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Finland

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MUSIC IN Finland
Music Finland
RockData
Ameriikan Poijat (Boys of America) -
Digelius Music -
ECM Records -
A FinnFest Potpourri
Finland's Music Through American Ears
Finnish Music -
Finnish Music in America
A listing of Finnish music festivals.
There is lots of music at the various cultural festivals.
Global Music Center - A music institute based in Finland dedicated to the different musics of the world.
Hiljaiset Levyt - A small record label with a diverse array of Finnish indie bands and more.
 Kantele - A stringed instrument peculiar to the Eastern Baltic cultures.
Kantele Workshop - A half week event directly following FinnFest '99.
The Kantele: Finland's National Instrument - A summary article with photos and sounds.
Ancient Lithuanian Kanklës - Information on the kantele family from the Institute of Ethnomusic in Lithuania.
Timo Väänänen - A champion modern player. Listen to streamed sounds of his playing.
Kantele-Kreeta - An article on Kreeta Haapasalo (1813-1893).
Leningrad Cowboys Home page - Hair that can hurt you! The Leningrad Cowboys can be seen in the Kaurismäki films Leningrad Cowboys Go America and Leningrad Cowboys meet Moses.
Midsummer Music - A concert series concert drawing attention to the new Ila Amanda and Arthur J. Hill Endowed Scholarship at Suomi College. See also A Classical Concert.
Music Resources - The Sibelius Academy's general list of music links. (PC Magazine Top 100 Web Site - February 96)
Pori Jazz Festival - One of the biggest and best known jazz festivals in Europe.
RockData - Finnish Rock Music Scene - Information about Finnish rock music, with band profiles, contacts, etc.
Radio Mafia - A national public service radio channel in Finland broadcasting pop and rock music.
Soittoniekojen Klubi - The Music Player's Club at the Finnish Cultural Center in Farmington Hills, Michigan.
Jean Sibelius
Ainola - A visit to the country estate of Jean Sibelius near Järvenpää, today a museum cared for by Ainolasäätiö.
Solo Songs of Sibelius - A look at some of the solo song production of this Finnish master.
Arto Wikla's Music Page - Lutes and early music, especially late renaissance and early baroque.
The strength of Finnish music is its originality

Unlike its neighbours Sweden and Norway, Finland never had a court that maintained musicians to augment its prestige or sponsored expensive opera performances, for instance. Instead, the roots of Finnish music lie deep in our unique national heritage. We can say without exaggerating that our national epic, the Kalevala (1835) formed the basis for Finnish culture — including music.
It was not until the late 19th century that art music, from having been the prerogative of the aristocracy and the upper-middle classes, began to be made available to the general public. The Society for Culture and Education, charged with providing the common people with the opportunity to practise and study the arts, was founded in 1874. The first musical event organized by the Society was the 1881 Jyväskylä song festival, inspired by Estonian models. The festival was a great success, and the number of choirs in Finland mushroomed. The song festival tradition is still strong, and it is not without justification that Finland is described as a land of choirs.

The first permanent professional opera company was launched in 1873, opera having previously only been performed by touring companies, except for the odd amateur performance. The year 1882 was perhaps the most significant in the history of Finnish music. The Helsinki University Chorus was founded in that year. It was a Finnish-language choir — previously, the arts in Finland had been nearly synonymous with Swedish-language culture. This year also saw the foundations laid for professional orchestras and music education. In Helsinki, Robert Kajanus (1856-1933) began methodically building up a professional orchestra: the result was the Helsinki Orchestra Society, today the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

The year 1882 also marked a milestone in the history of Finnish music education. Martin Wegelius (1846-1906) founded the Helsinki Music Institute, today the Sibelius Academy. In his history of music published in 1891, Wegelius observed pithily: "We must first make a history of music in Finland before we can write about it." Since Finnish musicians mostly studied in Germany, they modelled Finnish music according to German ideals rather than drawing influences from St Petersburg or Stockholm.
Finland is a promised land of symphony orchestras. The country’s nearly 30 symphony orchestras play an important role as regional providers of music. Regional operas perform in eleven cities. Regional opera depends nearly without exception on the pooling of resources by local art establishments (opera society, theatre, orchestra, conservatory or music institute).
Enhanced music teaching in schools, known as the music class system, was introduced in Helsinki in the early 1960s. Currently some 14,000 pupils in 530 music classes at comprehensive schools around Finland follow a curriculum with a special emphasis on music. Enhanced music teaching at the upper secondary level is given at ten specialized schools. The music institute network has evolved with no centralized plan; institutes have been founded as they were needed. At the moment, there are nearly 150 music institutes in Finland, with about 50,000 students. There are also numerous private music schools, particularly kindergartens. There are eleven conservatories, and higher music education aimed at a career in music is given at the Sibelius Academy.

Finland’s arts grant system is considered exemplary. Government grants enable composers to concentrate on their creative work. These grants are awarded for a period of one, three or five years to composers of proven merit. The grant provides a tax-free monthly income sufficient to cover basic living expenses. Similar grants are also awarded to performing artists.
The Finnish Music Quarterly, a high-quality journal in English, with a circulation of about 4,000 has been published since 1985. It is distributed to influential people and music institutions throughout the music world.

In the 1960s, Finnish music attained international standards. Gradually, Finland evolved into a model musical country, where contemporary music needed no artificial resuscitation to thrive, as it does in many other European countries. An independent, pluralist musical culture emerged, unfettered by narrow-minded schools, yet at the forefront of international developments.
Music became Finland’s visiting card. Over the past fifteen years, we have seen an unprecedented blossoming of Finnish music. The number of major living composers in Finland today is truly amazing.

The most conspicuous phenomenon in Finnish music in the 1980s was the tremendous opera boom. It came at a time when elsewhere opera was widely considered an outdated artform. However, Finnish composers managed to create operas of compelling originality that were internationally competitive. Many summer festivals have added their own dash of local colour to the music scene, evolving into internationally noteworthy events. The working conditions of composers and performing artists are safeguarded by the most advanced arts grant system in the world.
This musical boom never could have happened without appreciative audiences, which the media played a major role in mobilizing. Music has received far more coverage in the press, on radio and on TV in Finland than in any of the other Scandinavian countries. The media was particularly captivated by the Ears Open Society, a group of young composers that emerged in the late 1970s. The Society dedicated itself to promoting and disseminating contemporary music, organizing its own concerts, seminars and debates. Rather than a homogeneous school of composers, however, the Society was a collection of individuals with widely divergent stylistic and aesthetic ideals. What they shared was a determination to make public opinion more appreciative of modern music.

The leading figures in the Ears Open Society began to spread their wings in the 1980s, and by the early 1990s they were all internationally acknowledged artists. The Society had broadened the horizons of Finnish music; at the same time, its members had acquired a solid professional training.