FINLAND: Experiencing Music

                        EXPERIENCING MUSIC

On Monday November 3rd we had the opportunity to have a very interesting concert in our school. The concert was aimed at the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th graders.

A group of three musicians performed folk music by using very old traditional instruments such as the Finnish kantele, the Shaman drum, the bowed lyre (jouhikko in Finnish) anf the Jew’s harp. also known as the jaw harp. They even made music by using stones. But it wasn’t just a traditional concert with playing the instruments but it was a concert with a plot. The performance was called “ The first Aid Team in the Spirit of Kalevala”. Kalevala is the national epic of Finland. As the title says, the performance was funny and full of surprises. The story had three characters: a shaman, a nurse and a girl called Pirkko  and they tried to heal illnesses by means of songs and music and they asked for pupils’ help.

After  the concert the pupils wrote in Finnish and the fourth graders also in English a review of the concert. Mainly the pupils liked the concert a lot, especially because it was funny and surprising and because it had a plot. They also liked to take part in the concert. The biggest drawback was the length of the concert: many pupils thought that the concert was too long.

Here a few pupils’ comments:

“ It was funny when the shaman turned into a bee.”

“ The concert was funny, extraordinary, weird, loud, surprising and full of action.”

“ There was a funny shaman, a strange nurse and an extraordinary girl in the concert.”

“ The concert was interesting because the musicians had strange instruments.”

“ The concert was strange but OK.”