Runic song, also referred to as ''Rune'' song, ''Runo'' song, or ''Kalevala'' song, is a form of oral poetry and

national epic A national epic is an epic poem or a literary work of epic scope which seeks to or is believed to capture and express the essence or spirit of a particular nation—not necessarily a nation state, but at least an ethnic or linguistic group wi ...

historically practiced among the

Baltic Finnic peoples The Baltic Finnic peoples, often simply referred to as the Finnic peoples, are the peoples inhabiting the Baltic Sea region in Northern Europe, Northern and Eastern Europe who speak Finnic languages. They include the Finns, Estonians (including ...

. It includes the Finnish epic poems ''

Kalevala The ''Kalevala'' () is a 19th-century compilation of epic poetry, compiled by Elias Lönnrot from Karelian and Finnish oral folklore and mythology, telling a story about the Creation of the Earth, describing the controversies and retaliatory ...

'' and '' Kanteletar'', as well as the Estonian '' Kalevipoeg''. Estonian and Finnish researchers suggest the term runosong for English translation, or local terms, such as Estonian ''regilaul'', Seto ''leelo'' or Finnish ''runolaulu'' when it is about regional tradition.

Description

Runic song is typically

monophonic Monaural sound or monophonic sound (often shortened to mono) is sound intended to be heard as if it were emanating from one position. This contrasts with stereophonic sound or ''stereo'', which uses two separate audio channels to reproduce sou ...

among most Baltic Finnic groups, though it is generally

polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords ...

when practiced among the Seto. Runic song usually does not contain rhyming

couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

s, but is frequently heard in

alliterative Alliteration is the repetition of syllable-initial consonant sounds between nearby words, or of syllable-initial vowels if the syllables in question do not start with a consonant. It is often used as a List of narrative techniques#Style, litera ...

trochaic tetrameter In English poetry, trochaic tetrameter is a meter featuring lines composed of four trochaic feet. The etymology of ''trochaic'' derives from the Greek ''trokhaios'', from the verb ''trecho'', meaning ''I run''. In modern English poetry, a troc ...

, or Kalevala meter. Runic song is usually sung in , though quadruple metre and

sextuple metre Sextuple metre (Am. meter) or sextuple time (chiefly British) is a musical metre (music), metre characterized by six beats in a measure. Like the more common Duple metre, duple, triple metre, triple, and quadruple meter, quadruple metres, it may b ...

singing also exists. In addition to their musical character, runic singers also are required to follow certain practices as they sang, such as Karelian runic singers holding hands while singing in a

call and response Call and response is a form of interaction between a speaker and an audience in which the speaker's statements ("calls") are punctuated by responses from the listeners. This form is also used in music, where it falls under the general category of ...

fashion. Ingrian runic singing includes additional choralists. Vocal ranges usually correspond with the range of a

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 ...

. The term "runic song" does not include Livonian or Vepsian song, though they are related.

History

Though runic song has existed for at least a millennium, it only began to be transcribed in 1797. Efforts to write down runic song acquired new urgency in Finland after the Russian victory in the 1808–1809

Finnish War The Finnish War (; ; ) was fought between the Gustavian era, Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from 21 February 1808 to 17 September 1809 as part of the Napoleonic Wars. As a result of the war, the eastern third of Sweden was established a ...

and its subsequent annexation of Finland. This led to the publication of the ''

'' by

Elias Lönnrot Elias Lönnrot (; 9 April 1802 – 19 March 1884) was a Finnish polymath, physician, philosopher, poet, musician, linguist, journalist, philologist and collector of traditional Finnish language, Finnish Oral literature, oral poetry. He is best k ...

in 1835. Similarly, runic song largely began to be recorded in Estonia in 1888 as part of the country's national revival, though the first transcriptions reach as far back as

Johann Gottfried Herder Johann Gottfried von Herder ( ; ; 25 August 174418 December 1803) was a Prussian philosopher, theologian, pastor, poet, and literary critic. Herder is associated with the Age of Enlightenment, ''Sturm und Drang'', and Weimar Classicism. He wa ...

's 1778–1779 publication of ''Folk Songs''. The 1888 runic song transcription process in Estonia largely began following an appeal by Jakob Hurt to collect written Estonian folklore. Karl August Hermann subsequently called on Estonians to collect folk tunes. However, the appeal largely failed in its endeavour due to the significant volume of self-authored works which were submitted, as well as low levels of musical literacy. Another push, under the guidance of Oskar Kallas and including students from both the

University of Tartu The University of Tartu (UT; ; ) is a public research university located in the city of Tartu, Estonia. It is the national university of Estonia. It is also the largest and oldest university in the country.

and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory was much more successful; over 13,139 folk songs were collected between 1904 and 1914.

Notable runic singers

* Larin Paraske * Arhippa Perttunen

Notable runic songs

* ''

'' * '' Kanteletar'' * '' Kalevipoeg''

External links

Archive of Estonian runic songsArchive of Finnish, Ingrian and Karelian runic songs

Notes

{{noteslist

References

Epic poems Estonian mythology Karelian-Finnish folklore Finnish mythology