History

From Orivesi across Finland

Since the 1950s, Suomen Nuorison Liitto had organised short courses for folk dancers at the Orivesi Institute. Alongside these, the first folk musician courses were held in 1964. Docent Erkki Ala-Könni was responsible for the theoretical content of the courses, Voitto Mäkelä and Eino Tulikari for the practical side. There was a dire shortage of folk dance accompanists, and the courses were hoped to remedy this.

In Suomen Nuorison Liitto's folk dance and music committee, discussions continued about creating an organisation of folk music enthusiasts' own. In 1966 a separate folk music committee was appointed, which in its turn strengthened the position of folk music. In autumn 1967, prepared by secretary general Juhani Yli-Rantala, Suomen Nuorison Liitto put forward a proposal to found an organisation called Suomen Nuorison Liiton Pelimannit. For this purpose, the folk music community was called together at the Orivesi Institute in January 1968.

The meeting, which began early at 8.30 am, immediately took a favourable view, and many rousing speeches supported founding the new organisation. In planning the activities, the importance of folk dance accompaniment, education and archiving was emphasised. At the meeting, Pelimannikilta's chair Paavo Tamminen tried to draw players into his own organisation, but the rest of the meeting preferred to stay in the care and financial security of Suomen Nuorison Liitto.

The first chair of Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto, professor Erkki Ala-Könni.

During the lunch break some rules were drafted, and the association was named Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys. (The name was later changed to Suomen Kansanmusiikkiliitto at the start of 1980.) Elected as chair was the chair of SNL's folk music committee, Erkki Ala-Könni (pictured). He knew the field of folk music enthusiasts thoroughly from his own fieldwork trips and as a judge of dozens of folk music competitions. The 23 participants of the meeting were recorded as founding members, with the Kankaanpään pelimannit group as an ensemble member. The founding members included folk music enthusiasts from all over Finland: Satakunta, Central Finland, Itä-Häme, Pirkanmaa, Savo, Varsinais-Suomi, Uusimaa, Southern Ostrobothnia, Kymenlaakso and South Karelia. Elected to the board, alongside chair Ala-Könni, were Timo Panula (vice-chair), Jaakko Kaappa, Timo Koski, Voitto Mäkelä, Vesa Pentti, Mauri Saikko and, as secretary, Sirkka Viitanen.

Getting started together

In its early years Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys operated mainly as an independent organisation, but in close cooperation with Suomen Nuorison Liitto. As a supporting organisation, SNL secured its finances. In turn, Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys took responsibility for folk music activity across the whole youth association field, and its board continued the work of SNL's folk music committee.

Pekka Kinnunen was the first folk musician awarded the honorary title of oltermanni by Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys. With his daughters he played much traditional music from Kannonkoski at the association's events. On the right, founding member Voitto Mäkelä.

In its first year the association took an active part in the Jyväskylän Kesä festival and organised three folk music courses, one in Orivesi and two in Suolahti. Folk music was also promoted by distributing folk music arrangements to enthusiasts as duplicated sheets.

Key activities of the second year (1969) were the folk music parts of the Joensuu tanssii ja soi event and folk music courses in North Karelia, Kaustinen and Orivesi. Timo Koski and many others continued making folk music arrangements. Annual joint-playing programmes were also introduced. At the end of the year the association began publishing its own magazine, Pelimanni. What started as a modest typewritten A5 duplicate has in 40 years grown into a colourful and varied magazine, the leading folk music publication in Finland.

Pispalan Sottiisi, held in Tampere in summer 1970, offered an excellent occasion for playing together. 210 folk musicians from around Finland signed up. The folk musician concert in the university's great hall gathered the best of the players, and on the big stage of the ice hall a large festival audience was served varied folk music, with couple dances and polonaises. Before the event, the first composition competition had also been decided, seeking a signature tune for Pispalan Sottiisi. It was won by Asikkala-born accordionist Kalevi Nyqvist. The first reprise of the winning sottiisi had, note for note, borrowed the interlude of the Amalia jenkka, recorded on disc decades earlier by Georg Malmsten, but the jury did not remark on this. The same year the first Kiikoisten Purpurijuhlat festival was also held.

A record and TV exposure

Suomen Nuorison Liitto's 90th anniversary celebrations in Seinäjoki kept folk musicians busy in 1971. The youth folk music camp was also held, now for the third time, in Kaustinen before the festival. Regional activity expanded, and weekend courses were held around the country to go over the Suvipäivät repertoire. The association's first and so far only EP record, Mestaripelimannit, came out in 1971. The first folk music family camp was held in Central Finland. These were organised for a few years in the 1970s, but the activity did not spread to other regions.

The first Samuelin Poloneesi was held at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki in 1972.

1972 was an especially active year in the association's history. It saw the first Sata-Häme Soi in Ikaalinen and the Eteläpohjalaiset Spelit in Kauhajoki, the second Pispalan Sottiisi in Tampere, and the eighth Orivesi folk music courses. A new departure came with two televised showcases – Pelimanniriihi on TV 1 and Pelimannimestarit on TV 2 – in all ten big preliminary rounds and eight separate TV programmes. In the latter I too had my baptism of fire as a TV host. The association's own big folk music concert on Annunciation Day, Samuelin Poloneesi, was also held for the first time at Finlandia Hall in 1972. In the musicians' great joint performance, besides the signature tune Samuelin Poloneesi, the audience heard Matti Hintikka's Nuottamarssi and the folk tunes Pappilan pellossa and Paavo kahtoo. Samuelin Poloneesi was conducted by none other than Jorma Panula.

Focus on the regions

If 1972 was a super year, the next year was a pause for breath. The focus of activity shifted to the regions when, under the rule reform that took effect at the start of the year, the association's membership came to consist of regional member associations, with supporters as personal members. Activity also grew in northernmost Finland when Lapin Nuorison Liitto organised the first Jutajaiset in 1973. In five years the association's membership had multiplied many times over (23 in 1968, 1,600 in 1973). Long-serving secretary Sirkka Viitanen's workload eased a little when Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys received its first state grant (12,000 marks), which helped fund the hiring of Harri Koski as executive director for a couple of months at the end of the year. The following year Solja Karhumäki was hired as office secretary.

Competitions, concerts and training

The Sepän Soitto ensemble competitions began in Uusimaa in summer 1974. The same summer Keski-Suomen Kansansoittajat launched Keskiviikko Soi events, which a year later grew into a national music campaign. The new organisational model also produced various training sessions for the chairs and secretaries of the regional associations and the board members of Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys. Topics included folk music education and funding models. On 30 March 1973 the Ministry of Education had appointed a Music Education Committee, tasked among other things with drafting, on the basis of the country's current and future needs, a proposal for the overall organisation of music education in Finland, paying particular attention to reducing the regional and social inequality present in music education. When the committee's report was completed in late 1974, Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys hurried to start instructor training in cooperation with the Association of Adult Education Centres in December 1974.

Eero Piirto and Risto Ala-Ikkelä gave a fine performance at the first Samuelin Poloneesi, as at many other Kansanmusiikkiliitto events.

Suomi Soi 1975 was a national joint effort by several music organisations to promote music-making as a hobby. Suomen Pelimanniyhdistys took an active part. The idea was to organise, with Ministry of Education support, a series of six free concerts in as many places as possible over the summer. Results varied widely, but awareness of folk music grew enormously. Still, it can be counted a success: over 200 municipalities held more than 1,000 events in all, mostly featuring amateur music and local tradition. As domestic folk music activity expanded, international contacts also grew. In cooperation with Suomen Nuorison Liitto, folk music was exported to America, Hungary and Estonia alike. The Nordic NORDLEK cooperation agreement was signed in Sweden in summer 1975.

Summer folk music activity had grown so much over the years that the association's board began considering national coordination of events. The Finnish championship competitions for folk musicians also occupied the board in 1976; it distanced itself from all the summer's championship competitions, considering it had no direct connection to them.

The Suomi Soi concert series of two years earlier was repeated in 1977 and proved nearly as popular as before. Most of the proven activities continued year after year: Samuelin Poloneesi, the Orivesi courses, the youth folk music camps and the three-stage folk music instructor training. And what happened next? To be continued.