Armas Launis is a composer best known for his operas. However, during his studies, he dedicated himself to researching and collecting folk music.
From 1902 onward, Launis undertook several folklore-collecting trips to the Sami regions, border Karelia, and Ingria. He had taken a phonograph with him on his travels to border Karelia and Ingria in 1906.
In border Karelia, Launis met renowned rune singers. In his travelogue, he recounts his encounter with them as follows:
All the singers mentioned above, with the exception of Petri Shemeika, resided in the parish of Suistamo. According to the sources, Iivana’s house Härkönen was the closest to Sortavala. I went there in early June. I visited the old man, who was suffering from an incurable illness, but he still had enough strength to sing. I found other singers in the same area. Iivana’s son, who bore the same name as his father, could sing two notes, and his daughter Okuliina had a beautiful voice for singing laments. A man named Iivana Onoila, from the neighboring village of Sara, came to sing some poems on the phonograph.
“Last spring, I received a travel grant of 150 marks from the Finnish Literature Society to go to Karelia with the society’s phonograph to collect runic melodies from renowned rune singers. The aim was to record their performance style more accurately. At the time, I contacted Dr. Forström, a specialist in border Karelia, to find out who to meet. He advised me to visit at least Iivana Härkönen, Iivana and Petri Shemeika, and Okuliina Kuokkanen, who was an expert in laments. If I met other singers, all the better.
Then I rode to the village of Jalovaara, from where I had to continue on foot to the lands where Iivana Shemeikka and Okuliina Kuokkanen lived. Carrying the phonograph on my back during the journey was relatively easy. Okuliina Kuokkanen recited a poem and some laments, and Iivana sang her runic melodies in Muuanno. In this last village, I also I met some less gifted rune-singing wives, both of whom were able to hear their voices thanks to the phonograph.
I still had Petri Shemeikka to find. I found him in a desert region of Ilomantsi, near Ristivaara, where I traveled on horseback. The old man had lost his sight with age. Even his voice was weak. It was barely enough to engrave grooves on the phonograph cylinders.”
Armas Launis. An Account of the Journey to Collect Runes in Karelia in the Summer of 1905. Suomi IV:4. Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura 1906.
Nadja Kortteintytär in Soikkola (Ingria) in 1906
In 1906, Launis traveled to Ingria again with a phonograph. In Soikkola, he recorded Nadja Korttein and other singers. Recording the alternation between the lead singer and the choir was a significant advance in research on the interpretation of runic chant.
“On several occasions, I was forced to use a choir, or at least a chorister, because, when performed by a single person, the rune melody sounded strangely discontinuous on the recording, without any breaks. The choir consisted of three or four singers, and as can be heard on the phonograph excerpts, these choral passages are generally in two or even three parts.”
Armas Launis 1907. Account of a musical collecting trip to Ingria during the summer of 1906. Suomi IV:5. Helsinki 1907
————————————————————————————
· Published with the permission of Risto Blomster and the Finnish Literature Society
· The original publication can be found at: https://tietava.finlit.fi/en/phonograms/
· The license for the sound recording is CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (external link)You can share this work with others as long as you cite the author. The work may not be modified in any way, nor may it be used for commercial purposes.
