FMQ - nationalism Articles

The Kantele Day – Dynamic, modern, and persistently national

The Kantele Day – Dynamic, modern, and persistently national

The Kantele Day – Dynamic, modern, and persistently national

The first ever Kantele Day was celebrated in Finland on Saturday 16 September 2023. The celebrations – including a flash mob, concerts and gala – were organised by the Kantele Association, a community for amateur and professional kantele players and anyone else interested in the instrument. What is the status of the kantele in today’s Finland?

Heidi Henriikka Mäkelä

October 4, 2023

The geocultural politics of music historiography in Finland

The geocultural politics of music historiography in Finland

The geocultural politics of music historiography in Finland

"The fundamental problem of current music historiography, in Finland and elsewhere in the postcolonial civilised world, is that the preoccupation with evading all possible accusations of racism overwhelms historical investigations into how the present practices – historical narration included – are part and parcel of a political continuum where racist ideologies have been and continue to be amongst the most powerful ones."

Antti-Ville Kärjä

March 29, 2021

A national symbol and music without borders – can folk music be both?

A national symbol and music without borders – can folk music be both?

A national symbol and music without borders – can folk music be both?

The phenomena grouped under the soubriquet of Finnish folk music include transnational cultural phenomena on the one hand and strong regional traditions on the other, and not nearly all of these are defined by where Finland’s political borders happened to be at any particular time.

Tove Djupsjöbacka

March 29, 2021

Folk music, feminism and troubling topics

Folk music, feminism and troubling topics

Folk music, feminism and troubling topics

Folk music through a feminist perspective has been a thing in Sweden for several years, but Finland’s first series of feminist folk music concerts is only now taking place. Singer and journalist Amanda Kauranne and her team explore difficult topics and taboos of womanhood in four concerts.

Tove Djupsjöbacka

September 21, 2018

Music in illo tempore

Music in illo tempore

Music in illo tempore

The wars fought in the early decades of Finland’s independence cast a long, dark shadow far into the second half of the 20th century. The voice of war in works by Finnish composers speaks of victory, defeat, grief and reconciliation.

Antti Häyrynen

February 14, 2018

The bourgeois modernist

The bourgeois modernist

The bourgeois modernist

Väinö Raitio was a Modernist Finnish composer whose works were received with considerable reservations in his lifetime. Today, Raitio’s music is interesting both because of the period in which it was written and because of its artistic quality. Pluralism has rehabilitated Raitio, and music historians no longer need to adhere to the dramatic martyrdom conventionally ascribed to him.

Hanna Isolammi

March 14, 2017

Discords in the national melody

Discords in the national melody

Discords in the national melody

Independent Finland is 100 years old and has a classical music scene that is diverse, pluralist and multicultural. A century ago, the situation was very different: just as the nation was heavily polarised after the bitter Civil War, musical life was similarly divided. It is not too much of a simplification to identify two musical camps: official national neo-Romanticism and “left-wing” modernism.

Hanna Isolammi

March 14, 2017

Free the Kalevala from Finnishness!

Free the Kalevala from Finnishness!

Free the Kalevala from Finnishness!

"The Kalevala myth was a genuine source of inspiration for the fledgling Finnish nation in search of an identity. But has it been such a thing any more, really, since the Second World War?," asks Kimmo Hakola in his Kalevala day column.

Kimmo Hakola

February 28, 2017

“Utterly Finnish, peculiarly original”

“Utterly Finnish, peculiarly original”

“Utterly Finnish, peculiarly original”

The concept of a national musical language made its way to Finland in the 1800s. One of the culminations of this new wave was the premiere performance of Sibelius’s Kullervo. The birth of this epic music historical tale was influenced by a number of endeavours, ideas and occurrences.

Olli Heikkinen

January 4, 2015

Ernst Mielck - Thrice homeless

Ernst Mielck - Thrice homeless

Ernst Mielck - Thrice homeless

Ernst Mielck, who died at the age of only 21, is regarded as one of the most dazzling prodigies in the history of Finnish music. He was a curious figure, an outsider who nevertheless managed to make waves before his untimely death.

Kimmo Korhonen

July 9, 2012

Scores to settle

Scores to settle

Scores to settle

Finnish war films feature exquisite music. To help you get the most out of the music, here is a listener's guide to the cream of the crop — although that includes one film with no score at all.

Susanna Välimäki

January 6, 2010

Erkki Melartin - a symphonic composer of international stature?

Erkki Melartin - a symphonic composer of international stature?

Erkki Melartin - a symphonic composer of international stature?

It is finally time for Erkki Melartin to emerge from “the shadow of Sibelius”, nearly 63 years after his death. Is Melartin a symphonic composer of international stature or merely one of those “harlots and their pimps”, as Gustav Mahler termed the “national geniuses” in music?

Osmo Tapio Räihälä

January 3, 2000

In Estonia, music is celebration

In Estonia, music is celebration

In Estonia, music is celebration

The Estonian song festival is a concept whose history and significance cannot be assessed with conventional artistic criteria. Since the last century, the song festivals organized in Tallinn have been a demonstration of Estonian culture and national spirit whose power has been strongest at crucial turning points in the nations history. On the other hand, they have also served as a showcase for a rich and original culture of singing and as a demonstration of a rare and heartfelt musical togetherness.

Antti Häyrynen

June 4, 1998

Universal, national or Germanised?

Universal, national or Germanised?

Universal, national or Germanised?

The turn of the 20th century is conventionally referred to as the era when the national musical culture of Finland was born. On closer inspection, however, we find its roots in the transnational context of general European art music, which also included the popular music of the day.

Vesa Kurkela

January 8, 1985

What is “Finnish” in Finnish music?

What is “Finnish” in Finnish music?

What is “Finnish” in Finnish music?

"The 'Finnish element' - if indeed it even exists in the empirical sense - is no unique property; it is the sum of numerous factors each weighted in a different way", writes Mikko Heiniö in his analytical article in FMQ 2/1992.

Mikko Heiniö

January 8, 1985

Finnish music – music in Finland?

Finnish music – music in Finland?

Finnish music – music in Finland?

Transnationality has been a big thing in international cultural studies for the past decade. At the moment, there are several major research projects in the pipeline in Finnish music studies addressing issues across national borders.

Tove Djupsjöbacka

January 8, 1985

Selim Palmgren – A Finnish cosmopolite

Selim Palmgren – A Finnish cosmopolite

Selim Palmgren – A Finnish cosmopolite

The composer Selim Palmgren walked a tightrope between national and international trends in music. He was part of the Finnish national music movement but tried to combine this with a more international outlook.

Kimmo Korhonen

January 8, 1985

Aarre Merikanto - a battered genius

Aarre Merikanto - a battered genius

Aarre Merikanto - a battered genius

With the works he wrote in the 1920s Aarre Merikanto (1893-1958) together with Ernest Pingoud and Väinö Raitio, planted the seed of modernism in Finnish music. The seed germinated in spite of adverse cultural conditions at the time, but only later generations were to reap the harvest.

Harri Suilamo

January 8, 1985

Towards a less rigid notion of tradition

Towards a less rigid notion of tradition

Towards a less rigid notion of tradition

“One of the greatest problems confronting Finnish culture is the relative absence of critical attitudes with any measure of influence,” says the composer Olli Kortekangas in his article from FMQ 1-2/1985.

Olli Kortekangas

January 8, 1985

Pingoud - the cosmopolitan in Finnish music

Pingoud - the cosmopolitan in Finnish music

Pingoud - the cosmopolitan in Finnish music

Ernest Pingoud was an exceptional figure in Finnish music. During the 1920s and 1930s there can have been no other composers in the country whose works did not include a single solitary Kalevala-inspired composition, who had not drafted even one tentative folk song arrangement, and who when he felt the need for a drop of something more earthy composed (perish the thought!) shimmy-shakes and foxtrots under an assumed name. Ernest Pingoud was the cosmopolitan of the Finnish music scene.

Erkki Salmenhaara

January 8, 1985

The Kalevala in Finnish music

The Kalevala in Finnish music

The Kalevala in Finnish music

Elias Lönnrot's Kalevala was part of a return to mythology, a desire to discover the roots of the nation's culture and history that prevailed in all the peripheral regions of Europe. In Finland the publication of the Kalevala in 1835 marked a decisive impetus towards the search for all that was inherently Finnish in practically all the arts.

Eero Tarasti

January 8, 1985