Acoustemology Indigeneity and Joik in

Acoustemology, Indigeneity, and Joik in Valkeap's Symphonic Activism: Views from
Europe's Arctic Fringes for Environmental Ethnomusicology

Author(s): Tina K. Ramnarine
Source: Ethnomusicology, Vol. 53, No. 2 (SPRING/SUMMER 2009), pp. 187-217
Published by: University of Illinois Press on behalf of Society for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653066 .
Accessed: 13/02/2015 02:06
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of Illinois Press and Society for Ethnomusicology are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve
and extend access to Ethnomusicology.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Vol.
No.
53,
Ethnomusicology
2009
Spring/Summer
Indigeneity, and Joik

Acoustemology,
in Valkeapaa's
Symphonic Activism:
Arctic Fringes
from Europe's
Views
Environmental
Ethnomusicoiogy
Tina K. Ramnarine
Can
you hear
/ Royal Holloway
the sound
for
University of London
of life
in the roaring of the creek

in the blowing of thewind
That is all Iwant
that is all
to say
(1943-2001), published in his volume

poem, by NilsAslakValkeapaa
the
Wind
([1974,1976,1981]
1985), resonates with eth
This Trekways of
to
attention
acoustic
nomusicological
ecologies, to analyses of theways in
which
poem
environments
can
be
shape musical
interpreted
as
concepts
a statement,
drawing
and creative processes.

a
listener's
attention
The
to a
sound-producing environment. It can be read as a question about perception:

"can you hear the sound of life?"Or it can be understood as an assertion of
authorship thatmoves 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 amusical
composition but also owning responsibility for its composition (1977:205).
In ethnomusicoiogy these ideas have been elaborated with nuances from the
turn.Feld,for example, writes about acoustic
discipline's phenomenological
epistemologies, using the term "acoustemology" as "a special kind of know

ing" inwhich "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

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
some
timbres and techniques, inwhich the performer joiks (sings?though
commentators distinguish between "joiking" and "singing") something rather
than joiks about something. I explore joik as itappears in the symphonic tra
dition through a specific case study?Valkeapaa's
symphonic activism.While
Valkeapaa's symphonic projects and his statuswithin Sapmi and beyond lend
themselves to the pursuit of various critical strandswithin ethnomusicologi
cal discourses on the individual and thework, the discussion in this article is
framed by broad questions concerning creativity,environment, and activism.
What does itmean to joik something rather than to joik about something?
What is authorship when the author, themusical form,and itsobject 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
In choosing to examine
posing such questions about Sami acoustemologies?
how joik has been featured in the symphonic tradition ofWestern artmusic,
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 themost recognizably identified as Sami, but also on the
engagement with and reconfiguration of amusical aesthetic?the
symphonic
tradition?that tells us something about musical creativity,political expres
sions, and environmental concerns, such that the symphony, aswell as the joik,
can be understood within the frameworks of an environmental ethnomusi
cology. I draw initiallyon theoretical frameworks from acoustic ecology that
encourage us to attend to sound in ecological 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
Joik and the Complexities
a ptarmigan":
of Relationality
Sami have been the subject of considerable ethnographic attention since

in earlier accounts;
the seventeenth century and they are also mentioned
one of the earliest references ismade by Tacitus in the firstcentury ce. They
are traditionally known as nomadic pastoralists with a reindeer economy,
though different Sami populations have been engaged in a variety of subsis

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy
Ramnarine:
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 a minority 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 theirprincipal 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
vuolle.
The south
son& 'mc\udm%
joikjuoi'ga
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.
Joikwas often associated with shamanism, the earliest description of
which was recorded in the twelfth century in theHistoria 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 inpre-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. Inwriting about
relationships and intersections, however, I have pointed to several assump
tions about joik that demand furthercritical scrutiny.The notion of relation
ship ishabitually evoked in definitions of acoustic ecology. The World Forum
forAcoustic 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 thatperformance 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

190
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
2003:4). In capturing Sami sonic

processes (Szerszynski,Heim,andWaterton
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 Imove 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 thatvarious 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
does
1996:90). A joik singer tellsVolkov that the joik syllabalization "ly-ly-ly"
not mean anything; it is used "to fly into a song" (ibid.). Edstrom refers to
melody as a fundamentally significant element of joik throughwhich, 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 isbeing 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 theWagnerian tradition. Joik becomes an example
of tonmalerei (tone painting) (Tiren 1942). But tonmalerei ismerely evoca
tive or imitative and indicates distance between the signifier and signified,
inwhich the latter is represented through a musical label. The problems of
thinking about music as having narrative, representational and programmatic
qualities are compounded ifapplied 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 joikmelodies 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 and music 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 frommany other possibilities, but
itbecomes an iconic relation, inwhich the joik serves a referential (or repre
sentational) function. Such referentiality is elaborated through body gesture
inperformance and through language: including storytelling associated with
a joik, textual ambiguity (where one word may have several meanings), and

Ramnarine:
191
the borrowing of other texts resulting in an intertextual joik.Graff (2004 and

p.c, 28 January 2OO8,Troms0, Norway) argues that inview of such performa
tive and narrative strategies, a joik can take on new meanings, seeming to
refer to other objects, but the basic referentialmeaning ispresent whether or
not it isperceived by a listener. Thus, the transmission ofmeaning is divided
and multilayered and it is possible to present differentmeanings 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 throughwhich attempts to understand
the concept of joiking something are made. They are frames involving pro
cesses of translation throughwhich joik concepts might be grasped. But they
are also modes of thinking throughwhich 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 joikerwith

whom Ola Graffworked extensively, spoke about joik personifying, illustrat
ing,or taking themelodic likeness of its object, and the joiker Ante Mihkkal
Gaup fromKautokeino (Norway) told Graff that "a joik isyour 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:
into the room that is not there before you start,
ability to bring something
like I did with
I had heard].
the ptarmigan
[referring to a recent performance
saw a ptarmigan
as
All of a sudden
and right after I brought
in a wolf
people
well. Not a very hard wolf, but still a wolf; and that is close
to the old shamanistic
The
... In that
way your listeners can turn into a grouse bird
a
for
and then you can hope
that they have a taste of
[the ptarmigan]
moment,
this notion
of transforming
and what
it has a lot of ethical
that means,
because
idea of transformation
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,and relationality (whether
forgenre, 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), as well as Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa himself, have turned our attention to
theways inwhich commercial recordings, media technologies, and global
music markets have been used inpromoting 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 aswell as in some contemporary joik recordings inspired
by rock, rap, or heavy metal we find Sami musicians offering a critique of

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 is a fundamental aspect of these Nordic Arctic acoustemolo
gies. It is a critique thatmight contribute significant insights to research
in environmental ethnomusicology. Indeed, if creativity, poli
perspectives
are themes that take us into seemingly familiar and
and
environment
tics,
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
in the symphonic tradition con
culture, society, and nature. Acoustemology
sidered here might challenge our ideas of relationality altogether, dissolving
the constructs throughwhich a relationship between humans and nature (or
seems tomake
between cultural behavior and environmental phenomena)
sense. Such acoustic epistemologies
at
lie
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, innorthern Finland, and lived inboth Finland and Norway, crossing
the nation-state borders that divide Sapmi. He was active in theWorld Council
of Indigenous Peoples, composed music for the filmOfelas (Pathfinder,directed
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
in 2001: "Nils-Aslak's accomplishments forhis people were so

come
to be regarded by all posterity as amodern-day mythical
that
he
will
great
Sami"
the
(Gaski 2001).Valkeapaa played an extraordinary role in
being among
movement from the late 1960s onwards. He engaged
the
revival
fostering
joik
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 themusic video, in
Sami music festivals, in choral projects, and in school music education.2 It is
commemoration

Ramnarine:
193
apparent too in the development of contemporary Sami literature,film, 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 forGoase DuSse, (Bird symphony), and he was
invited to perform joik at the opening ceremony of theOlympic Winter Games
inNorway
Through Valkeapaa's works we gain a better understanding of the connect
edness of joiking, story-telling,painting, 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" offersways
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 thatmight 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 ofmajority languages, a revelation
throughwhich poems, stories, images, and joiks become politicized
ing to differentways of viewing theworld (cf.,Gaski 1997).
Joiks
in the Western
inpoint
Art Tradition
Valkeapaa was not the first to introduce use of the joik in theWestern
art tradition. The joik based artwork emerged in the early twentieth century,
(1917) by the Finnish
notably with a symphonic poem Aslak Smaukka
an
Hetta
Leevi
and
Aslak
(1930), by the Finnish
opera,
composer
Madetoja,
The Lapplands
joik collector and researcher Armas Launis (1884-1959).
the
Swedish
Wilhelm
composer
Peterson-Berger, firstperformed
symfoni by
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 joik has also featured in choral works, including
(1975) by Erik Bergman.
Lapponia
More recent joik based artworks include Frode Fjellheim's mass, Aejlies
Arctic Mass,
1995) and Skuvle Nelja (an
Gaaltije (The Sacred Source?an
in
in
that
Sweden
Ostersund,
opera
2006), and Jan Sandstrom's
premiered
choral work Biegga Luohte (Ybik to the mountain wind) formixed choir,
premiered in London in 1998.3 Drawing on different traditions of sacred music,

194
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
?)d\heirtisAejlies Gaaltije is based on the South Sami liturgybut juxtaposes

Christian and Shaman belief systems throughmovements such as the "kyjrie"
(kyrie),"aejlies, aejlies, aejlies" (sanctus),"Jubmelen vuelie" (Joik of God, based
on a joik transcribed by KarlTiren),andMTjaehkere"(a movement thatpresents
a joik referring to the sacred mountain Tjaehkere). Johan Sara composed a
Sami opera, Skuolft, in 2005 and the Sdmiska Romanza
(Sami romance) for
in
2000.
and
With
the
chamber choir
orchestra
exceptions of Fjellheim and
were
the
members
of the Sami Society of
who
both
Sara,
amongst
founding
in
the
March
mid-1990s (interview, Sara, 25
2008, Maze, Norway),
Composers
these are examples of joik based artworks 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 fromVarangerbotn, Norway, see Figure 1); and Armas Otto Vaisanen.
InNils-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, inwhich the com
poser had drawn upon the spirituals ofAfrican-Americans, Valkeapaa asked
Paakkunainen (b. 1943) ifhe 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),
(Joik symphony) is scored for a symphony orchestra,
theJuoigansinfoniija
instrumental
group, two solo joik singers and solo saxophone,
improvising
a scoring that Paakkunainen repeated in a later suite for symphony orches

Ramnarine:
Figure
1. Elial
Lagercrantz
graph by Henrik Nilssen,

the Varangerbotn
Samiske

recording
the Sami
musician,
Movs-Niillas.
195
Photo
1920 or 1925. Reproduced with permission from

Museum.
*^
v lt;>" *
iiffiillli
tra based on Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa's melodies and poems Sdpmi Lottdzan

(both works were recorded in 1992.) There are fourmovements (parts) in
theJoik Symphony :(1) "Gumadii galbmasit skabma" (Polar night resound
ingwith cold); (2) "Humadii, duoddarat juige" (Drone, joik of the hills); (3)
"Oappat, vieljat vaimmustan, biegga" (Sisters, brothers, thewind inmy 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 theway the luodit [joiks] I have learned by ear

196
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
fromAim [Nils-AslakValkeapaa] have been reshaped inmy soul" (1992:8).

Itwas 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 inMuikku 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 theJoik 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 inwhich not only the roles of composer and performer merge
but inwhich 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
and p.c, 28 January
joikwere the most likely authors (Graff 2004:182-83,
2OO8,Troms0, Norway).
Seppo Paakkunainen noted that theJoik 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 theJoik
are
Symphony Since the joiks themselves and knowing towhom they belong
notions
of
seems
clear that, in accordance with traditional
joik
important it
to
ownership, Valkeapaa intended the resulting symphonic work "to belong"
we
can
concern.
a
"the Sami." Authorship is secondary
How, then,
interpret
theJoik Symphony?
Some responses might be formulated in considering the pan-Sami po
liticalmovement that has seen Sami as oppressed minorities under the ban

Ramnarine:
197
ner of the "FourthWorld," and of which Valkeapaa was an

from the 1970s until his death in 2001. My firstencounter
Sami indigenous political movement was in June 1992 as
out fieldwork in Finland on globalization processes, creative
active member
with this pan
Iwas carrying
choices, revival
in
and
nationalist
sensibilities
Finnish
folkmusic.
discourses,
contemporary
Sami representatives arrived inHelsinki 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
Inmy current Arctic fieldwork

been suppressed (Ramnarine 2003:181-84).
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 industrywithin which
of
the
Sami
are
contested,
and
rounding industrial development

environmental
protection,
various
representations and artifacts
antagonisms
or
collaborations
sur
(particularly oil and gas) on one hand, and
assessment,
and monitoring
on
the other.
Joik has played a fundamental role in these processes. As an integral

part of shamanistic practice, joikwas prohibited in Christian Scandinavia,
although travellers and missionaries reported joiking from the seventeenth
to nineteenth centuries. Researchers in the early twentieth century believed
that joikingwas 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 filmmentioned above towhich
Englund composed the soundtrack) reveals popular, negative perceptions of
Sami shamanism, joiking, and drumming during the 1950s. In this film,only
the female shaman (depicted as awild 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 joikingwas 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 the much publicized Alta dam protests
of the late 1970s. By the beginning of the twenty-firstcentury, joik had been
transformed into amajor symbol in the Sami indigenous political movement. It
also features inmusical 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

198
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
"The Moon?My
Sister"; Frode Fjellheim's "A Sister from the North "),as well
as extracts such as Grieg's /Himmelen
and Rachmaninov's Shestopsalmie
music
The
(from Vespers).
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 amultimedia 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
as
to
Germanic
be
offensive
the
"naive
musical
mind," but
might
perceived
that in the joik "it is impossible to deny the impression of great artistic con
tent" (cited inGraff 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 joikmelodies) had this to say about Sami mu
sic: "Their music, without meaning and without measure, time or rhythms
was terminated only by the totalwaste 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 amore 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 is "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:
than that. They include

Its functions are much wider
joik is not merely music.
The
To frighten the wolves.
to social contact. To calm down
the reindeers.
as art. Art requires public. The joik was
never intended
to be performed
was
joik
The
ways
Animals.
to call up friends, even enemies.
The
land and the environment.
it religious. What
about
makes
also a step to another world, which
soon obvious
it
is
that
Western
If one compares
with
its technique?
music,
joik
used
The
joik was
they are of different languages

et al., 2000:18)
Krumhansl
with
different
functions.
(Cited
and
translated
in
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
This discourse

Ramnarine:
199
maintaining the unique status of Sami as indigenous people with distinc

to those of
tivemusical practices who might offer alternative worldviews
at
once
the recognition of
dominant Western discourses. The ambiguity is
marginalization and the assertion ofworth expressed in relation tomusical
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 ismodelled on an earlier understanding of theways inwhich
joikmight be used as a protest song. Though located in somewhat different
in jazz and in Finnish folk-popular music
musical worlds?Paakkunainen
in
traditional
and
experiments
Valkeapaa
joik and joik-popular experiments?
interests.
also
had
shared
musical
firstrecordings, such as
they
Valkeapaa's
from
Finska
Finnish
Lapland (Joiks
Lapland, 1968) were
Joikuja/Jojk frdn
inspired by contemporary popular models, especially the urban folkmusic
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 joikwith accompaniment
of sounds from Sami nature in the early 1980s (Edstrom 1985:164). Urban
folkmusic models had also inspired Seppo Paakkunainen during the 1960s
In highlighting the model of
Finnish folk revival (Ramnarine 2003:58-60).
Dvorak's New World Symphony, with its reference toAfrican-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 "FourthWorld" politics. This per
spective on the symphony also appears in his writings inwhich he drew
parallels between the colonization of Sami and African peoples drawing on
ideas presented by James Baldwin (Valkeapaa [1971] 1983:98-99,103).
Nature also appears in this discourse. The poem thatValkeapaa 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, itwas
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 thisperiod, 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, inwhich Sami voiced their opposition

Figure 2. Extract from the score of theJoik Symphony. Reproduced

permission from Seppo Paakkunainen.

with
Ramnarine:
to environmental damages
from industrialization processes
201
and their fears
neocolonialism.4
concerning
The shift in emphasis from the politics ofminority to the politics of en

vironment and economy is reflected inValkeapaa'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 isValkeapaa, but the
work also involves improvising agents. Four movements are indicated, using
performance directions such that the firstmovement is "Assai animato"; the
anima
second,"Con
the
cantabile";
third,"Con
fuoco";
and
the
fourth,"Largo
morendo,"but the recorded symphony plays continuously for 59 minutes and

20 seconds, and the listenermust 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 iffrom a distance, gaining
prominence, and once again giving way to the birdsongs towards the end of
the symphony (Table 1).
Table
1. A
Time
(min.sec)
structural
and
textural
outline
of
the Bird
Symphony.
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
(chime effects)
16.52
roaring of the creek (no birdsong)
17.44
22.30
31 42
32.02
32.32-32.34
34.35
42.14
42.26-48.28
53 20
59 12-59.20
voice)
birdsong fragment (repeated from the beginning)

second joiker (adding another melodic part); reindeer
bells (chime effects); birdsong
joiks end
reappears
birdsong
53 12
57.00-58.15
reindeer bells; reindeer calls (by human
gradually
Joiker (human voice)
reindeer bells only (birdsong

at 48.28)
49 40-53.12
57.00
birdsong re-enters; roaring creek recedes

bird chorus
sounds
only
birdsong; water
sounds
joikers; birdsong
joiks end
birdsong
silence

in the background
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
tars or 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 ofArctic
bird song inCantus Arcticus, 1912), such bird sounds are given prominence
inValkeapaa'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 inValkeapaa's other works, including Beaivi,
Ahcdzan
(The Sun, My Father, a musical composition based on his award
winning poetry). This joikwas performed forme in September 2006 by the
Norwegian joik singerMarit Berit,who sang it as "Ailu's [Valkeapaa's] joik" (a
personal joik), though another joikwas 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 thatValkeapaa used as his personal joik and that
recurs inhis recorded repertoire. Indeed, she insisted thatValkeapaa 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 isnow 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 ofValkeapaa's
personal joik, adding that this joik is a self-portrait inwhich 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 theways inwhich 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 towhich 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,

Ramnarine:
Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicology
203
Norway). From Somby's account we understand themultiple 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 theJoik Symphony and theBird Symphony

accord with musical analyses ofArctic 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 shortmelody 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, Iwould suggest that this symphony is not
an indigenous appropriation of aWestern 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 themountain plateau" (cited inKjellstr6m,Ternhag, and Rydving
1988:1 l).When asked by the Sami scholar Elina Helander:"Does
your artistic
work have a beginning?" he responded: "No, itdoesn't. I have been doing all
this kind ofwork for as 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 afterwork, the same work goes on
and changes all the time" (cited inHelander 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

204
Ethnomusicoiogy,
Spring/Summer
2009
in Frode Fjellheim's teaching book, Juoigama

vuodul (2005:15), inwhich
pulse ismapped 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 inNils-Aslak Valkeapaa's
poetry, which gives further clues to his compositional conceptualizations:
itwas
not
the wind
you did not hear the bird

itwas
my thoughts
?Trekways
of theWind
1985)
a child
Iwas
when
([1974,1976,1981]
Iwondered why did I not have wings

like other birds
though no longer a child
Iwonder
?The
still
Sun, My Father
(1997:214)
The philosopher Gemot Boehme observes that,"music occurs when the

subject of an acoustic event is the acoustic atmosphere as such, that is,when
listening as such, not listening to something is the issue."Music in this case
"need not be something made by humans." Nevertheless, acoustic ecology
emphasizes human agency despite insights into thewider sonic world. Thus
Boehme suggests thatwhether an environment is experienced as human or
not also depends on qualities in the environment, which are experienced
aesthetically. Music is an "acoustic decoration of public spaces," a formulation
increasingly commonplace with developments in acoustic

The Joik Symphony and the Bird Symphony
technologies (2000:16-17).
can be partly interpreted within the frameworks of acoustic ecology. But,
I think that the indigenous politics expressed through these joikworks in
that has become
the symphonic tradition goes even further. Although the Bird Symphony
is a work thatwe can listen to because of recording technology, this is not
music resulting from twentieth century expansions ofmusical materials (with
can be thought of in
everyday sounds being available for compositions) that
terms of the "conquest of acoustic spaces" as Boehme suggests (2000:15-16).
As Valkeapaa writes in the poem quoted above, the sounds ofwind, the bird,
and human thought are the same, indistinguishable from each other, not
needing to be constructed as distinct. In the Bird Symphony, the idea of the
human as creative agent and author is strained to the extent that it is difficult

Ramnarine:
205
to hear thiswork only in terms of human relationships with the environment.

Of course,Valkeapaa has composed the environment, but the human subject
is located as a part of that environment, rather than in relation to it.Perhaps
this location within and not in relation to nature renders it impossible to
externally impose a pulse on it and allows us tomove nearer to an under
standing ofwhy the joiker, the joik, and the joiked are integrated. This is not
sound as mediation between people and environments, towhich acoustic
ecology alerts us, but a different understanding of the environment inwhich
atwork on the northern fringes of
humans are a part. The acoustemologies
Europe question notions of humans in relationship with their environments

where environments are seen as polities shaped only by human laws and
practices or experienced as human; or are understood in terms of human
dramas played out against scenic surfaces or as subject tomarket evaluations
(see Ohman and Simonsen 2003).While Feld alerts us to how an ecosystem

shapes human musical concepts and creativities in the case of birdsong and
performance amongst theKaluli of Papua New Guinea (Feld 1990),Valkeapaa
takes us some way towards understanding how the joiker, the joiked, and the
joik are one and the same, and how human musical expression is an aspect of
a sonic ecosystem. Valkeapaa takes us away from understanding authorship
and creativity solelywithin environmental determinist frameworks whereby
environments shape human cultures. In fact, in reading Feld's ethnography in
view of critical work on species boundaries, this iswhat the Kaluli are point
ing to as well. Feld writes that bird sounds "metaphorize" human feelings for
the Kaluli, but in song performance, Kaluli "become those very birds" (Feld
1990:85). Valkeapaa writes "you did not hear the bird, itwas I." The social
and political ramifications are profound.
Green
Postcolonialism
and
Sami"
"Ecological
The Bird Symphony challenges the notion that sound mediates between
humans and their environments, invitingus instead to consider human musi
cal
creativity
situated
within
sonic
ecosystems
and
across
species-boundaries.
How we might theorize human musical creativities within such sonic eco
systems, including environments performed by both human and non-human
agents, provides interesting challenges for environmental ethnomusicoiogy.
Iwould
like to draw on further theoretical possibilities from debates on
colonial impacts on environments and species boundaries thatmight move
us towards a deeper appreciation ofValkeapaa's symphonic activism.
The Arctic ecosystem is complex. Bird life is diverse. Current preoccupa

tionswith polar warming have highlighted the fragilityof theArctic environ
ment with flora and fauna habitats at risk. Europe's Arctic fringes have been
subject tomarine and land-based resource development, to pollution through

206
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
the dumping of nuclear waste by the former Soviet Union in the Barents
region, to transboundary pollution fromWestern Europe, to forest logging,
and to ozone-layer depletion. Human activity is understood as threatening
to the diversity ofArctic life.Habitats disappear with oil and gas industries,
hydroelectric dams, mining, trawling, forestry,and over-fishing. The issues of
polar warming and climate change have reached the global political agenda.
Accounts of damage to theworld's ecosystems and of themarginalization of
indigenous people under European imperial rule, highlighted inpostcolonial
studies, similarly pertain to ecosystems within Europe itself. Insights from
what is now being called "green postcolonialism," highlighted in a special is
sue of Interventions: InternationalJournal
of Postcolonial Studies (Huggan
and Tiffin 2007), are therefore relevant in thinking about indigenous politics
on Europe's northern fringes.Green postcolonialism draws attention to the
ways inwhich colonialism has fractured and changed the relations between
environment, humans, and animals. Huggan and Tiffinnote that a postcolonial
environmental ethic as away of reconfiguring "the nature of the human and
the place of the human in nature" means investigating "the category of the
'human' itself" (2007:7).

In traditional Arctic belief systems, a shaman can turn into a flying rein
deer, a belief that reveals the category of human as ambiguous. Even up to the
in folklore archives about Sami shamans
1930s, legends were documented
who were able to turn intowild animals like bears and wolves. Contemporary
joik singers continue to perform reindeer, bird, orwolf sounds. In 2007,1 heard
Katarina Rimpi joiking Arctic birds and Simon Marainen joiking reindeer in
Jokkmokk'sWinter Market, one of themajor winter trading and festival ven
ues in the Swedish Arctic thatwas founded by King Karl EX over 400 years
ago. Ande Somby joiked a ptarmigan and a wolf at the opening ceremony
of theArctic Frontiers conference (held inTromso, Norway, January 2008).

Wimme's performance of an animal joik in the Ijahis Idja (Nightless nights)
Festival on the shores of Lake Inari, Finland, inMay 2007 likewise invited
an investigation into the category of human. His joik started as a bird, then
changed to a wolf, and ended with a church hymn, offering complex, mul
tilayered musical commentaries on the borders of human and non-human
creativity, on ecology, and on spirituality.

These are of course interpretive moves on my part and they are offered
by way of suggesting that there is something more in these performances
than confirmation of amodel presenting humans in relationship with nature
towhich indigenous populations have been subject. Discussions of indigene
tropes regarding
ityand environment can be read inview ofwell-established
human relationships to nature, but these tropes are as restrictive as they
are liberating in indigenous politics. As Mathisen points out, descriptions of
indigenous people as "nature-bound, living in a special harmony with nature,

Ramnarine:
207
understanding the deep ecology of nature, having a special knowledge of

powers in nature, and so on, proliferate even today" (Mathisen 2004:18-19),
and are found in ethno-politics, struggles for land rights, eco-politics and
environmental philosophy. Rather than confirming such descriptions, we can
interpretworks like the Bird Symphony as posing fundamental questions
about the human/nature relationship. The presentation of joik in the Bird

Symphony stands apart from representations of Sami as people in commu
nion with nature as it leads us to question the very notion of the human in
relation
to nature.
For me,
this question
arises
from
contemporary
environ
mental ethical discourses, but the Sami and nature have been represented
in various ways as Mathisen (2004) outlines. In seventeenth-century reports,
Sami were
the
seen
as wild
late nineteenth-century,
and
as having
an un-natural
control
a perceived
closeness
to nature
over
nature.
was
an
In
indica
tion of being on a lower step in cultural evolution, but itwas also regarded
as a threat to civilization, health, and modernization,
excepting reindeer
herders who were depicted more favorably in themode of "noble savages"
(ibid.:23). Reindeer herding was also significant in the early stages of the
Sami indigenous movement, and it continues to have symbolic importance.
It is considered to be the "most typical Sami way of life,"and it generates
"the idea of 'ecological Sami'who are close to nature and live in ecological
harmony" (ibid.: 19).5 Mathisen suggests thatwhile the image of ecological

Sami may seem a good opportunity to give voice to the indigenous people
of theArctic North it turns out in reality "to be based on themajority's myths
about nature people and noble savages" and as such it is "too fragile tomeet
the demands of future ethno-political work" (ibid.:29).
What are the insights to be gained from focusing on musical perfor
mance? The political work of indigeneity inworks like the Bird Symphony
is not based on notions of Sami being close to nature per se. In contempo
rary recordings and live performances by joikers such asWimme Saari,we
can hear the differentways inwhich modern environments impact on joik
performance with the incorporation of the sounds ofmotorcycles and snow
mobiles aswell as birds and wolves. The descriptions of being close to nature
are fraughtwith assumptions about the relationship between humans and
nature as well as about timeless lifestyles that are inconsistent with modern
Sami uses of snowmobiles and automobiles, for example, as essential contem
porary tools formobility even as reindeer caravans and goahta (traditional
mobile homes) are maintained. Through the performance of modern sonic
environments, together with use of contemporary recording technologies

and engagement with popular aesthetics, we can understand the joiker, Ingor
Antte Ailu Gaup's comment that "a basic joikmelody ismerely amodel that is
subject to constant reinterpretation inperformance" (cited inJones-Bamman
2003:47). Perhaps we can also understand performing environment as more

208
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
than an expression of closeness to nature conceived in narrow terms that

lock Sami in a mythical past of harmonious relationship with an external en
vironment. The political work of indigeneity carried out through performing
environment is to critique market economies and world views that promote
narrow approaches to nature as either resource/commodity subject to human
under the steward
ownership and exploitation or as preserved/conserved
ship of humans. In this regard, postcolonial

theory is particularly relevant
for indigenous politics as both discourses offerways of examining relation
ships of power, of recovering values and self-esteem, and of dismantling and
rejecting beliefs that have been imposed through processes of colonization.
If external representations of Sami as "ecological" people are too fragile for
any real political work, the self-representations of Sami have been crucial
to the processes of asserting land rights, histories, and the validity of indig
enous philosophies, aswell as to rejecting external (colonial) representations.
The (post)colonial political sentiments inValkeapaa's Trekways of theWind
in lines such as:
1985) cannot be misunderstood
([1974,1976,1981]
Did
tell you
anyone
live in Samiland
that we
Did they say

this is Sapmi
Did theyalso admit
that this is ours
Or did they talkabout

the primitive
culture
with simple people

And later in the same volume:
until now have they realized
who
lived here
that the people
ten thousand
years ago
to become
melted
the Sami
Not
That is a long time

The wanderings of the Egyptian pharoahs
riches of the Roman
empire
culture
glory of the Greek
ifyou compare
short moments
The
The
How
I respect
the lifeof the ancient Sami

and how meaningless
for decades
for centuries
to have
learned
the national
days
of other
nations.
Valkeapaa's symphonic compositional processes alert us to an aspect of

such (post)colonial indigenous politics in their expression of an environmen

Ramnarine:
Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicology
209
tai ethic that stands in contrast to notions of the human actor as removed
and as mastering nature. The indigenous politics in
symphonic activism moves us beyond the emphasis on sound
Valkeapaa's
from the natural world
mediating between humans and environments habitual in the discourse of

acoustic ecology, aswell as beyond the circumscriptions of "ecological Sami."
In traditional Sami concepts of the sacred landscape, nature is recognized and
through human activities that are narrated linking people
comprehended
to generations past and future. Traveling a pathway is to act in history and
in the future,and contemporary practices take place in a continuum where
there is no beginning and no end (Nergard 2004:91).
Such concepts can be understood within the frames of deep ecology,
but they are also reminiscent of Sami analytical commentaries on joik. For
JohanTuri, an indigenous commentator, joiking "is the art of recalling other

people. Some are remembered in love, some in grief. There are poems about
parts of the country and about animals?the wolf, the reindeer, the wild
reindeer" (Turi 1931:20). Another Sami commentator, Israel Ruong outlines
three distinct motifs that recur in joiks depicting: (1) the landscape, (2) the
reindeer, and (3) human beings. He notes "complex joiks" too, inwhich "ele
ments from all three motif groups are interwoven to form a whole" (Ruong
1969:15). A joik to a mountain, for example, "alludes not only to themoun
tain itselfbut also to the reindeer that graze or have grazed upon it and the
people who have or have had it for their pasture" (ibid.:25). Somby ques
tions the ethical basis of nature/human relations, critiquing perceptions of
as removed
nature
an economic
arguing
that
from
humans?as
a resource
or commodity
that
fits into
paradigm of human ownership. He turns to joik not by way of

sound
mediates
between
humans
and
their
environments,
but
to suggest an alternative environmental philosophy:

are Yoiks
for persons,
In our tradition itwas very
animals, and landscapes.
for the personal
if
like getting a name
identity to get a yoik. Itwas
own
a
had
similar
ritual connota
you got your
yoik.Yoiking
landscape
possibly
tion, and the same goes for an animal's
yoik. It is not easy even for the trained
There
important
ear
to hear
an animal's
yoik, a landscape's
yoik or a
so
that
don't
differ
much
between
you
person's
perhaps
emphasises
as you regu
the animal-creature
the human-creature,
and the landscape-creature
context. Your behaviour
will
therefore maybe
larly do in a western
European
the differences
between
yoik. That
be more
inclusive
towards
animals
and landscapes.
can have ethical
that we
not
emphasises
spheres
but also to our fellow earth and our fellow animals.
fellows? (Somby 2000:4)
In some respects
this also
fellow humans
just towards
Can you own some of your
Somby critiqued the species boundary furtherwhen
he told me:
Ifyou thinkof yourself also as awolf would you then like to killwolves? Or if
this wolf
is a transformed
you think that perhaps
would
you then like to grab your gun and shoot
that is out on a mission,

person
it?... Perhaps
these other ways

210
Ethnomusicoiogy,
Spring/Summer
2009
of thinking that I carry different animals

inme show that if I harm animals
I am
are predators, we
also harming myself...
Even ifwe
are carrying parts of other
in us. (Interview,
25 January 2OO8,Troms0,
species
Norway)
Somby's perspective corresponds to a postcolonial environmental ethic re

configuring human/nature relations. Valkeapaa, too,made such perspectives
(The Sun, My Father) (1997:119),
explicit inworks like Beaivi Ahcazan
to
further
clues
his
providing
compositional aims in the Bird Symphony:
what
gave me
this mind
birdmind
to flywith
and still
I depart
so terrible to leave
when
not
even
everything
in the air
a path
to reveal
where I have flown

if I have
ever been
Concluding Thoughts
The second part of the poem quoted above leads me to some concluding
thoughts regarding environmental history, geological time, and Valkeapaa's
legacy. Pointing to the brevity of human existence, the joik is but a few mo
ments in themusical texture of the Bird Symphony In relation to geological
time, then, the human presence isfleeting. The reappearance of the joik singers
towards the end of thework once again gives way to birdsong, promoting a
specific perspective on the place of humans in the grand narrative of the earth.
Such a reading of theBird Symphony resonates with tliinking about geologi
cal time in postcolonial
theory and highlights another point of coincidence

the politics of indigeneity and of the postcolonial. Seen from the
perspective of geological time, the differencing processes (both imposed and
two of the political mecha
asserted) of indigeneity and postcoloniality?as
nisms through which people are understood and understand themselves as
being different?are only a detail of the human experience in the longer time
frames of environmental history. Thus the struggles over minority status?the
between
in theJoik Symphony recede in

political assertions of indigeneity?expressed
the longer history of Sami (Valkeapaa's respect for the ancient Sami persisting
over the lifetimes of various imperial configurations), which in turn are part
of the longer ebb of geological time expressed in the Bird Symphony From
this perspective, the politics of indigeneity are not about asserting a unique

Ramnarine:
211
spirituality or relationship to the environment. Rather, we can ask further

questions about humans, environments, and creativity.We can confront the
limitations of thinking through the social, the natural, and the cultural. In
this respect, it is significant thatValkeapaa chose the symphony as a medium
throughwhich such questions might be posed, for the questions are relevant
beyond the spaces of indigenous joik performance.

At the same time,Valkeapaa pursued a specific kind of activist politics.
He commented on "art" requiring "public" in order to draw a distinction be
tween the "work" and the "joik." As part of his legacy he left joik in changing
performance spaces, orientated towards audiences and tomaking indigenous
politics heard in increasingly widening public arenas. In traditional joik prac
tice, several joikersmight gather to engage inmusical dialogue rather than to
in
present a performance. InValkeapaa's practice, joik became a monologue,
turn allowing him to be recognized as an artist and as the author of several

works. Today, joik composers sometimes assert their rights to be recognized
as authors, bringing joik into the domain of copyright and performing rights
issues as well as raising complex questions on cultural ownership and own
ership of personal joiks (whether restingwith the joiker orwith the person
who is joiked).
Figure
3. Lake
Inari.
Photograph
by T. K.
Ramnarine.

212
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
I end with Valkeapaa's

legacy with regard to environmental thinking.
Saari
2007:Wimme
May
joiks a poem from The Sun, My Father. The per
formance is given at the festival Ijahis Idja (Nightless nights) that takes place
near the shores of Lake Inari,northern Finland?the
traditional homeland of
the Inari Sami (Figure 3). The sun does not set. The last of the ice finallymelts
in the lake.Nightless Nights is a new festival; the firstyear of its running was
2004, and it isnot as big as related Arctic Festivals such as the Easter Festival in
Kautokeino or the JulyfestivalRiddu Riddu, both inNorway People 'smemories
about themulti-media artist and his work, modern joik transmission processes
(including festivals and recordings), and strengthened indigenous sensibilities
are part of Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa's legacy.Valkeapaa encouraged the joikerUlla
Pirttijarvi to compile a joik book for children, which features musical tran
scriptions and children's illustrations (interview, Pirttijarvi, 23 May 2007, Inari,

Finland; Pirttijarvi 1996). The publication Suga Suga Su (Elisabeth Utsi Gaup
[1989] 1997) is another indication of teaching joik to the next generation.
We learn a lot about joik aesthetics and concepts from these examples for
inwhich human sonic expressions are part
children. Arctic acoustemologies
of a total environmental soundscape persist. A nursery rhyme now familiar
inmany geographic locations,"Old McDonald Had a Farm,"is joiked together
with the joiks of sheep and cows (Gaup [1989] 1997:14). Such publications
contribute to the current formalization of joik teaching in the school system
especially with regard to the development of a joik curriculum (interview,
Annukka Hirvavuopio-Laiti, 23 May 2007, Inari, Finland).

The Bird Symphony might be interpreted as refuting colonial and mod
ern-day state discourses on nature, time, and histories, but these kinds of joik
transmission projects highlight the fact that indigenous populations are still
part of a globalized world ofmodern political states. They cannot be removed
from the contemporary politics of environment by virtue of their presumed
"closeness to nature." The Joik Symphony reminds listeners of the political
struggles of indigenous populations whether relating to environmental issues
or to other social and economic concerns. In both theJoik Symphony and
the Bird Symphony, authorship and creativity in the symphonic tradition
have been put into the service of an indigenous politics concerned with
challenging concepts of human relationships (to other humans, to nature, to
animals, tomodern state formulations). This is a politics of understanding an
environment that is not external to the human agent. It is a politics based on
the longue duree of environmental history?the history not only of social

events but of the cycles of centuries.
From this perspective, I can return to the notion of relationship, for
is based on kin
Valkeapaa does in fact posit a nature-human relation?that
in
AMdzan
(The Sun, My Father) as
Beaivi,
ship and that ismade explicit

Ramnarine:
213
as in his final work Eanni
well
Eannazan
(The earth, my mother, 2001).
reveal his global outlook. Elsewhere, he wrote,"Still, the earth is
small, and feels smaller and smaller as time goes by ...we live and dwell on
the same earth" (Valkeapaa [1971] 1983:7). His political outlook cannot be
dismissed, even if ideas towhich he adhered about humans in kinship rela
in light of dominant
tionswith their environments are still not widespread
market-orientated discourses on nature. Political and scientific discourses
on environmental issues today emphasize the urgency of global responses
These works
to environmental conditions (climate change, desertification, water stress,

pressure on food resources). They advocate global investments in green
technologies, global solutions to conflicts over natural resources, and the
need to develop scientific research for the sustainable development of global
society. For environmental ethnomusicoiogy, questions that emerge from the

European Arctic example concern theways inwhich musicians contribute
to environmental debates and the impact of a changing environment on hu
man musical creativity and performance. Environmental degradation, polar
warming, and industrial damage to fragile Arctic eco-systems are not just
geopolitical concerns, they also shape musical practice, thereby urging us
to develop
disciplinary ways of thinking about global environmental ques
tions.
Valkeapaa was an indigenous political activist and he explored intercon

nected sonic environments, acoustemologies, and cross-species creativities in
his musical works. Through theBird Symphony, inparticular, he encourages
us to consider creative practices in thinking about environment, alongside
social, political, developmental, and scientific perspectives on the environ
ment.
His
ideas
find
a continuing
expression
today.
The
composer,
Johan
Sara commented, for example, thatValkeapaa restored a realization that Sami

and Sapmi are beautiful, but that themessage for our times might focus on
environmental concerns such as pollution and polar warming. This is ames
sage that he hopes to convey in his own works, drawing on nature sounds
and
electroacoustic
technological
resources.
symphonic activism (in which creativity and performance

Valkeapaa's
are themselves brought under scrutiny) bears the traces of shamanic under
reindeer, wolves, persons, and northern lights that joik and
standings?of
are joiked?those
"experiential truths" that still echo in the newer rituals of
Sami joik practices. This iswhat Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa
1981] 1985) draws our attention to in his poem:
modern
Can
you hear
in the roaring
the sound
of life
of the creek
in the blowing of thewind

That
is all Iwant
to say
that is all

([1974,1976,
214
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
Acknowledgments
I am most grateful toThe Leverhulme Trust for the award of a Research Fellowship
that enabled
to carry out field research in the Arctic regions of Europe (2006-2008).
Versions of this
paper were delivered at the SEM annual conference 2006, World Academy of Music and Dance,
me
of Musicology, University of Oslo (2008) and

Limerick University (2007), and the Department
to present my ideas in their preliminary forms. As always,
I am grateful for those opportunities
discussions
inmy field contexts have been illuminating, and Harald Gaski, Ande Somby, and
Ola Graff (in the University of Tromso, Norway), Per Niila Stalka (in Ajtte Museum,
Sweden),
and Seppo Paakkunainen
and Ulla Pirttijarvi (in Finland), in particular, have provided valuable
additional insights intoValkeapaa's work, as well as into joik more generally.
Notes
1 .These modern
recordings are located in a nexus of musical exchanges, collaborations,
and global markets. Contemporary
and disseminated
through mass media
joik is produced
to
advances. Sami institutions have also been established
systems and shaped by technological
promote Sami music, language, and literature, such as the Sami Radio and the Sami publishing
house, Dawi Girji.
2. Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa's
is viewed as launching Sami popular music.

(1968)
LP,Joikuja
are Tiina Sanila smusic video (the firstone to be released using
popular engagements
Skolt Sami language, 2007) and Amoc's music video (the first to use Inari Sami, 2007). Further
are given inGaski (1997) and Jones-Bamman ([2001] 2006).
biographical details on Valkeapaa
Recent
3. This work is based on a joik by Johan Marak, a Sami timberman, reindeer herder, and
retired vicar in the parish of Jokkmokk in northern Sweden. Not all the compositions
discussed
in this article are included in the discography because
they are not recorded, or I am
not referring to a particular recorded performance.
now
is a member organization of theWorld Council of Indigenous Peoples

status in the United Nations. Established as the Nordic Sami Council
in 1956, the
of name in 1992 reflected the incorporation of Sami representatives
from the Russian
4. The Sami Council
and has a NGO
change
Kola Peninsula. Finland and Sweden's membership
in the European Union beginning
in 1995
was greeted with some scepticism by Sami due to EU structures based on an economic
and
political union of national states in contrast to a Sami area that is spread over four nation states.
The Sami Parliament was established
in response (in 1997) for political cooperation
across the
national
borders of Sweden, Norway and Finland.

5. Modern reindeer herding practices have also been criticized as "a threat to the ecology
of the tundra," for example, by the leader of the Norwegian
Environment Association,
leading
to policies to limit the number of reindeer herders (Mathisen 2004:25).
References
1802. Travels through Sweden, Finland and Lapland,
to theNorth Cape in
Acerbi, Guiseppe.
1798 and 1799. London-Joseph Mawman.
A Contribution
to the Study of Ecological Aes
Boehme, Gemot. 2000. "Acoustic Atmospheres:
thetics." In Soundscape:
The Journal of Acoustic Ecology
1(1): 14-18.
and Audience
in the Oral Tradition
DuBois, Thomas A. 2006. Lyric, Meaning,
of Northern
Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
Europe.
Edstrom, Karl-Olov. 1985. "The Jojk: A Clear Case of Organic
Trends and Perspectives
inMusicology:
Proceedings
the International Music
of Music 48:160-64.
Council,
3-5 October
and Non-organic Acculturation

"In
of theWorld Music
Conference
of
1983. Stockholm: Royal Swedish Academy

Ramnarine:
-.
Feld, Steven. 1990. Sound and Sentiment:Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Song in Kaluli Expres
sion. 2d ed. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
to Echo-muse-ecology:
1994. "From Ethnomusicoiogy
Reading R. Murray-Schafer in the
Papua
New
Guinea
Rainforest."
In The Soundscape
.uoregon.edu/mediaLit/wfae/library/newsletter/SNL8.PDF
vuodul. SIA ConceptMedia,
Fjellheim, Frode. 2005.Juoigama
-.
215
Newsletter
8:9-13.
(October
http://interact
2007).
Norway.
Gaski, Harald. 1997. "Voice in the Margin: A Suitable Place for a Minority Literature?" In Sami
Sami Experience,
edited by Harald Gaski, 199-220.
Culture in a New Era: The Norwegian
Dawi Girji OS.
Karasjohka/Karasjok:
A Commemoration
of Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa." Bdiki:
Sami Journal, http://www.org/content/nils.htm
(November 2008).
Gaup, Elisabeth Utsi. [1989] 1997. Suga Suga Su. Uddevalla: Mediaprint, DAT.
Review
Graff, Ola. 1997. "The Impact of Sami Tradition "In Listen toNorway: Musical
5(3):34
36.
over en utd0dd sj0samisk joiket
2004. Om kjaeresten min vil jegjoike. Undersokelser
2001.
"The Son of the Sun is Dead:
The International
-.
radisjon. Karasjok: Dawi Girji.

International
Heininen, Lassi. 2002. "The Saami in the (Globalized) World as a Pan-National,
Actor." Etnologia
12(14): 321 -36.
Helander, Elina, and Kaarina Kailo, eds. 1996. No Beginning, No End: The Sami Speak Up. Ed
monton: Canadian Circumpolar
Institute and Nordic Sami Institute (Norway).
Tiffin. 2007. "Editorial." Interventions:

International
Journal
of
9(1): 1-11.
to Joik,We'11 Remember Who We Are:
Jones-Bamman, Richard. 1993. "As Long As We Continue
Negotiating
Identity and the Performance of Culture: The Saami Joik." Ph.D. dissertation,
Huggan, Graham,
Postcolonial
-.
-.
and Helen
Studies
University ofWashington.
in the Footsteps of a Giant." British Journal
2003.
"Following
12(l):35-54.
[2001] 2006. "From I'm a Lapp' to I am Saami': Popular Music
of Ethnomusicoiogy
and Changing
Images
of Indigenous Ethnicity in Scandinavia."
In Ethnomusicoiogy:
A Contemporary
Reader,
edited by Jennifer C. Post, 351-67. New York: Routledge.
and Hakan Rydving. 1988. Om Jojk. Hedemora: Gidlunds Bok
Kjellstrdm, Rolf, GunnarTernhag,
forlag.
Eerola, Petri Toivianinen,Topi
Krumhansl, Carol L, PekkaToivonen,Tuomas
Jarvinen, and Jukka
Louhivuori. 2000. "Cross-Cultural Music Cognition: Cognitive Methodology
to
Applied
North SamiYoiks:, Cognition
76:13-58.
Sami: Historical-Eth
Lasko, Lars-Niila, and Chiner Taksami, eds. 1996. Diedut 2. The Russian
Sami Instituhtta (Nordic
nographic Essays by N.N. Volkov. Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino:
Sami Institute) and the Russian Academy of Sciences at the Museum of Anthropology
and
Ethnography.
Etsimdssa
Launis, Armas. [1904-05] 2004. Tunturisdvelmid
[In search of sounds of the moun
Seura [Finnish
tain], edited by Minna Riikka Jarvinen. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden
Literature Society].
Stein R. 2004. "Hegemonic Representations
of Sami Culture: From Narratives of Noble
on Ecological
Sami." In Creating Diversities:Folklore,
Savages to Discourses
Religion and
the Politics ofHeritage,
edited by Anna-Leena
Siikala, Barbro Klein, and Stein R. Mathisen,
17-30. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.
Mathisen,
1:46-48.
Jari. 1989. "Traditional Values in a Modern Light."Finnish Music Quarterly
Law and Customary
Nergard, Jens-Ivar. 2004. "The Sacred Landscape." InDiedut 3:Landscape,
Rights, edited by Michael Jones and Audhild Schanche, 85-92. Guovdageaidnu/Kautokeino:
Sami Instituhtta (Nordic Sami Institute).
Ohman, Jan, and Kirsten Simonsen, eds. 2003. Voices from the North: New Trends in Nordic
Muikku,
Human
Geography.
Aldershot:
Ashgate.

216
Ethnomusicology,
Spring/Summer
2009
Paakkunainen,
Seppo. 1992. Liner notes to theJoik Symphony, pp. 5-8. Compact Disc, DATCD
11. Guovdageaidnu
[Kautokeino, Norway]: DAT.
Guovdageaidnu
Pirttijarvi, Ulla. 1996. Honkon Dohkka.
K. 2003.Ilmatar's
and the Changing
Globalization,
Inspirations:Nationalism,
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Soundscapes
of Finnish Folk Music.
Ruong, Israel. 1969. "Remembering, Feeling andYoiking."In Jojk, co-authored by MattsArnberg,
Israel Ruong, and Hakan Unsgaard, 7-41. Stockholm: Sveriges Radios Forlag.
Schafer, R. Murray. 1977. The Tuning of theWorld. New York: Knopf.
Ramnarine,Tina
-.
www.uit.no/ssweb/dok/Somby/
Somby, Ande. 1995. "Joik and the Theory of Knowledge."
Ande/95.htm
(July 2005).
2000. "The Alta Case inNorway. A Story About How Another Hydro-Electric Dam Project
was Forced Through Norway." InDams, Indigenous People and Vulnerable Ethnic Minori
ties.www.dams.org
(November 2007).
Stoor, Krister. 2007. "As Long as theWorld Shall Stand: Analyzing Jonas Erikkson Steggo'sYoik
to the Pite River."European
in Ethnomusicology
(12):232-38.
Meetings
Heim, and Claire Waterton, eds. 2003. Nature Performed: Envi
Szerszynski, Bronislaw, Wallace
ronment, Culture
Szomjas-Schiffert,
Kiado.
and Performance.
1996. Singing
Gyorgy.
Oxford: Blackwell
Tradition
of Lapp
Publishing.
Shamans.
Budapest:
Akademiai
Karl Tiren. Umea: Sprak och Folkminnesinstitutet.

Ternhag, Gunnar. 2000.Jojksamlaren
Volksmusik
3)- Stockholm: Nordiska Mu
(Acta Lapponica
Tiren, Karl. 1942. Die Lappische
seet.
in Norse Myth and Magic.
Helsinki: Folklore Fellows' Com
Tolley, Clive. 2009. Shamanism
no. 296.
1931. Turi's Book
munications
Turi, Johan.
of Lappland.
Translated
by E. Gee
Nash.
London:
Jonathan
Cape.
The Saami?Europe's
Nils-Aslak. [1971] 1983. Greetings from Lapland:
Forgotten
People. Translated by Beverley Wahl. London: Zed Books.
1985. Trekways of theWind. Translated by Harald Gaski, Lars Nord
[1974,1976,1981]
strom, and Ralph Salisbury. Guovdageaidnu
1992. Liner notes to the Joik Symphony, pp. 19-20. CD. DATCD-11.
Guovdageaidnu
1997. The Sun, My Father. Translated by Harald Gaski, Lars Nordstrom, and Ralph Salis
bury. Guovdageaidnu
Valkeapaa,
-.
-.
-.
-.
2001
.Eanni, Eanndzan
[The earth, my mother]. Guovdageaidnu
[Kautokeino, Norway]:
DAT.
Hildergaard.
Westerkamp,
l(l):3-4.
2000.
"Editorial." In SoundScape:
The Journal
of Acoustic
Ecology
Filmography
[The white reindeer]. 1952. Directed by Erik Blomberg. Produced byAarne
by Erik Blomberg and Mirjami Kuosmanen. Music by Einar Englund. Finland
(in Finnish). Black and white. 74 minutes. Limited US release in 1957.
and written by Nils Gaup. Produced by John M. Jacobsen.
[Pathfinder]. 1987. Directed
Valkoinen
Peura
Tarkas.Written
OfelaS
Music
by Nils Aslak Valkeapaa,

Color. 86 minutes. Distributed
Marius Muller, and Kjetil Bjerkestrand.

by Carolco Pictures, USA.

Norway
(in Sami).
Ramnarine:
217
Discography
(Only the main
recordings
referred to in the text are listed here.)
1992. Symphony No. 1,Juoigansinfoniija

[Joik symphony], and Sdpmi
Guovdageaidnu
Compact Disc,DATCD-11.
Qoiks from Finnish Lapland).
Valkeapaa, Nils-Aslak. \96S.Joikuja, Jojk Fran Finska Lapland
Otava OTY-LP 50.
Paakkunainen,
Lottdzan.
-.
-.
-.
Seppo.
1994. Goase Dugse

[Bird symphony]. Compact Disc, DATCD-15. Guovdageaidnu
[Kautokei
no, Norway]: DAT.
Finlandia Records, Warner Music
1998. The Magic
of Sami Yoik, Nils Aslak Valkeapaa.
in 1973 and 1976.
Finland. Compact Disc, CD-3984-22112-2.
Based on recordings made
1988. Beaivi, AMdzan
[The sun,my father]. Compact
Valkeapaa, Nils-Aslak, and Esa Kotilainen.
Disc, DATCD-4. Guovdageaidnu
1989.Eanan,
DAT.
Eallima
Eadni.
Compact
Disc, DATCD-5.
Guovdageaidnu
Norway]:

[Kautokeino,

Acoustemology Indigeneity and Joik in

Caricato da

Informazioni sul documento

Copyright

Formati disponibili

Condividi questo documento

Condividi o incorpora il documento

Opzioni di condivisione

Hai trovato utile questo documento?

Questo contenuto è inappropriato?

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Acoustemology Indigeneity and Joik in

Caricato da

Copyright:

Formati disponibili

Acoustemology, Indigeneity, and Joik in Valkeap's Symphonic Activism: Views from

Europe's Arctic Fringes for Environmental Ethnomusicology

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

Indigeneity, and Joik

in the roaring of the creek

(1943-2001), published in his volume

and creative processes.

sound-producing environment. It can be read as a question about perception:

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

2009 by the Society for Ethnomusicoiogy

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

referring to two symphonies composed in the 1990s?the Joik Symphony

relations or as shaping musical conceptualizations render incomplete insights

Joik and the Complexities

Sami have been the subject of considerable ethnographic attention since

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy

tence economies and identify themselves as forest,mountain, or coastal Sami,

notes that inpre-Christian Scandinavia, shamans were thought to receive their

of rationale printed in the front pages of the society's journal, SoundScape:

agents in creative, improvisatory, and emergent

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

2003:4). In capturing Sami sonic

Joiking something is a concept thatvarious researchers have struggled to

qualities are compounded ifapplied to joik since musical representation does

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy

the borrowing of other texts resulting in an intertextual joik.Graff (2004 and

I suggest that both tonmalerei and semiotics are theoretical frameswithin

sic's capacity to refer to something beyond itself.Per Haetta, the joikerwith

The discourses of these joikers seem removed from analytical perspec

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

environmental thinking that insists on the notion of relationship between

lytical challenges posed by joik that have preoccupied

in 2001: "Nils-Aslak's accomplishments forhis people were so

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy

apparent too in the development of contemporary Sami literature,film, and in

referentiality in joik arise in relation to linguistic frames thatmight be impos

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

?)d\heirtisAejlies Gaaltije is based on the South Sami liturgybut juxtaposes

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

graph by Henrik Nilssen,

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy

1920 or 1925. Reproduced with permission from

tra based on Nils-Aslak Valkeapaa's melodies and poems Sdpmi Lottdzan

timbral combinations throughout thework (see Figure 2). Traditional joiks,

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

fromAim [Nils-AslakValkeapaa] have been reshaped inmy soul" (1992:8).

identified as the composer (email, Paakkunainen, 8 March 2008). That the

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

Arctic Fringes and Ethnomusicoiogy

ner of the "FourthWorld," and of which Valkeapaa was an

Inmy current Arctic fieldwork

rounding industrial development

representations and artifacts

(particularly oil and gas) on one hand, and

Joik has played a fundamental role in these processes. As an integral

formance prohibitions and the negative perceptions towards joik held by

This content downloaded from 132.235.61.22 on Fri, 13 Feb 2015 02:06:42 AM

In requesting the incorporation of joiks into a symphony,Valkeapaa was

symphonic texture,Valkeapaa issued a challenge to earlier representations of

than that. They include

they are of different languages