acoustemology indigeneity and joik in

8/9/2019 Acoustemology Indigeneity and Joik in

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Acoustemology, Indigeneity, and Joik in Valkeapää's Symphonic Activism: Views fromEurope's Arctic Fringes for Environmental EthnomusicologyAuthor(s): Tina K. RamnarineSource: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 53, No. 2 (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. 187-217Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for EthnomusicologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653066 .

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2/32

Vol.

53,

No.

2

Ethnomusicology

Spring/Summer

2009

Acoustemology,

Indigeneity,

and

Joik

in

Valkeapaa's

Symphonic

Activism:

Views

from

Europe's

Arctic

Fringes

for

Environmental

Ethnomusicoiogy

Tina

K. Ramnarine

/

Royal

Holloway University

of London

Can

you

hear the sound

of life

in

the

roaring

of the creek

in

the

blowing

of thewind

That

is

all

I

want to

say

that is all

This

poem,

by

NilsAslakValkeapaa

(1943-2001),

published

in

his volume

Trekways of

theWind

([1974,1976,1981] 1985),

resonates

with eth

nomusicological

attention

to

acoustic

ecologies,

to

analyses

of

the

ways

in

which environments

shape

musical

concepts

and creative

processes.

The

poem

can

be

interpreted

as

a

statement,

drawing

a

listener's

attention

to

a

sound-producing

environment. It

can

be

read

as a

question

about

perception:

can

you

hear the

sound

of life?

r it

can

be understood

as an

assertion

of

authorship

that

moves

beyond

mere

production

of

a

literary

text,

as

the

au

thor's intention

to

say

the

roaring

of the

creek,

the

blowing

of thewind.

Authorship

in

this

sense

draws

on

Murray

Schafer's

ideas first

presented

in

the

1970s

about

not

only

trying

to

hear the

acoustic

environment

as a

musical

composition

but

also

owning

responsibility

for

its

composition

(1977:205).

In

ethnomusicoiogy

these ideas have

been elaborated

with

nuances

from

the

discipline's

phenomenological

turn.

Feld,for

example,

writes

about acoustic

epistemologies, using the term acoustemology as a special kind of know

ing

in

which

sonic

sensibility

is

basic

to

experiential

truth

1994:11).

This article

discusses acoustic

epistemologies

and sonic

environments in

themusical and

political

worlds of the

Sami,

who

are

positioned

as

indigenous

?

2009

by

the

Society

for

Ethnomusicoiogy


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3/32

188

Ethnomusicology,

Spring/Summer

2009

people

on

the

Arctic

fringes

of

Europe,

living

across

the

Nordic

countries

and the

Russian

Kola

Peninsula,

an area

which the

Sami call

Sapmi,

land of

the Sami. I focus on thejoik, a vocal genre characterized by distinctive vocal

timbres

and

techniques,

in

which

the

performer

joiks

(sings?though

some

commentators

distinguish

between

joiking

and

singing ) something

rather

than

joiks

about

something.

I

explore

joik

as

it

appears

in

the

symphonic

tra

dition

through

a

specific

case

study?Valkeapaa's symphonic

activism.While

Valkeapaa's

symphonic projects

and

his

status

within

Sapmi

and

beyond

lend

themselves

to

the

pursuit

of

various

critical strandswithin

ethnomusicologi

cal discourses

on

the individual and the

work,

the discussion

in

this article

is

framed by broad questions concerning creativity,environment, and activism.

What does

it

mean

to

joik

something

rather than

to

joik

about

something?

What

is

authorship

when the

author,

themusical

form,

and

its

object

are one

and the

same

(the

joiker-joik-joiked

complex)?

As the

North

Pole

melts,

why

should

we

consider

sonic

sensibilities?What

are

the

political implications

of

posing

such

questions

about

Sami

acoustemologies?

In

choosing

to

examine

how

joik

has been featured

in

the

symphonic

tradition of

Western

art

music,

referring

to two

symphonies

composed

in

the

1990s?the

Joik

Symphony

and the Bird

Symphony?my project

is

to

explore authorship, politics,

and

environment

in

the

acoustemologies

of northern

Europe's

fringes,

pointing

to

an

indigenous

politics

that

is not

based

solely

on

affirming

the

joik

as a

genre

that

is

one

of the

most

recognizably

identified

as

Sami,

but also

on

the

engagement

with and

reconfiguration

of

a

musical aesthetic?the

symphonic

tradition?that

tells

us

something

about musical

creativity,

political

expres

sions,

and

environmental

concerns,

such that

the

symphony,

as

well

as

the

joik,

can

be

understood within

the frameworks

of

an

environmental

ethnomusi

cology.

I

draw

initially

on

theoretical frameworks

from

acoustic

ecology

that

encourage us to attend to sound inecological thought.But creative processes

explained

only

in terms

of the

sonic environment

as

mediating

human/nature

relations

or as

shaping

musical

conceptualizations

render

incomplete

insights

into

an

understanding

of how

joik

singers

sing

something.

I

also

turn,

therefore,

to

theoretical

ideas that

have been

developed

in

green

postcolonial

studies

regarding

colonial

impacts

on

ecosystems

and

thinking

past

the human.

All of

a

sudden

people

saw

a

ptarmigan :

Joik

and the

Complexities

of

Relationality

Sami

have

been the

subject

of considerable

ethnographic

attention

since

the seventeenth

century

and

they

are

also mentioned

in

earlier

accounts;

one

of the earliest

references

is

made

by

Tacitus

in

the first

entury

ce.

They

are

traditionally

known

as

nomadic

pastoralists

with

a

reindeer

economy,

though

different

Sami

populations

have been

engaged

in

a

variety

of subsis




4/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

189

tence

economies

and

identify

themselves

as

forest,mountain,

or

coastal

Sami,

depending

on

their

primary

subsistence

modes.

Despite

the

image

of

the

nomadic reindeer herder, only aminority are occupied now with reindeer

and

today

all

Sami

have fixed

housing

as

well. Sami

languages

are

related

to

Finnish,

belonging

to

the

Finno-Ugric

linguistic

group.

Due

to

state

education

policies,

however,

many

Sami have

grown

up

speaking

Norwegian,

Swedish,

Finnish,

or

Russian

as

their

principal

languages

instead.

A

modern

movement

to

reclaim

Sami

languages

has been

fostered,

especially

through

school

educa

tion

systems.

The

Sami

across

different

regions

use a

variety

of

terms

for

singing

and

son& 'mc\udm%oikjuoi'ga

vuolle. The south

Sami

use

the

terms

vuollie and vuolle. The northern

Sami

use

the

terms

luohti

(for

the

song)

and

juoigan

(to

sing).

In

the

eastern

regions,

the

terms

leu'dd

and

ly'vvt

are

used.

The

term

joik

(or

yoik)

appears

widely

in

the

research

literature

as a

general

term to

indicate both

the

song

and the

singing.

Joik

was

often associated with

shamanism,

the earliest

description

of

which

was

recorded

in

the twelfth

century

in

the

Historia

Norwegiae

(Tol

ley

2009:14),

and

even

today

sacral

understandings

of

joik

persist,

with

joik

seen as

having

the

power

to

encompass

and

express

the

reindeer,

the

bear,

or the

person

referred to and recalled in the

joik

(DuBois

2006:71).

Edstrom

notes

that

in

pre-Christian

Scandinavia,

shamans

were

thought

to

receive

their

joiks

from

supernatural

beings

(1985:160).

Joiks

are

performed

for

animals

and land

as

well

as

for

people.

Joik

performance

thus

points

to

a

complex

set

of

relationships

between

music, environment,

and the

sacred,

and

con

temporary

joik

practices provide

a

rich forum

for

exploring

the

intersections

between acoustic

epistemologies

and

indigenous

politics.

In

writing

about

relationships

and

intersections,

however,

I

have

pointed

to

several

assump

tions about joik thatdemand furthercritical scrutiny.The notion of relation

ship

is

habitually

evoked

in

definitions of acoustic

ecology.

The World Forum

for

Acoustic

Ecology,

for

example,

defines

its

area

of

enquiry

as

focusing

on

the

inter-relationship

between

sound,

nature,

and

society

in

their

statement

of

rationale

printed

in

the

front

pages

of

the

society's

journal, SoundScape:

The

Journal

of

Acoustic

Ecology.

Furthermore,

in

the editorial

to

the first

volume of this

journalWesterkamp

states

the

concerns

of

acoustic

ecology

as

both the

relationship

between

soundscape

and listener

and

how

the

nature of this relationship makes out the character of any given soundscape

thereby putting

acoustic

phenomena

at

the

centre

of

ecological

thinking

(Westerkamp

2000:4).

The

possibility

that

performance might

generate

new

understandings

of

nature-human relations

has

become

a

theoretical

interest

in

the social

sciences,

also,

opening

spaces

for

thinking

about

acoustic-musical

activities

and

prompting

a

performative

turn

that views

nature

performed

by

human

and nonhuman

agents

in

creative,

improvisatory,

and

emergent




5/32

190

Ethnomusicology,

Spring/Summer

2009

processes

(Szerszynski,Heim,andWaterton

2003:4).

In

capturing

Sami

sonic

environments,

modern

joik

recordings

sometimes

include

birdsong

and

rein

deer sounds: soundscapes, therefore, that take us into debates on ecological

thought

and

nature

performed.1

If the

relationship

between

acoustics

and

ecologies

opens spaces

for

critical

thinking

on

human

agency,

so too

do the

intersections

between

acoustic

epistemologies

and

indigenous

politics.

As

the theme of

symphonic

activism

is

developed

I

move

away

from the idea

of

intersections

as

denoting points

of coincidence towards

highlighting

an

understanding

of

acoustic

phenomena

that

is

already

politicized.

In

this

re

spect,

discourses

on

and

theorization

of

joiking

something

provide

a

point

of departure.

Joiking something

is

a

concept

that

various

researchers

have

struggled

to

explain.

In his

ethnographic study

of the Sami

of

the

Russian

Kola Peninsula

published

in

1946,

Nikolai NikolaevichVolkov

wrote

that

Sami

songs

do

not

have

any

artistic

images.

The

songs

are

improvisations

with

a

concrete

theme.

To 'create'

a

song,

the

Sami

have

to

put

their

attention

on some

outstanding

event in

their

life.Then

they

'create'

a

song

and

sing

it

in

Lasko andTaksami

1996:90).

A

joik

singer

tells

Volkov that the

joik

syllabalization ly-ly-ly

oes

not

mean

anything;

it

is

used

to

fly

into

a

song

(ibid.).

Edstrom

refers

to

melody

as

a

fundamentally

significant

element of

joik

through

which,

accord

ing

to

Sami

concepts,

the

joiker

can

express

an

opinion

on

the

qualities

of

the

object

of the

joik

(for

example,

a

person),

one's

feelings

for the

object

of

the

joik,

and

memories of the

object

that

is

being

joiked

(Edstrom 1985:161).

The Swedish

joik

collector

Karl

Tiren,

who recorded

around

700

joiks

and

transcribed

over

500

of

them,

describes

joiking

something

by

referring

to

the

concept

of

leitmotif

in

the

Wagnerian

tradition.

Joik

becomes

an

example

of

tonmalerei

(tone

painting)

(Tiren

1942).

But

tonmalerei

is

merely

evoca

tive or imitative and indicates distance between the signifier and signified,

in

which

the latter

is

represented

through

a

musical

label.

The

problems

of

thinking

about

music

as

having

narrative,

representational

and

programmatic

qualities

are

compounded

if

applied

to

joik

since musical

representation

does

not

correspond

to

the

concept

of

joiking

something.

Ola Graff

(2004)

takes

tonmalerei

as

a

point

of

departure

but

questions

whether it

is

a

characteristic

of

all

joik

melodies

as

well

as

whether

all

joiks

have

a

concrete

referential

object.

Graff

adopts

a

semiotic

approach

to

the

relation between

joik

and

its

object, distinguishing between music as structure andmusic as communica

tion. For

him,

the

joik-object

relation

is

initially

an

arbitrary

one,

just

as

the

name

of

a

person

could

have been

chosen

from

many

other

possibilities,

but

it

becomes

an

iconic

relation,

inwhich the

joik

serves

a

referential

(or

repre

sentational)

function. Such

referentiality

is

elaborated

through

body

gesture

in

performance

and

through language:

including

storytelling

associated

with

a

joik,

textual

ambiguity

(where

one

word

may

have several

meanings),

and




6/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

191

the

borrowing

of other

texts

resulting

in

an

intertextual

joik.

Graff

(2004

and

p.c,

28

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway)

argues

that

in

view of

such

performa

tive and narrative strategies, a joik can take on new meanings, seeming to

refer

to

other

objects,

but

the basic referential

meaning

is

present

whether

or

not

it is

perceived

by

a

listener.

Thus,

the

transmission

of

meaning

is

divided

and

multilayered

and

it is

possible

to

present

different

meanings

across

the

various

layers

of

denotation,

connotation,

textual

ambiguity,

and

gesture.

I

suggest

that both tonmalerei

and

semiotics

are

theoretical frameswithin

discourses

on

musical

representation

through

which

attempts

to

understand

the

concept

of

joiking

something

are

made.

They

are

frames

involving

pro

cesses

of

translation

through

which

joik concepts might

be

grasped.

But

they

are

also modes of

thinking

through

which

joik

significance

and

meaning

may

be obscured.

Joiking something

may

not

be

reducible

to

thinking

about

mu

sic's

capacity

to

refer

to

something

beyond

itself.

Per

Haetta,

the

joiker

with

whom

Ola Graff

worked

extensively,

spoke

about

joik personifying,

illustrat

ing,

or

taking

themelodic likeness of

its

object,

and the

joiker

Ante Mihkkal

Gaup

from

Kautokeino

(Norway)

told Graff that

a

joik

is

your

deepest

name

(p.c,

Graff,

28

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway).

The

joiker

and

lawyer

Ande

Somby

explains

that

an

important

technical

and aesthetic

aspect

of

joik

is:

The

ability

to

bring something

into the

room

that is

not

there before

you

start,

like

I

did with the

ptarmigan [referring

to

a

recent

performance

I

had

heard].

All of

a

sudden

people

saw

a

ptarmigan

and

right

after

I

brought

in

a

wolf

as

well.

Not

a

very

hard

wolf,

but still

a

wolf;

and that is

close

to

the old

shamanistic

idea

of

transformation

...

In that

way

your

listeners

can

turn

into

a

grouse

bird

[the

ptarmigan]

for

a

moment,

and then

you

can

hope

that

they

have

a

taste

of

this notion of

transforming

and

what that

means,

because

it

has

a

lot of ethical

consequences.

(Interview,

Ande

Somby,

25

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway)

The discourses of these joikers seem removed from analytical perspec

tives

on

the

symphony.Yet,

my

attempts

to

reconcile

joik

and

symphonic

con

cepts,

to

explain

one

mode

through

the

other,

are

pertinent

to

this

exploration

of

Valkeapaa's symphonic

activism for

they

involve shifts

in

fundamental

concepts

around

issues

ofmusical

value,

creativity,

nd

relationality

(whether

for

genre,

environment,

or

politics).

Modern

joik performers

(solo

artists

and

groups)

like Ande

Somby,

Mari

Boine,

Wimme

Saari,

Frode

Fjellheim,

Johan

Sara,Tiina

Sanila,

Amoc,

Ulla

Pirttijarvi,

Adjagas,

and

Angelin

Tytot

(Girls

of

Angeli), aswell as Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa himself, have turned our attention to

the

ways

in

which

commercial

recordings,

media

technologies,

and

global

music

markets

have

been

used

in

promoting

indigenous

politics

and

forming

global

indigenous

sensibilities.

In

choosing

symphonic

projects,

I

intend

to

highlight

how the

symphony

has also

featured

in

the

indigenous

project.

In

symphonic projects

as

well

as

in

some

contemporary

joik recordings

inspired

by

rock,

rap,

or

heavy

metal

we

find Sami

musicians

offering

a

critique

of




7/32

192

Ethnomusicology,

Spring/Summer

2009

environmental

thinking

that

insists

on

the

notion

of

relationship

between

humans

and their

environments,

and of

sound

mediating

between them.

This critique isa fundamental aspect of theseNordic Arctic acoustemolo

gies.

It

is

a

critique

that

might

contribute

significant

insights

to

research

perspectives

in

environmental

ethnomusicology.

Indeed,

if

creativity,

poli

tics,

and environment

are

themes that

take

us

into

seemingly

familiar and

divisive

configurations

of the

cultural,

the

social,

and the

natural,

adopted

by ethnographic disciplines

as

well

as

by

acoustic

ecology,

Sami

indigenous

political

and musical

expressions

might

offer

interesting

alternatives

to

ques

tions

about

music in

the

nexus

of

nature/human

relations

that

cut

across

culture, society, and nature. Acoustemology in the symphonic tradition con

sidered here

might challenge

our

ideas

of

relationality

altogether, dissolving

the

constructs

through

which

a

relationship

between humans and

nature

(or

between

cultural

behavior and environmental

phenomena)

seems

to

make

sense.

Such

acoustic

epistemologies

lie

at

the heart of

indigenous

political

agendas.

They

underpin

notions

of

place

and

home.

In

attending

to

the

ana

lytical

challenges

posed by

joik

that have

preoccupied

joik

researchers,

my

aim is

to

highlight

how

Nordic Arctic

acoustemologies

provide important

perspectives

on

environmental

issues in

both

global

and

local

terms

(for

instance

on

current

concerns

about

the

sustainable

development

of

Arctic

resources).

Introducing

the

Protagonist

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa,

the

Sami

composer,

writer,

visual

artist,

and

activist

who

became such

an

influential and

important

figure

in

the

Sami

indigenous

movement

from

the

1970s

onwards,

is

an

ideal

protagonist

in

exploring

acous

temology and indigenous politics in the symphonic tradition.He was born in

Enontekio,

in

northern

Finland,

and lived

in

both

Finland and

Norway,

crossing

the

nation-state

borders that

divide

Sapmi.

He

was

active

in

theWorld Council

of

Indigenous

Peoples, composed

music

for the

film

Ofelas

(Pathfinder,

irected

by

Nils

Gaup,

1987),

and received

several awards

for his work.

He

is

now

an

iconic

figure

in

the

Sami

artistic

and

political

world.

As

Gaski

observed

in

a

commemoration

in

2001: Nils-Aslak's

accomplishments

for

his

people

were so

great

thathe will

come

to

be

regarded by

all

posterity

as a

modern-day

mythical

being among the Sami (Gaski 2001).Valkeapaa played an extraordinary role in

fostering

the

joik

revival

movement

from

the late

1960s

onwards.

He

engaged

inmusical

experiments

and collaborations

that have resulted

in

shifting

joik

transmission

and

performance

patterns.

Although

his

innovations

also

received

some

criticism,

his

legacy

is

apparent

in

the

presentation

of

joik

in

popular

music

(in rock,

heavy

metal,

and

rap),

in

the

symphony,

in

the

music

video,

in

Sami

music

festivals,

in

choral

projects,

and in

school

music

education.2

It is




8/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

193

apparent

too

in the

development

of

contemporary

Sami

literature,

ilm,

and

in

the establishment

of

a

contemporary

Sami

theater

group

and

the

publishing

house,DAT. He was awarded theNordic Prize forLiterature in 1991 forBeaivi,

Ahcdzan

(The

Sun,

My

Father),

the

jury's

special

prize

in

the

European

Radio

Competition

Prix

Italia

in

1993

for

Goase

DuSse, (Bird

symphony),

and

he

was

invited

to

perform joik

at

the

opening

ceremony

of

the

Olympic

Winter

Games

in

Norway

Through

Valkeapaa's

works

we

gain

a

better

understanding

of the

connect

edness of

joiking,

story-telling, ainting,

and

photography

As

Stoor

notes,

story

telling,

pauses,

and

song

are

all

part

of the

joik

composition

(Stoor

2007:237).

Textual codes and visual representations

are a

fundamental aspect

of this kind

of

acoustemology.

In

fact,Valkeapaa's

many-leveled

linguistic

play

offers

ways

of

approaching

double

layers

of

communication

in

joik

and

in

storytelling

(Gaski

1997:211-15).

Questions

about musical

meaning,

tone

painting

and

referentiality

in

joik

arise

in

relation

to

linguistic

frames that

might

be

impos

sible

to

translate.

Gaski

indicates

some

of the

difficulties,

noting

that there

is

an enormous

Sami

vocabulary

for

describing

reindeer and

around

150

terms

to

identify

different

kinds

of

snow.

The

problems

of

translating

a

minority

language

like

Sami

lay

bare

the limitations

of

majority

languages,

a

revelation

through

which

poems,

stories,

images,

and

joiks

become

politicized

in

point

ing

to

different

ways

of

viewing

theworld

(cf.,

Gaski

1997).

Joiks

in

the

Western

Art

Tradition

Valkeapaa

was not

the first

to

introduce

use

of the

joik

in

the

Western

art

tradition.

The

joik

based

art

work

emerged

in

the

early

twentieth

century,

notably

with

a

symphonic

poem

Aslak Smaukka

(1917)

by

the Finnish

composer Leevi Madetoja, and an opera, Aslak Hetta (1930), by the Finnish

joik

collector and

researcher

Armas Launis

(1884-1959).

The

Lapplands

symfoni

by

the Swedish

composer

Wilhelm

Peterson-Berger,

first

performed

in

1917,

was

based

on

joiks

recorded

by

KarlTiren.

(Peterson-Berger

also

wrote

the introduction toTiren's

thesis

[1942].)

The first such

joik

based

artwork

may

be

Lappisk

Juoige-Marsch,

the

unpublished

manuscript

of the

Norwegian

composer

Ole Olsen

(Graff

1997:36).

Einar

Englund

used

joiks

in

the

soundtrack

to

an

award

winning

film

at

Cannes,

Valkoinen

Peura

(The

White Reindeer, 1952). The joikhas also featured inchoral works, including

Lapponia

(1975)

by

Erik

Bergman.

More

recent

joik

based

art

works include Frode

Fjellheim's

mass,

Aejlies

Gaaltije

(The

Sacred

Source?an Arctic

Mass,

1995)

and

Skuvle

Nelja

(an

opera

that

premiered

in

Ostersund,

Sweden

in

2006),

and

Jan

Sandstrom's

choral work

Biegga

Luohte

(Ybik

to

the mountain

wind)

formixed

choir,

premiered

in

London

in

1998.3

Drawing

on

different traditions of sacred

music,




9/32

194

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer

2009

?)d\heirtisAejlies

Gaaltije

is based

on

the

South

Sami

liturgy

but

juxtaposes

Christian

and Shaman

belief

systems

through

movements

such

as

the

kyjrie

(kyrie), aejlies, aejlies, aejlies (sanctus), Jubmelen vuelie (Joik ofGod, based

on

a

joik

transcribed

by

KarlTiren),andMTjaehkere (a

movement

that

presents

a

joik

referring

to

the

sacred

mountain

Tjaehkere).

Johan

Sara

composed

a

Sami

opera,

Skuolft,

in

2005

and the

Sdmiska

Romanza

(Sami romance)

for

chamber choir

and

orchestra

in 2000.

With the

exceptions

of

Fjellheim

and

Sara,

who

were

both

amongst

the

founding

members of the

Sami

Society

of

Composers

in

the

mid-1990s

(interview, Sara,

25

March

2008, Maze,

Norway),

these

are

examples

of

joik

based

art

works

by

non-Sami

composers.

Several

of

these composers have referred

to

the ethnographic recordings, transcriptions,

and

research

writings

of

scholars who worked

across

theNordic

region

in

the

early

twentieth

century, including:

Vaino

Salminen

(18

joiks

recorded

in

the

Torne

Lappmark

area

in

1906-1907);

Armas

Launis

(1904

and

1905

record

ings,

transcriptions

and field

diaries,

see

Launis

[1904-05]

2004);

Karl Tiren

(whose

recordings

dating

from

1911

were

lost

in

their

transfer

to

Berlin

in

the

1930s,

though

he retained

some

for his

personal

collection

[seeTernhag

2000;

Jones-Bamman

2003]);

Elial

Lagercrantz (recordings

and

transcriptions

of

joiks

from

Varangerbotn, Norway,

see

Figure

1);

and

Armas Otto Vaisanen.

In

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa's symphonic

work,

the

joik

is

introduced

as an

aspect

of

symphonic

thought

but

he also

used the

genre

of

symphony

to

throw

no

tions of

creativity, authorship,

and form

into

question.

The

two

symphonies

discussed below

present

rather

different

approaches

to

the

incorporation

and

treatment of

joik.

They

also

present

different kinds

of

responses

to

political

concerns

during

this

period.

Reshaped

in

my

soul :

The

Joik Symphony

In

1973,

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa

had

invited

the folk

revivalists

and

jazz

musicians,

Seppo

Paakkunainen,Ilpo

Saastamoinen,

and

Esko Rosnell

to

go

to

Adja

Johki.

In this northern

Finnish location

they experimented

with

adding

instrumental

accompaniment

(of

flute,

acoustic

guitar,

and

bongo)

to

joiks.

In

1980,

having

listened

to

Dvorak's

Ninth

Symphony,

in

which

the

com

poser

had

drawn

upon

the

spirituals

of

African-Americans,

Valkeapaa

asked

Paakkunainen

(b. 1943)

if

he

would

compose something

similar

based

on

Sami joiks.His request tapped into the expressive politics ofminorities and

strengthened

a

musical

collaboration

that

had

begun

in

1971

and

that

had

hitherto

resulted

invarious

jazz-joik

experiments

(e.g.,Valkeapaa

1998).

The

resulting

symphony

(the

second

version ofwhich

was

completed

in

1989),

theJuoigansinfoniija

(Joik

symphony)

is

scored

for

a

symphony

orchestra,

improvising

instrumental

group,

two

solo

joik

singers

and solo

saxophone,

a

scoring

that

Paakkunainen

repeated

in

a

later

suite for

symphony

orches




10/32

Ramnarine: Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

195

Figure

1.

Elial

Lagercrantz

recording

the

Sami

musician,

Movs-Niillas.

Photo

graph

by

Henrik

Nilssen,

1920

or

1925.

Reproduced

with

permission

from

the

Varangerbotn

Samiske

Museum.

iiffiillli lt;>

*

*^

tra

based

on

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa's

melodies and

poems

Sdpmi

Lottdzan

(both works were recorded in 1992.) There are fourmovements (parts) in

the

Joik

Symphony

:

1)

Gumadii

galbmasit

skabma

(Polar

night

resound

ing

with

cold);

(2)

Humadii,

duoddarat

juige

(Drone,

joik

of the

hills);

(3)

Oappat,

vieljat

vaimmustan,

biegga

(Sisters, brothers,

thewind

in

my

heart);

and

(4)

Eallima

ahpi

(The

ocean

of

life).

Around

twenty

joiks

are

featured

in

the

symphony,

the melodic outlines of which

are

presented

in various

timbral combinations

throughout

thework

(see

Figure

2).

Traditional

joiks,

Valkeapaa's

newly composed

joiks,

and three of his

personal joiks

appear

in

the symphony (email, Seppo Paakkunainen, 8 March 2008).

Some

commentators

have

described

this

symphony

as

an

example

of

musical fusion

(e.g.,

Muikku

1989).Valkeapaa

wrote

about

joiks

in thiswork

as

being

a

sea

of

hills ;

this

symphony

is: Hills.Yoiking.

The

Sun.

And Baron

[Paakkunainen],

too

(the

final

lines

in

his

poem

in

the liner

notes

[1992:19]).

Seppo

Paakkunainen writes in the

same

liner

notes to

the

recording

of the

Joik

Symphony

that

this

is

the

way

the

luodit

[joiks]

I

have

learned

by

ear




11/32

196

Ethnomusicology, Spring/Summer

2009

from

Aim

[Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa]

have

been

reshaped

in

my

soul

(1992:8).

It

was

composed

for the

performers

who

recorded the

symphony

and

the

joikers

are

Valkeapaa

and

Johan

Anders

Baer.

Paakkunainen

plays

the

saxo

phone

and

his

Finnish folk revival

group,

Karelia,

play

the

improvising

in

strumental

parts.

Paakkunainen

aims

to

transfer

on

to

paper

what he has

discovered

through

improvisation

(cited

in

Muikku

1989:47),

a

stance

that

reveals

composition

as a

process

that

is

generated through

performance.

Paakkunainen's discourse alerts

us

that

composer-performer

distinctions

are

not

wholly

appropriate

in

analyzing

the

Joik

Symphony

This

is

a

point

that

is

also relevant

to

the Bird

Symphony.

These

are

works that

are

based

on

overlapping complexes

of

environmental

acoustic

phenomena, improvisa

tion,and formal structural organization, realized through unpredictable sonic

utterances in

which

not

only

the roles of

composer

and

performer

merge

but

in

which human

sonic

production

is

situated

within

specific

acoustic

soundscapes.

The

works

are

only

realized

in

performance.

Moreover,

in

traditional

joik

performance

the

notion

of

composer

is

not

prominent.

Graff

notes

that listeners

do

not

usually

ask who is

the

com

poser?

They

are more

likely

to

ask

To whom

belongs

the

joik?

In

his

fieldwork

on

the

surviving

18

joiks

of

a

coastal Sami

community,

he

received

different responses about the composer of each joik.Often, commentators

guessed

that

the

person

joiked

(the

object

of the

joik)

might

have

been

the

composer,

but

in his

sample

none

of the

joiks

had

actually

been

composed

by

that referenced

(joiked)

person.

Only

in

three

or

four

of those

joiks

did

Graff

have

reason

to

believe that

the

composer

was

known,

though

it

seemed

likely

that

in

general

people

having

a

relation

to

the

person

referenced

in

a

joik

were

the

most

likely

authors

(Graff

2004:182-83,

and

p.c,

28

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway).

Seppo

Paakkunainen noted that

the

Joik Symphony

was

composed

hand

in

hand with

Valkeapaa,

with whom

he

stayed

in

Pattikka

during

part

of

the

compositional

process,

discussing

how

and

where

to

use

joiks

in

the

sym

phony.

In

the formal

processes

of

identifying

a

composer,

a

contract

for

the

performing

right

royalties

stipulates

both musicians

as

composers, though

in

the

CD

recording information,Valkeapaa

wanted

only

Paakkunainen

to

be

identified

as

the

composer

(email,

Paakkunainen,

8

March

2008).

That

the

identification

of

a

composer

is

not

necessarily important

in traditional

joik

practice

has

a

bearing

on

how

we

analyze

the

commissioning

of the

Joik

Symphony

Since the

joiks

themselves and

knowing

towhom

they

belong

are

important

it

seems

clear

that,

in

accordance

with traditional

notions of

joik

ownership,

Valkeapaa

intended

the

resulting

symphonic

work

to

belong

to

the

Sami.

Authorship

is

a

secondary

concern.

How,

then,

can

we

interpret

the

Joik

Symphony?

Some

responses

might

be

formulated

in

considering

the

pan-Sami

po

litical

movement

that has

seen

Sami

as

oppressed

minorities under

the ban




12/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

197

ner

of the

Fourth

World,

and

of which

Valkeapaa

was

an

active

member

from

the

1970s

until

his death

in 2001.

My

first

encounter

with this

pan

Sami

indigenous political

movement

was

in

June

1992

as

I

was

carrying

out

fieldwork

in

Finland

on

globalization

processes,

creative

choices,

revival

discourses,

and nationalist

sensibilities

in

contemporary

Finnish

folk

music.

Sami

representatives

arrived

in

Helsinki

to

discuss their

position

in

a

chang

ing

Europe,

including negotiations

for

Sami

self-government.

The

political

discussions

were

followed

by

Sami

joik

and

drum

performances,

highlight

ing

those

elements?song, language,

and

shamanistic belief?that

had

once

been

suppressed

(Ramnarine

2003:181-84).

In

my

current

Arctic

fieldwork

encounters,

the

trends

are

towards

a

pan-Sami

sensibility

that

is

neverthe

less characterized

by

articulation of diverse

political

views. Pan-Saminess is

contextualized within

various

institutional

frameworks

(academic

and

politi

cal)

that

support

debate,

as

well

as

within

global

networks of

indigeneity,

a

developing

Arctic tourist

industry

within which

representations

and

artifacts

of the

Sami

are

contested,

and various

antagonisms

or

collaborations

sur

rounding

industrial

development (particularly

oil

and

gas)

on

one

hand,

and

environmental

protection,

assessment,

and

monitoring

on

the

other.

Joik

has

played

a

fundamental role

in

these

processes.

As

an

integral

part of shamanistic practice, joikwas prohibited inChristian Scandinavia,

although

travellers and missionaries

reported

joiking

from

the

seventeenth

to

nineteenth

centuries.

Researchers

in

the

early

twentieth

century

believed

that

joiking

was a

disappearing

tradition?a view

strengthened

by

joik

per

formance

prohibitions

and the

negative

perceptions

towards

joik

held

by

Sami

themselves.

The

White

Reindeer

(the

film

mentioned

above

to

which

Englund

composed

the

soundtrack)

reveals

popular,

negative

perceptions

of

Sami

shamanism,

joiking,

and

drumming

during

the

1950s.

In

this

film,

nly

the

female shaman

(depicted

as a

wild

woman

with dangerous powers) joiks

and

brings

forward

the

magic

of

the shaman

drum.

She

is

a

danger

to

her

own

community.

Her

husband kills her

as

she

takes the

form

of

a

reindeer.

As

recently

as

the

1970s,

joiking

in

Finland

was

forbidden

in

some

schools

and

Ande

Somby

has noted that

even

in

the

1990s

joiking

was

prohibited

in

some

parts

of

Norway

(Somby

1995).

Contemporary

joiking

is

nevertheless

enjoying

more

widespread

popularity.

In

the

1940s

Sami

began

campaign

ing

for

recognition

as an

ethnic

minority.

In

the

Sami

activist

movement

of

the

1970s,

joik performance

was

encouraged

as a

vital

part

of

the

political

indigenous

project

and featured in themuch

publicized

Alta dam

protests

of

the late

1970s.

By

the

beginning

of

the

twenty-first

entury,

joik

had been

transformed

into

a

major

symbol

in

the

Sami

indigenous

political

movement.

It

also

features

in

musical

experimentation

projects, including

ones

that

are

not

specified

as

Sami

projects, particularly

in

choirs

where

singers

are

encouraged

to

explore

various

vocal

techniques.

A

choir

performing

Stories

from

the

North

inTroms0,

January

2008,

included Sami

drum and

joiks

(Johan

Sara's




13/32

198

Ethnomusicology,

Spring/Summer

2009

The

Moon?My

Sister ;

Frode

Fjellheim's

A

Sister

from the

North

),

s

well

as

extracts

such

as

Grieg's

/

Himmelen and Rachmaninov's

Shestopsalmie

(from Vespers). The music director,Ragnar Rasmussen, commented that it is

a

challenge

to

adhere

to

the

original

function and

intention

of

joik

singing

within the classical frame of

the

chamber

choir,

but unconventional

singing

techniques,

such

as

belting

and

overtone

singing

are

explored

in

the choir's

practice

(p.c,

22

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway).

This

was a

multimedia

pre

sentation

with

photographs

of

Norwegian

landscapes

and

people displayed

on a

back

stage

drop

and commentaries

on

pollution

from oil

industries

and

on

climate

change.

In

requesting

the

incorporation

of

joiks

into

a

symphony,Valkeapaa

was

pointing

to

the value of the

joik.

He

held the

joik

in

the

same

esteem

as

the

symphony.

In

this

respect,

he

followed Wilhelm

Peterson-Berger

who

wrote

in

the

preface

to

the

1942

bound

edition of his

Lapplandssymfoni

that

joik

might

be

perceived

as

offensive

to

the naive

Germanic

musical

mind,

but

that

in

the

joik

it is

impossible

to

deny

the

impression

of

great

artistic

con

tent

(cited

in

Graff

1997:35).

Through

use

of the

joik

as an

integral part

of

a

symphonic texture,Valkeapaa

issued

a

challenge

to

earlier

representations

of

Sami

as

musically

strange

or

incapable.

The Italian

traveller,

Guiseppe

Acerbi

(among

the firstto transcribe

joik

melodies)

had this to

say

about Samimu

sic: Their

music,

without

meaning

and without

measure,

time

or

rhythms

was

terminated

only by

the total

waste

of

breath;

and the

length

of the

song

depended entirely

on

the

largeness

of the

stomach,

and

the

strength

of the

lungs

(Acerbi

1802:66).

Even

a

more

recent

commentator,

Szomjas-Schiffert,

the

sympathetic

Hungarian

musicologist

who carried

out

fieldwork

in

the

1960s,

describes

joik

as

consisting

of

two

kinds of

singing:

the first

s

loud,

shouting singing

with

high

notes

resembling

shrieks,

and

the

second is

mumbling (1996:64).

Yet,Valkeapaa's

challenge

through

his

practices

in

these

kinds ofmusical

realms

remains

ambiguous

inview

of his

discourse

on

musical

difference.

In

1984,

he

wrote:

The

joik

is

not

merely

music. Its

functions

are

much wider than

that.

They

include

ways

to

social

contact.

To calm

down

the reindeers.

To

frighten

the

wolves. The

joik

was

never

intended

to

be

performed

as

art.

Art

requires

public.

The

joik

was

used

to

call

up

friends,

even

enemies. The land and

the

environment.

Animals.

The

joik

was

also

a

step

to

another

world,

which

makes

it

religious.

What about

its

technique?

If

one

compares

joik

with

Western

music,

it is

soon

obvious

that

they

are

of different

languages

with

different

functions.

(Cited

and

translated

in

Krumhansl

et

al.,

2000:18)

This discourse

can

be

read

in

several

ways.

One

interpretation

is

that

in

this

passage,

Valkeapaa

insists

on

according

value

to

the

joik

just

as

to

the

symphony

(as

an

example

of

a

much esteemed

Western musical

form)

while




14/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

199

maintaining

the

unique

status of Sami

as

indigenous

people

with distinc

tive

musical

practices

who

might

offer alternative worldviews

to

those

of

dominantWestern discourses. The ambiguity is at once the recognition of

marginalization

and the

assertion ofworth

expressed

in

relation

to

musical

difference and musical

value.

Indigeneity

as a

marker

of

political

difference

is

asserted

even

as

external

representations

of

Sami music

are

resisted.

At

heart,

this

symphony

was

commissioned

to

register

protest

against

negative

representations

of

Sami,

and

it

is

not

accidental that Paakkunainen

should have been

chosen

as

author

of thework.

Symphonic

activism

in

the

Joik

Symphony

is

modelled

on an

earlier

understanding

of the

ways

in

which

joikmight be used

as

a

protest song. Though located

in

somewhat different

musical

worlds?Paakkunainen

in

jazz

and

in

Finnish

folk-popular

music

experiments

and

Valkeapaa

in

traditional

joik

and

joik-popular experiments?

they

also had shared musical

interests.

Valkeapaa's

first

recordings,

such

as

Joikuja/Jojk frdn

Finska

Lapland

(Joiks

from

Finnish

Lapland,

1968)

were

inspired by

contemporary

popular

models,

especially

the

urban

folk

music

of

singers

like

Bob

Dylan,

though

environmental sounds

were

later added

to

counterbalance

acoustic instrumentation

(Jones-Bamman

[2001]

2006:356),

in

keeping

with

recordings

he made of

traditional

joik

with

accompaniment

of

sounds

from

Sami nature in

the

early

1980s

(Edstrom

1985:164).

Urban

folkmusic

models had also

inspired

Seppo

Paakkunainen

during

the

1960s

Finnish

folk

revival

(Ramnarine

2003:58-60).

In

highlighting

the model of

Dvorak's

New

World

Symphony,

with

its

reference

to

African-American

mu

sical

traditions,

Valkeapaa

drew

attention

to

the

status

of Sami

as

colonized

people

forging

global

alignments

with

the

(post)colonial

world

as

well

as

with

the

global indigenous

movement

of

Fourth

World

politics.

This

per

spective

on

the

symphony

also

appears

in

his

writings

in

which

he drew

parallels between the colonization of Sami andAfrican peoples drawing on

ideas

presented

by

James

Baldwin

(Valkeapaa

[1971]

1983:98-99,103).

Nature

also

appears

in

this

discourse. The

poem

that

Valkeapaa

wrote

in

connection

with this

symphony

includes the

lines: You

can

see

nature

as

milieu,

or,

then,

man

as

nature.

You

did

not

hear

the

bird,

it

was

I :

The

Bird

Symphony

During the 1990s, the political status of the northern fringes of Europe

changed

from

primarily

a

security

and

military

area

during

the Cold War

pe

riod

to

a

potentially

important geoeconomic

area

of

international

cooperation

in

the

globalized

world

economy

(Heininen

2002).

During

this

period,

various

Sami

political

organizations

were

established

or

reformulated,

including

the

Sami

Council,

the Sami

Parliament and

Sami

representation

in

the

councils

of

the Barents

Euro-Arctic

Region,

in

which

Sami

voiced

their

opposition




15/32

Figure

2.

Extract

from the

score

of

the

Joik

Symphony. Reproduced

with

permission

from

Seppo

Paakkunainen.




16/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicoiogy

201

to

environmental

damages

from industrialization

processes

and their fears

concerning

neocolonialism.4

The shift inemphasis from the politics ofminority to the politics of en

vironment

and

economy

is reflected

in

Valkeapaa's

symphonic

projects.

The

Bird

Symphony,

awarded

the

Prix

Italia

in

1993,

raises

different

kinds

of

ques

tions

about

authorship,

improvisation

and musical

politics.

In

contrast to

the

Joik

Symphony,

the

composer

of the

Bird

Symphony

is

Valkeapaa,

but

the

work also

involves

improvising

agents.

Four

movements

are

indicated,

using

performance

directions such that the first

movement

is Assai

animato ;

the

second, Con

anima

cantabile ;

the

third, Con fuoco ;

and the

fourth, Largo

morendo, but

the recorded

symphony plays continuously

for

59

minutes

and

20

seconds,

and the listener

must

determine when

a

movement

begins

and

ends. After

32

minutes

and

2

seconds of recorded

birdsong

and

waterscapes,

a

joik

singer

is

introduced

into

themusical

texture

and is

eventually

joined

by

a

second

singer (singing

a

countermelody).

The

singers

are

preceded by

reindeer

bells.

The

joik

gives

way

to

the

bird

soundscape

until the final

stages

of the

symphony

when

it is

repeated,

first of all

as

if

from

a

distance,

gaining

prominence,

and

once

again giving

way

to

the

birdsongs

towards the

end of

the

symphony

(Table

1).

Table

1.

A

structural and textural outline of the Bird

Symphony.

Time

(min.sec)

Texture

00.01

blowing

of the wind

in

the creek

00.29

birdsong

(

from

1

to

4

birds)

03 23

water

sounds

04.05

5th

birdsong

added

to

the

texture;

pitched

water

sounds

(chime effects)

16.52

roaring

of the creek

(no

birdsong)

17.44

birdsong

re-enters;

roaring

creek recedes

gradually

22.30

bird chorus

31

42

reindeer

bells;

reindeer calls

(by

human

voice)

32.02

Joiker

(human

voice)

32.32-32.34

birdsong fragment

(repeated

from the

beginning)

34.35

second

joiker

(adding

another melodic

part);

reindeer

bells

(chime

effects);

birdsong

42.14

joiks

end

42.26-48.28

reindeer

bells

only (birdsong

reappears

in

the

background

at

48.28)

49

40-53.12

birdsong

only

53

12

birdsong;

water

sounds

53

20

j

ikers;

birdsong

57.00

joiks

end

57.00-58.15

birdsong

59

12-59.20

silence




17/32

202

Ethnomusicoiogy, Spring/Summer

2009

How

can

we

interpret

thiswork?

The Bird

Symphony

seems

to

take

us

into

a

traditional

joik

performance

space;

gone

are

the

accompaniments

of

gui

tarsor symphony orchestras. But thework ismore than a representation of joik

authenticity.While

there

are

several

examples

of

composers

being

inspired by

birdsong,

even

using

recorded bird sounds

as

part

of

themusical

texture

(the

Finnish

composer

Einojuhani

Rautavaara,

for

example,

used

a

tape

of

Arctic

bird

song

in

Cantus

Arcticus, 1912),

such

bird sounds

are

given

prominence

in

Valkeapaa's

Bird

Symphony

Valkeapaa

spent

two

years

recording birdsong

in

his home

area?a

landscape

of tundra and the creek

Adjagorsa

(to

which

he referred

in

the

poem

with

which this

paper

begins).

He

manipulated

his

birdsong recordings

in

attempting

to create

a

three-dimensional sonic

effect

(p.c,

Ande

Somby,

20

January

2OO8,Troms0,

Norway).

The

joik

in

the Bird

Symphony

is

fragmentary,

but

noteworthy

for

it

introduces the

human

presence

and

is

accompanied by

reindeer

(through

the reindeer

bell).

It

features

in

Valkeapaa's

other

works,

including

Beaivi,

Ahcdzan

(The

Sun,

My

Father,

a

musical

composition

based

on

his award

winning

poetry).

This

joik

was

performed

for

me

in

September

2006

by

the

Norwegian

joik

singer

Marit

Berit,

who

sang

it

as

Ailu's

[Valkeapaa's]

joik

(a

personal

joik),

though

another

joik

was

performed

at

a

joik

concert

as

Ailu's

joik.

I invested some time in

tracing

both

joiks

and

might

suggest

thatMarit

Berit

did

actually

sing

the

joik

that

Valkeapaa

used

as

his

personal

joik

and that

recurs

in

his

recorded

repertoire.

Indeed,

she insisted that

Valkeapaa

had

sung

this

to

her

as

his

personal

joik

(interview,

Berit,

8

September

2006,

Jokkmokk,

Sweden).

The other

joik,

also known

as

Ailu's

joik,

seems

to

be

a

tribute

joik,

a

personal joik

sung

by

other

singers

but

not

by

the

subject

of the

joik

himself.

The

tribute

joik

has

become

so

identifiedwith

Valkeapaa

that

it is

now

widely

recognized

as

being

his

joik.

The distinction

between

the

personal

joik

and

the tribute joik is important not only in tracing the joiks themselves but also

in

the

implications

for

considering

questions

about

the

authorship

of this

work.

Valkeapaa

sings

himself

in

the Bird

Symphony,

vocalising

his

presence

in

his home

environment.

Somby

confirmed

my

identification

of

Valkeapaa's

personal joik,

adding

that

this

joik

is

a

self-portrait

in

which

Valkeapaa

de

scribes

his

ambiguous

self-perceptions

as

connected

to

the

land,

but also

as

an

independent

individual with

a sense

of disconnection

from

society

(fos

tered

through

his

boarding

school

experiences

and removal

from his

family

at a very young age), enabling him to adopt a descriptive perspective on the

world.

But

the

joik

also

points

to

the

ways

in

which

nobody

can

be

totally

disconnected

since

it is

related

to

a

very

famous traditional

joik

from

the

area

where Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa

composed

his

own

personal joik.

The traditional

joik

to

which

Valkeapaa's

personal joik

is

related

is

that of

a

reindeer

herder,

who used

to

herd reindeer

on

the other side

of the

river fromwhere Nils

Aslak's

home

was

situated

(interview,

Ande

Somby,

25

January

2OO8,Troms0,




18/32

Ramnarine:

Arctic

Fringes

and

Ethnomusicology

203

Norway).

From

Somby's

account

we

understand the

multiple

significances

of

the reindeer

bell

accompanying

the

human voice

in

the

Bird

Symphony

(including biographic, geographic, and historic threads, intermelodic relations,

and

commentary

on

converging

social and natural

environments).

The

joik techniques

in

both

the

Joik

Symphony

and the

Bird

Symphony

accord

with musical

analyses

of

Arctic

song genres

that have focused

on me

lodic and structural

aspects,

meaning

and

circularity.

In

1942,

Tiren

described

the

composition

process

as

beginning

with

a

short

melody

that

is

then

fur

ther elaborated

(cited

in

Jones-Bamman

1993:116),

an

analytical

insight

that

underlies

more

recent

perspectives

on

the melodic motif

as

the

basic

unit

of composition (ibid. :117). Joik is often characterized by repetitive sections,

irregular

phrasing

determined

by

breath control rather than structural

con

siderations,

a

distinctive

vocal

timbre,

and

rising

and

microtonal

pitches.

The

ontological

status

of

joik

and

its

structural

and

stylistic

aspects

have

posed

considerable

analytical

challenges

to

researchers that

are

reproduced

with

regard

to

the

Bird

Symphony.

Yet,

I

would

suggest

that this

symphony

is

not

an

indigenous

appropriation

of

a

Western

art

music

form.

Rather,

a

sonic

sensibility

is

revealed,

leading

listeners

to

an

experiential

truth,

to return

to

Feld's formulation

of

acoustemology

(1994).

But

the

experiental

truths

in

the Bird

Symphony

are not

wrapped

up

only

in

relation

to

symphonic

thought.

In

interviews,

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa

commented:

the

yoik

lasts

as

long

as

you

want

and

its

original

magic

stems

precisely

from

its

continuity.

It is

like

a

ring

that circles

in

the

air

and

its structure

can

be

compared

with

water

moving

in

harmony

with

the

landscape

or

thewind that touches the

ground

on

the

mountain

plateau

(cited

in

Kjellstr6m,Ternhag,

and

Rydving

1988:1

l).When

asked

by

the

Sami

scholar

Elina

Helander: Does

your

artistic

work have

a

beginning?

he

responded:

No,

it

doesn't.

I

have been

doing

all

this kind ofwork foras long as I can remember. And the opposite also could

be said:

I

remember

doing

thiswork before

I

can

remember

doing

anything

else.

I

have

no

beginning,

no

end,

and

there

also

is

no

beginning,

no

end

in

thework

I

do. Book after

book and work after

work,

the

same

work

goes

on

and

changes

all the time

(cited

in

Helander

and

Kailo

1996:87).

Ande

Somby

states

that

a

joik

does

not

have

a

beginning

and

an

ending

and

that

a

joik

cannot

be

thought

of

in terms

of

linear

development,

ideas

that

resonate

with

Valkeapaa's

discourse.

Given

that

a

performer

joiks

some

one or something it is impossible to think about joik in relation to subject

and

object;

the

joiker

and the

joiked

can

be

considered

an

integral part

of

the

joik

(Somby

1995).

While

analysts

have

struggled

with

locating

a

steady

pulse

and have used

shifting

time

signatures

in

their

joik transcriptions,

many

Sami

musicians

think

in

terms

of

a

pulse

that

is

pervasive,

consistent

in

its

appearance

in

everyday

activity

and

environment,

avoiding

linear

develop

ment.

Notions of

pervasive

pulse

and

cyclical

musical

time

are

also

revealed




19/32

204

Ethnomusicoiogy, Spring/Summer

2009

in

Frode

Fjellheim's

teaching

book,

Juoigama

vuodul

(2005:15),

in

which

pulse

is

mapped

out in

a

circle that

can

be

superimposed

onto

an

image

of

themilky way and which, in turn,can be mapped onto the Sami drum, the

once

sacred

instrument

of

the shaman.

The

characteristics

of

non-separability

between

subject

and

object

help

us

to

perceive

the

integration

of the

bird,

human and reindeer

subjects

in

the

Bird

Symphony,

and

non-separation

is

also

apparent

in

Nils-Aslak

Valkeapaa's

poetry,

which

gives

further clues

to

his

compositional

conceptualizations:

it

was not

the wind

you

did

not

hear

the

bird

itwas I

my

thoughts

?Trekways of

theWind

([1974,1976,1981]

1985)

when

I

was

a

child

I

wondered

why

did

I

not

have

wings

like

other birds

though

no

longer

a

chi

acoustemology indigeneity and joik in

Documents