Oral Tradition, 7/1 (1992):87-101 The Production of Finnish Epic Poetry— Fixed Wholes or Creative Compositions?

• Main Author: Lauri Harvilahti
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: karelian
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.548.6621; http://journal.oraltradition.org/files/articles/7i/7_harvilahti.pdf

One meets again and again in studies of epic singing among various peoples accounts of singers who are able to repeat a long narrative poem after only a single hearing, reworking or improving the original version in their own renditions, or rapidly producing a new poem on a given theme.1 The repetition of a song on the basis of only a single hearing was also apparently not unheard of in the Finnish-Karelian song tradition. There were a number of singers who were able to repeat any song after having heard it only once, among others, Iivana Shemeikka, who—as has been reported—“after hearing a song but once knew it for good ” (Virtanen 1968:42). Although the skill of the gifted singer made it possible to improvise on the basis of traditional forms and to repeat a song after hearing it only once, as a general collective expression it was obviously a 1 Arash Bormanishov (1982:163) writes thus about Kalmyk epic singers: “It is a known fact that among the Kalmyks there were some who memorized separate epic songs right on the spot, after having listened only once to a bardic performance. ” Albert Lord (1960:78-79) mentions as an example of the learning capabilities of the Yugoslav master singer Avdo Međedovic a situation in which another singer—Mumin Vlahovljak — performed a song that Avdo had never heard before. After Mumin had finished, Avdo praised the song, but stated that he could perform it better. Although Mumin’s version was already thousands of lines in length, Avdo’s interpretation was even longer. Avdo’s poem was more complete and richer than that which Mumin had presented, and made use of standard elements characteristic of Avdo’s repertoire in its construction. Similar accounts have been given of Russian bylina singers. The bylina collector P. I. Ončukov recorded a performance of the bylina “Luka and the Dragon ” by a singer named Durkin. Another singer, named Pozdeev, who was present at Durkin’s performance but who had never heard the song before, was later able to reproduce the bylina himself after only ...