Award-winning Finnish musicians Emilia lajunen and Suvi Oskala mesmerised the audience with their symphonies using a five-string violin at RIFF. D Singh reports
It’s a rare sight to find two women playing Finnish folk music that too with two fiddles but coming from a country where there are more women musicians than men, Emilia lajunen and Suvi Oskala presenting an array of scintillating tunes from their fiddles is not a big deal. “In Finland, women make up the high percentage of music students in universities than men. And playing with women is more of a natural thing as there are not much men out there,” said Oskala.
The duo performed for the first time in India on the second night of Jodhpur RIFF 2015. “We were supposed to go to WOMEX but instead decided to come here as this was something new for us. Interestingly, we met DIvya at WOMEX two years back and that’s how it came about,” Oskala added.
They churned out tunes from the Finnish folk like polka, waltz, which were a unique amalgam of the new and the old. With fast-moving melodies on one fiddle and driving rhythms on the other, the fiddle-duo are known for their distinct maneuvers of the five-string fiddle. Emilia and Suvi’s repertoire consists mainly of Finnish contemporary and traditional folk tunes.
Apparently, it’s the climate of Finland which is what makes them decide on their repertoire. “Finnish folk music represents our climate. In Finland we have six months of darkness and light respectively. So it really represents the two extremes from sadness to upbeat mood,” said Oskala.
Another fact which made the duo’s performance unique was the introduction of the five string fiddle as one of the new instruments this year at Jodhpur RIFF. “It’s not only a rare instrument in India but even in west where many people haven’t seen it yet,” added lajunen.
A five-string violin is a variant of violin with an extra string tuned to a pitch below the violin’s usual range. The components that make up a five string violin are very similar to those found on a traditional violin with the body and neck closely resembling a traditional violin. It was created as a solution for improvisers that allowed musicians to combine the pitch ranges of violins and violas. Although larger than a traditional violin, a five string violin is smaller than a viola.
Bobby Hicks, a bluegrass fiddler, popularized the five-string violin in 1963 as he first showcased his modification during his performance in las Vegas.
Five string violins excel in musical styles that allow for improvisation because of their wide range and versatility. They are most commonly used in country fiddling, swing, and jazz music. Musicians usually play pieces written for either violin or viola on this particular instrument and new pieces that utilize the combined ranges of those instruments.
Speaking about the nuances of fiddling Oskala said, “It is nothing but rhythmic violin playing. The very base of folk music is rhythm and especially when you are playing as a duo you have to be really rhythmic in what you play as you don’t have the drums and bass to keep the rhythm going. The transition of high to low pitch is really smooth in a fiddle,”
Having studied at Sibilius music Academy in Helsinki, both lajunen and Oskala share a passion for digging up tunes from the archives. Before forming their fiddle duo in 2010, Suvi and Emilia worked together in projects like Silmu and Piia Kleemola & Co. The duo released their debut album Tyttörinki in May 2012.
Talking about the state of folk music in Finland they said, “In Finland, folk is not dying but it’s not that popular as well. There’s not a huge market for it. We should take a cue from Estonia which is the only country right now where they sell more folk music than anywhere in the world. It’s very rare and that might have got to do something with their history since they got freedom from the Soviet Union they have been working towards preserving and promoting their culture.”