 

     The history of music in Finland can be grouped into three major topics – Folk, Classical and Contemporary.  The Kalevala epic influenced the Folk genre and Sami culture.  The Kalevala form of chanting was the rhythmic beginning of Finnish music.  The Sami joik was a spiritual version of this early music.  Pelimanni music is the Finnish version of Nordic dance music, which makes use of many kinds of instruments – fiddles, accordions, horns and even bagpipes.  There is even a contemporary rapper – Amoc – who performs using the Sami language of the Inari region of Finland.  Intertwined in the more rhythmic development of Finnish music are the dances.  The Jenkka, humppaa and tango are popular entertainment activities.  

 

     Sibelius leads the classical period in Finland.  He wrote Finlandia in 1899, and it quickly became the symbol of Finnish nationalism.  There are many reminders of his popularity in Finland – a monument, a museum and an academy devoted exclusively to the study of music.

     During the 20^th century, opera emerged as a favorite art form in Finland.  The first Finnish opera appeared in the 1800’s but in the 1960’s the Savolinna Opera Festival made Finland an international center of the classical world. 

 

     More recently Finnish musicians have shown an unusual talent for reaching back to the old traditions and reworking the chanting and instrumentation into a unique amalgamation.  The music of the group Värttinä is an example of a contemporary style, which incorporates Kalevala-style chanting, and even the kantele folk instrument.  This group also co-composed the score for a new musical stage version of The Lord of the Rings.

 

     In the contemporary music world Finland has become one of the world leaders of metal music – folk metal, symphonic metal, and even Christian metal masses.  Several of the top guitarists in the world are from Finland and much in demand in the recording business.  A group called Apocalyptica is an example of the Finnish talent for creating something new.  This group is comprised of classically trained cellists, and they play rock music.

 

     Finnish music is the soul of our culture.  It expresses the many creative layers that make Finnish music distinctive.

Finn Hollow and famous Finn John Morton  are topics at special FHM program
by Elaine Lillback

Finnish Heritage Museum presented a program honoring both Finn Hollow Houses and John Morton last month at Zion Lutheran Center.

That night, Fairport Harbor Mayor Frank Sarosy designated May 15 as an annual holiday, which commemorates the Finn Hollow houses that occupied land now part of Finnish Heritage Museum’s hill.        

The land once owned by the Painesville and Lake Erie Dock Company is now marked by a permanent sign on the general site of ten “Finn Hollow homes” built by Finns. 


The land was loaned to the dockworkers on the condition that the company could reclaim the property for its own use when needed. 

Thus the homes were moved from the original High Street sites and now are occupied by new owners.  These new owners were given honorary...FOR THE REST OF THE STORY, CLICK HERE.


The Kaleva and the Kalevala, the stories behind each one.  Members present efforts to erase confusion. 
by Lasse O. Hiltunen
Belt, Montana, the second largest town in Cascade County, was a wild town, a rough town, one hundred years ago.  It had thirty-five saloons at a time, although that number was 110 over all the mining years altogether. Those saloons and houses of prostitution catered mainly to the miners who worked all day long in the coal mines, where 1000 men brought up over 2500 tons of coal daily.

Gunshots often punctuated the night, killing or wounding many.

Leivo captured the attention of the FHM members with those startling revelations.  He went on to present the history of the Knights of Kaleva.

Janine Urdal LaBounty continued the “K” night with an explanation of 3000-year-old stories or “runes” that make up the Finnish Epic known as the Kalevala.  The purpose of the Museum’s program at the April meeting was to explain both the Kaleva and the Kalevala, two separate, yet intimately close and very Finnish concepts. 
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