Advent Calendar, Dec. 9 Karelian Folk Music & Kantele
One of these days I’ll make it to Karelia. Alone. Nobody wants to come with me.
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One of these days I’ll make it to Karelia. Alone. Nobody wants to come with me.
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I'd *love* to go with you to Karelia! (Though it won't happen.) Karelia does indeed have some gorgeous music. I played accordion for the Finnish folkdance performance group in D.C. for years, and when my stepson married a Finn, I played three of the Finns' favorite tunes for their wedding celebration in Helsinki: the gorgeous waltz Metzäkukkia, the wild Säkkijärven Polkka, and lastly Heili Karjalasta, about the beautiful women in Karelia. In this last, I was caught completely off guard by the entire hall bursting into song — I'd always played it for dancing, and never heard it sung. I was fortunate not to be reading music — I was so moved my eyes teared up. A simple version of my playing that tune is at http://dickatlee.com/music/dick/sound/heili_karjalasta.mp3, and a wonderful rendition by a real Finn on a chromatic accordion is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6YkS9hsjkc. Wonderful tune, hard not to start dancing!
No wonder it sounds somewhat like Russian music to me.
Can't believe Finland went and joined Hato NATO, a bunch of fools.
I'll go with you to Karelia