Ilmatar's Inspirations: Nationalism, Globalization, and the Changing Soundscapes of Finnish Folk Music

Abstract

Ilmatar gave birth to the bard who sang the Finnish landscape into being in the Kalevala (the Finnish national epic). In Ilmatar's Inspirations, Tina K. Ramnarine explores creative processes and the critical role that has played in Finnish nationalism by focusing on Finnish folk music in the shifting spaces between the national imagination and the global marketplace. Through extensive interviews and observations of performances, Ramnarine reveals how new folk musicians think and talk about past and present folk practices, the role of folk in the representation of national identity and the interactions of Finnish folk musicians with performers from around the globe. She focuses especially on two internationally successful groups - JPP, a group that plays fiddle dance music, and Varttina, an ensemble that highlights women's vocal traditions. Analyzing the multilayered processes - musical, institutional, political and commercial - that have shaped and are shaped by new folk in Finland, Ramnarine gives us an entirely new understanding of the connections among music, place and identity.

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