Rinnasteinen ajattelutapa suomensukuisten kansojen musiikkiperinteessä

Abstract

The purpose of my study is to examine the musical thinking of Finno-Ugric people; its general features and those that are specific to a particular linguistic group. The key hypothesis is that musical structures may be based upon the same principles as those found in language. Scholars of Finno-Ugric philology suppose that the way of thinking of Finno-Ugric people is paratactical. In my study I have tried to find an answer to following question: is Finno-Ugric musical culture also based upon paratactical thinking that determines the musical structures of melodies. In my research I have used and applied the methods and research results of Finno-Ugric comparative philology and poetics. I have also compared the musical structures of Finno-Ugric melodies to the paratactical thinking of these people. The influence of Finno-Ugric philology in my study is evident also in my examining the musical structures in precisely the same way as language is examined in philology: starling from individual notes {phonetics) and ending in musical periods (syntax). The first part provides the methodological backround for the study by examining the latest results of philology and (partly) poetics. In the second part I study the elements and structures in the music of these people. I also examine the supposed paratactical character of these songs and finally I try to find correspondences between the music of Fenno-Ugrian people and its linguistic and poetic phenomena. The results of my study indicate that ancient musical structures and segments of Finno-Ugric people are built in an astonishingly similar way as linguistic and poetic structures and segments. It is evident that although individual melodies may change faster than individual words in the language, the paratactical way of thinking may still be preserved in music even more tenaciously than in language. The final part of the study shows how the results of this research can be applied to the analysis of the music of Finno-Ugric composers. The analysis may be based on paratactical thinking and in this way the results may come closer to the very characteristics of the music in comparison to the results of traditional music analysis. With my own compositions I try to demonstrate that it is possible to compose consciously according to paratactical thinking.