Singer Reijo Taipale said that tango is the national anthem of Finland.
It took about fifty years for Finnish tango, meaning the Finnification of Argentinian tango in the 1940s and 50s,
to be born. The evergreen “La Paloma” (1854), a fine example of habanera, the Cuban version of tango, became
known in Finland in the 1890s, and Argentinian tango spread to Europe from Paris at the beginning of the 1910s.
As far as is known, the first tangos were played in Finland in the summer of 1912 when a Romanian orchestra
from St.
Petersburg played Argentinian, Brazilian and Spanish tango-like songs at Kaivohuone restaurant in
Helsinki. Other milestones were El Choclo (1905) and La Cumparsita (1917). The former was even recorded as
a brass band arrangement while Finland was in the grip of tango fever in 1913. The first Finnish tango was
composed in 1914 by Emil Kauppi as the accompaniment for a dance scene in a silent film.
Tango in the beginning was only one kind of dance among many others. Dance orchestras played
Argentinian, German, Swedish and Lithuanian tangos in the 1920s and ‘30s, and there were also some Finnish
ones, such as Matti Jäppilä’s “Valkea Sisar”, Juhani Pohjanmies’s “Kuubalainen serenadi”, Georg Malmsten’s
“Muistelo”andValtoTynnilä’s “Pienisydän”. But real Finnish tangos only began to appear during the Second
World War, with pioneering works from Arvo Koskimaa (“Syyspihlajan alla”,1941) as well as Rober von Essen
(“Kun ilta ehtii”) and Helvi Mäkinen (“Kotkan ruusu”) in 1942. Toivo Kärki started composing tangos a few years
later while he was still serving as an
artillery officer at the front, and he continued to release transcendent
productions for several decades. His vocalists were the legendary Henry Theel and Olavi Virta, whose
fantastically romantic and gypsylike glissando-rubato soon became the ideal for all tango singers.
Pentti
Viherluoto, Kaarlo Valkama, Unto Mononen and many others also composed tangos that later became
evergreens.
The war itself cannot explain the emergence of Finnish tango, because
themes like a fear of death, an
uncertain future, home-sickness and war propaganda feature only occasionally in the music. More significant
was that people gravitated towards their own familiar roots and the safe haven of national conservatism. New
tangos no longer described the exotic “Argentinian pusta” but rather the desolate village roads. Literature
research has demonstrated that the new tango lyrics reflected influences from both Finnish national poetry and
Romantic literature: a person listening to the birds, left alone under a rowan tree or an old maple, or looking for a
lily, a violet or another blue flower of longing. The “ardent melancholy” (Jukka Ammondt) of tango slyrics has
often, especially abroad, been int
erpreted as a symbol of Finns’ introversion and their feeling of inferiority and
communication difficulties, but in reality it represents “silent information”, a subtle way of handling painful matters.
There are plenty of reasons for this: in the 1940s and
’50s the new tango lyrics were written mainly by Kerttu
Mustonen and other women who put their heart and soul into themes of love, agony and oblivion.
The musical aspect of Finnish tango also has its roots in distance places. The rhythm is the youngest,
A
rgentinian
ingredient of tango; it carries the tango’s sexual message, an echo from the brothels of Buenos
Aires and Montevideo that were visited by boastful coachmen and sailors. Finnish tango’s rhythm is however
somewhat more subdued: the macho syncopations of habanera
and milonga have been diffused, the
accompaniment has become more march-like, and the dance style has been transformed into a bashful walk.
Nevertheless, the gender roles are still traditional: even in Finnish tango the man leads and the obedient woman
follows. The firm bodily contact is a reminder of the presence of Eros, and its secret message can also be heard
in the tango pulse: 140 beats per minute corresponds to the human heart rate in especially exciting situations.
According to the H
ite report, this heart rate is same as woman’s when she experiences an orgasm!
In tango melodies one can hear both contrition and glimpses of heaven. The former is dominated by a
descending quintet in a minor key. This is characteristic of ancient Finnish melodies,
but its angst-releasing
character originates from Gregorian and Protestant church music. The tangos of Unto Mononen (1930
–1968) in
particular are suffused with this musical influence, which has been adopted from passion chorals and cries for
merc
y. For example, “Satumaa”, probably the most popular Finnish tango, instinctively reflects devotional cries
for God’s mercy.
“Satumaa” is a powerful image of Finnish agony, whereas the tangos composed by “the supreme god of
Finnish popular song”, Toivo Kärki (1915–1992), are much more tender in character. He was greatly influenced
by East- European 19th century music,
especially Russian romance, which was in fashion during the
autonomous era. The ascending sixths in classic tangos like “Täysikuu”, “Eron hetki on kaunis” and “Siks oon
mä suruinen” bring light and consolation to the minor key and provide a modicum of heavenly joy with cut-glass
chandeliers, champagne glasses and gypsy violinists. The Russian tradition has also been exploited by Pentti
Viher
luoto (“Punaiset lehdet” is probably the most Chekovian popular song ever composed), Lauri Jauhiainen
and Reino Markkula, among others.
Finnish tango has given us hope and made our lives a little easier to live, and that is why it is like an unofficial
national anthem.
Pekka Jalkanen
– Composer
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