Poemsongmass

I spent monday to Wednesday in Joensuu in the Northern Karelian area of Finland, improvising and having a good time. The title you see before you is a direct translation of Runolaulamessu: Runo - poem, Laulu - song, messu - mass. It's a mass dreamt up by one of our professors, based on the poems and music of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. (which is a bit like basing a church service on Wagner's ring cycle...). Anyhow, the mass was completely sung, No boring sermons (not much of a congregation either!), and was a very interesting experience. I found myself mostly playing the violin, singing, and at times playing a drum! Our little band consisted of me, a Kantele (traditional instrument, like a horizontal harp), an accordian, and a Jouhikko, a traditional fiddle somewhat like the Norweigan Hardanger fiddle. All of the parts of the mass were set to tunes from (or based on) the Kalevala, and the singers and instrumentalists improvised around these at the same time. I got involved because I think improv will help my musicality, and also because of the cultural aspect of the work. Most of the tunes use a 5/4 time signature, which took a while to get used to. The method of improvisation was that the beginning and end of each phrase are always the same note, and the rhythm and melody can be varied within the phrase. This, on paper, with 10 singers and 4 instruments, sounds dangerously like chaos, but it worked nicely, with enough variety to create interest, without sounding like a load of sh..te. It was interesting to play alongside the Kantele and accordian, who were both incredibly good players. I felt rather out of my depth at the start. Just play, they said, make something up. Help, what are the chord progressions, what do you suggest? Just make it up!!! So I did, and found it was rather fun. I also ended both nights having a sauna and a swim in an icehole, followed by a nice cold beer, courtesy of the Lutheran church's confirmation camp centre outside Joensuu. ( I had to buy the beer myself though...).

Our youngest one's saga continues. She had been put on the operations list in the hospital, as they wanted to remove the grommets in her ear, and try to look for the cause of the continual infections. This was scheduled for 3 weeks time, but she got a cancellation on friday, and has returned home safe and sound, minus grommets. The right grommet, which was supposed to help the fluid drain from the ear, was actually blocking it, and at some stage looked like it had caused an inflammation of it's own. The case right now is that the doctors and specialists are looking for the cause of the infections, which are affecting the right ear, sinuses, throat and nose. This is a step forward for us, in that they are now of the opinion that chucking round after round of antibiotics at it isn't really helping, which we have felt for a while now. Watch this space. In the meantime she is keeping well, and exrtremely talkative, explaining in a loud voice what's going on, and why!!! The budding young violinist will play, along with daddy, at her nursery next week, which has renewed interest in the violin. This had flagged somewhat, as she realised it wasn't quite as easy as it looks!!! We took her bike out today, as the temp is up around the +10 mark, and it feels like spring. They are saying that this is an Indian summer, and we'll be back in the sub-zeros again sometime soon.