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Written in fRoots issue 270, 2005


BOOK
Various authors
Inspired By Tradition; Kalevala poetry in Finnish music
Finnish Music Information Centre ISBN952-5076-45-8 (2005)

A very useful and timely 150 page paperback covering the content, history, forms, music, connections, politics and present-day existence of the runo-songs that in the nineteenth century Elias Lönnrot combined to make the Finnish national epic poem. It’s not as dense a read as that might suggest; while some writers are ethnomusicologists, a splendid breed but sometimes given to the production of rather dense academic English, the contributors covering the runo-song’s presence in classical, jazz, rock, popular, heavy metal and ‘folk scene’ music are music journalists this is well-translated, with plenty of content but pared down to the key aspects, and the clear layout includes musical examples and interesting and appropriate b/w photos. www.fimic.fi


© 2005 Andrew Cronshaw
 

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Links:
fRoots - The feature and review-packed UK-based monthly world roots music magazine in which these reviews were published, and by whose permission they're reproduced here.

Kansanmusiikki-instituutti (Finland's national Folk Music Institute).

It's not practical to give, and keep up to date, current contact details and sales sources for all the artists and labels in these reviews, but try Googling for them, and where possible buy direct from the artists.
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