"Konevitsan kirkonkellot" (English: "The Church Bells of Konevitsa") is a

Karelia Karelia (; Karelian language, Karelian and ; , historically Коре́ла, ''Korela'' []; ) is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance for Russia (including the Soviet Union, Soviet era), Finland, and Sweden. It is currentl ...

n folk melody, best known as the 1975 recording of Finnish musical group

Piirpauke Piirpauke is a Finnish musical group combining free jazz, flamenco, mbalax, Arabesque, carnatic, romantic, modern, classical, humppa, impressionist, hindustani, salsa, Amharic, Lappjoik, Tibetan, Balkan, Karelian, Finnish, national romant ...

. It repeats the chime of the church bells of the Konevsky Monastery (Konevitsan luostari in Finnish) in

Lake Ladoga Lake Ladoga is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake in Russia after Lake ...

. The melody was first recorded by

kantele A kantele () or kannel () is a traditional Finnish and Karelian plucked string instrument (chordophone) belonging to the southeast Baltic box zither family known as the Baltic psaltery along with the Estonian kannel, the Latvian kokles, t ...

player Ulla Katajavuori in 1952. Other recorded versions include the 1978 version by Matti Kontio, Martti Pokela and Eeva-Leena Sariola, and the 2002 version by heavy metal band

Sentenced Sentenced was a Finnish gothic metal band that played melodic death metal in their early years. The band formed in 1989 in the town of Muhos and broke up in 2005. Lead guitarist Miika Tenkula was the band's vocalist for the first album, but du ...

, used as an intro in their album '' The Cold White Light''.

The Piirpauke version

Piirpauke's "Konevitsan kirkonkellot" was released in their 1975 debut album ''

''. The song is composed of two parts of the original theme with an improvised part in the middle. The improvised part is known of the classic guitar solo by Hasse Walli. French horn was played by 17-year-old music student

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

, who later became a famous conductor. Live versions are included in Piirpauke's albums '' Historia of Piirpauke Vol. 1'' (1977) and ''

Metamorphosis – Live 1977–1995 Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth transformation or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differenti ...

'' (1995).Piirpauke Discography
Rockadillo Records. Retrieved 17 October 2014.

References

{{authority control 1975 songs Finnish folk songs Karelian-Finnish folklore