Dance After Dark Photography

I’ve been listening to the Finnish folk group Värttinä for quite a while now. I no longer remember how I found their music, but I’m very glad I did. I like a large number of their songs, even though I don’t speak a word of the language. Two of my favorites have risen higher in my esteem now that I’ve found the group’s website and the song lyrics. Some of their songs and translated in their entirety. These weren’t, but at least now I know the general idea.

Oi Dai
I think the title means “I Wish,” and the song comes from the album of the same name. It’s a song of homesickness. Think Medieval Baebes in Finnish.

Äijö
There are two published versions of this song. The tame studio recording comes from this album, Ilmatar. The video of the live recording is much more… spirited. The song is about an old coot (their word) who gets bitten by a snake and uses spells and incantations to counteract the poison and take revenge on the snake. I heard the live recording first, and I knew it had something to do with witchery. You’ll understand when you hear it.

You know you want to. Beautiful blonde Finnish women singing and rocking out with tambourines. How can you resist?

At work today I had the theme song from Sanford & Son stuck in my head. Not only that, but I had the “breakin’ it down” section where they really get into the groove on permanent repeat. Every once in a while Fred Sanford popped in to shout, “You big dummy!” or “Ellizabeth! I’m comin’!”

Be afraid of the madness rolling around in my head. I know I am.

Talking with one of my closest friends yesterday, she commented on the fact that she’s only seen me angry once. She said it was scary. I’m usually a very nice guy, but she said that once I crossed the line into angry it looked like I could kill someone without a second thought. I’m not sure what to think about that.

In other news, I’ve added a few songs to my repertoire on the tinwhistle. I can play London Bridge, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and On Top of Old Smokey. I’m working on an Irish tune called Believe Me If All Those Endearing Young Charms. I’m having trouble with the timing because I’ve never heard it before. With the other tunes I already know how it should sound. This one’s entirely from the sheet music, and I still don’t understand it completely. Either I’ll find the song somewhere, or I’ll skip to something like Salva Nos with a tune I know. I’m tempted to go for Sunshine of Your Love, just to hear it on the tinwhistle. [edit: During my lunch break, I went out to the car and figured out Salva Nos. Much happiness.]

I wonder if a higher quality whistle produces a clearer tone. This one almost has a burr to it, and I don’t know if that’s the instrument, me, or both. The highest note is pretty shrill, but that could just be me.

And once again, the terminology involved in playing my whistle just sounds dirty. Tonguing. Slurring. Fingering. Fipple. Dotted crotchets. I think I saw a 1950’s documentary about that last one. “Your Crotchets and You.”

Sounds naughty, doesn’t it?

I’m learning to play the pennywhistle, a.k.a. the Irish whistle, tinwhistle, or feadóg stáin. So far I can play that classic Irish tune, “Mary Had A Little Lamb.” It’s funny, actually. The Gaelic term for the pennywhistle is feadóg (stáin means tin), and mine is purportedly the Original Irish Feadóg Whistle. (I chose it over Clarke’s because Clarke’s is made in England.) Looking at the songbook, we have such Celtic originals as “Amazing Grace,” “The Banks of the Ohio,” “London Bridge,” and “Oranges and Lemons.”

“The Banks of the Ohio” is a quaint American murder balled, and the other three songs are English. I should hope “London Bridge” is obvious, although there’s actually some evidence that it may have Norse roots. They’re the ones who burned the bridge, after all. “Amazing Grace” was written by an Englishman, and “Oranges and Lemons” is a Cockney rhyme on various church names in the heart of old London. “Oranges and lemons say the bells of St Clemens. You owe me five farthings say the bells of St Martin’s…”

They’re not the only songs, but I find it amusing that about half of the songs have Gaelic or obviously Irish titles while the other half are mostly English with a few American and French songs thrown in.

For some reason I have trouble tonguing the low D. Every other time it squeaks between notes. I guess more practice will help.

This is strange, so I’m going to inflict it on all of you. Right now I’ve got two songs battling it out in my head. Most often I hear the Acme factory song from all the Looney Toons cartoons. I don’t know the name of the song, but I guarantee anyone who grew up with Bugs & crew knows the song I mean. They played it during construction & factory scenes. Industrial before there was industrial. *grin*

The other song is the Mexican Hat Dance, complete with trumpets, Mariachi guitar, and a guy yelling “ai, ai!” in the background.

This is my mental soundtrack. Be afraid.