The myth of Finland as nation locked in minor key melancholy

Sad music a political choice to help distinguish Finns from merry Swedes

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By Johanna Korhonen
     
      Finns are known to be a nation favouring the minor key, and Finnish music is made of sorrow.
      Already in day care and the early years of school, children are taught mournful hymns and folk songs.
      "Playing is made of sorrow", is what Aino Sibelius had written on the ribbons of her funeral wreath at the funeral of her composer husband. The same words were used by a local radio DJ in the 1980s when he played a piece by the rock group Yö ("Night").
      Professor Ville Lehtinen, the main researcher in a study by STAKES, the National Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, spoke of a "minor key nation" when he published a report on the susceptibility of Finns to suffer depression.
     
We have been duped. The belief that the Finns are a nation perpetually locked in the minor key is a pure misconception!
      In addition to simply not being true, the claim has no basis in history: the notion of Finns as a nation in the minor key is only just over 200 years old.
      Proclaiming that Finland is a minor-key nation was a political decision made by the Fennoman movement to promote their message of emphasising the national identity of the native Finnish-speaking majority against what was seen as a Swedish-speaking elite.
      The information is contained in a new book, Populaarimusiikki ("Popular Music"), according to which most popular music in the early 19th century was in the major key. The most popular songs sung in schools, including Maamme ("Our Country"), which later became the country’s national anthem, were all in the major key.
      However, it was the internal conflict between the pro-Finnish and pro-Swedish sides in the late 19th century that led to a strange reversal. Suddenly Finnish music was said to be characteristically melancholic, melodramatic, and even quietly tragic - and it has continued to be so ever since.
      This is not to say that anyone would have deliberately started composing mournful music - it was more on the level of choices made for performance, or for publication as sheet music.
     
The writers of Populaarimusiikki, musicologist Pekka Jalkanen and popular music professor Vesa Kurkela, arrived at a restaurant in Helsinki’s Lasipalatsi to discuss the issue.
      The venue was quite appropriate. If we were to go back in time 100 years, a Russian garrison would be nearby. The sound of a barrel organ might be heard from an open window, and diners in the restaurant would be entertained by a lively brass band, while a gipsy orchestra would be playing in the cafe downstairs. The sounds of a Russian military band might also be heard.
      God forbid that we should enjoy such frivolity!
      So why did the Finns turn to the minor key 100 years ago?
      "There was a need to distance the Finns from Swedish culture. Although Finnish music had been primarily in the major key, people began choosing pieces in the minor key for performance, out of a desire to demonstrate that Finns had music of their own, which was different from that of the Swedes", says composer Jalkanen.
     
The far-reaching choice was made by numerous choirmasters, music teachers, and sheet-music publishers, who were all enthusiastic promoters of the cause of the Fennoman movement. Dark tones entered the arrangements of folk songs performed by the University Students’ Choir, and three-quarters of the songs of their songbook were in the minor key.
      During the time of the worst Czarist oppression, in the early years of the 20th century, the minor key articulated the mournful sentiments of the nation quite well. Since then, the same type of music served to interpret the feelings of a nation at war, and one that was recovering after the war.
      The choices have carried to the present day.
      Jalkanen and Kurkela point out that the division "minor = sadness", and "major = joy" is a fairly recent innovation. About two centuries ago both sorrow and joy were expressed by other means in both popular tunes and more artful compositions than through the choice of key.
      But what about Elias Lönnrot, the writer of the national epic poem, the Kalevala? The famous sentence "playing is made of sorrow" is from the first poem in his Kanteletar.
      "A misconception", Jalkanen says. "Lönnrot was talking about the texts. Besides, he said nothing about the minor key - only sorrow."
     
Finns chose the minor key to get rid of the Swedes, but their choice tied them ever more closely in the opposite direction - the east.
      "Toivo Kärki was actually a great Russian composer", Vesa Kurkela says.
      Pekka Jalkanen, who has studied the Russian romance, says that the Finnish tango is a logical extension of the genre.
      "For some reason, Russian influences in Finnish music are still not referred to as Russian, but rather as Slavic", Kurkela says. "Editors usually always replace the word Russian with Slavic, even in our texts."
     
Whether of ancient or recent origin, mournfulness nevertheless seems to appeal to Finnish music lovers.
      Finnish hit songs have always had certain common characteristics. On the one hand, they have been based on old musical traditions, but on the other, they have usually also contained something from the outside - usually from abroad.
      During the past 100 years, new trends have often come to Finland in the form of dance. They have been a part of the Finnish-Russian continuity, and the final result is known as Finnish popular music.
     
So if these experts of music know how a Finnish musical hit is born, why don’t they reveal the recipe?
      "It can’t be done", Kurkela and Jalkanen answer.
      "Some individual musicians are more sensitive than others in understanding what the components are that might give birth to a piece which touches the whole nation. It’s not something that can be predicted."
     
Musical cultures split up, and audiences seem to drift quite far from each other. Even the dominance of the minor key seems to have been called into question somewhat.
      Listening to any commercial radio station chosen at random reveals that major and minor are on a somewhat equal footing, and that the Muzak heard in grocery stores usually plays in the major key.
      Jalkanen and Kurkela point out that it was easier to touch the "whole nation" when there were only two radio stations, and just one television channel.
      "But someone like Jari Sillanpää continues to have potential, especially if he were to win the Eurovision Song Contest some year, or if he is singing when Finland wins the ice hockey world championships."
      But who decides the direction of Finnish popular music? The ones who draw up the radio play lists? Record companies?
      "Seventeen-year-old Finns", is Kurkela’s answer.
      "Many musicians and many listeners have had their decisive experiences, their defining events, at the age of 17. That is the age when people decide where things will go next."
      They will also decide how long minor will remain the Finnish national musical key.
     
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 16.5.2004


Links:
  Finnish Music Information Centre: The Roots of Finnish Popular Music
  Finnish Music Information Centre: The Melancholy Finnish Tango
  Finnish Music Information Centre: Finns Love Their Schlagers
  FIMIC (Finnish Music Information Centre)

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