Finnish Songs
The Finns, a northern people, although often dominated either by Sweden or Russia, have their own songs and peculiar rhythms. The Kalevala is their great epic poem, like the Iliad of Greece, Beowulf of the Anglo-Saxons, and the Eddas of Iceland. From this narrative poem or epic, have come many a folk-tune. Besides, they sing of their beautiful country, often called the country of lakes.
The typical rhythm of Finland is the ⁵⁄₄ time which sounds most attractive. They have the kantele, a plucked string instrument, and they glory in their folk music which they use as an everyday joy and do not “turn it on” only for “hey-days and holidays.”
Poland’s Music
The Polish people have loved music as the Russians love it, and although Poland has been reconquered, divided and redivided among the surrounding kingdoms of Europe, it has always kept its own music. So we have another set of Slav songs but with certain rhythmical differences, not found in the music of other nations. (Chapter IX.)
There is an Oriental strain in this music, too, and it must be very ancient indeed, for Oriental tribes have not lived in this country for ages.
In addition to an instrument like the Russian gusslee, and a violin like the Arabian rebab, the Polish have a clarinet made of wood, called by its old name of chalumeau, the lute, and an instrument called the kobza, belonging to the bagpipe family. This is of great age, but is still in use among the mountaineers of Carpathia, and is made of goat skin with three pipe attachments. The kobza can replace an entire orchestra!
Gypsies
Gypsies! The name fires our imagination and brings up pictures of dark-skinned, black-eyed people with glossy black hair, dressed in gay colored shawls, with bright kerchiefs wound around their heads. We think of them as being on “one grand picnic,” living out of doors, cooking their meals over bonfires in the open, sleeping in their covered wagons or tents, or under the stars, always gay, care-free and dirty! Then, think of the Gypsy music,—the dances, the songs, and the wonderful violin playing! So wild, so weird, so out-of-doors is it, that we are thrilled by the very thought of it.
Where did these folk come from? Who are they? What are they? They have spread over most of Europe, and are found in Hungary, Bohemia, Roumania, Italy, Spain, Germany, Russia, England, Turkey, and even America. They are a race and they have a language of their own. Theirs is a mixture of the ancient Prakrit or Indian, with the different languages with which they have come in contact in the course of many centuries. Men who make a study of the history of languages say, that in their idioms, they show traces of roving for many centuries in Asiatic countries, before reaching Europe in or before the 15th century. They are often called “Bohemians” because Bohemia (Czecho-Slovakia) seems to have been their main European camping-ground. It is generally agreed that they came from India and that they are Asiatic, but they got their name Gypsy, a contraction of the word Egyptian, because people at first thought that they came from Egypt.