| Summary: | According to the 1989 census, there are only a little more than 800 Izhorians. In contrast, 60 years ago there were more than 26 000 Izhorians. The deportations of 1937, the Second World War during which Izhorians, Votians, and also Ingrians were deported to Finland, and those who returned, further to the so-called expanses of the soviet fatherland. But despite all this, the ancient folklore traditions have not been broken and up to recent times, runo songs have still been recorded from amongst Izhorians and Votians.Feodor Safronov was born in 1886 in the Viistna village on the Soikkola peninsula in Ingria. He died in 1962 in Helsinki where he had been living under the name Teppo Repo. He is one of the best Izhorian musicians. The Izhorians played the buckhorn and willow-pipe. Instrumental imitation of lamentation was a part of the traditions of Izhorians, Russians, Lithuanians and even our Setus. Kävelukeppi was a long wooden willow-pipe, that had been wrapped into birch bark. It had no fingerholes and the height of sounds could be changed either by regulating the strength of blowing or by opening and closing the lowest finger-hole with a finger. This is similar to the long-pipe once known in Läänemaa. Kasetoht or birch-bark could be the musical instrument all north European nations have in common. In Ingria, also the bagpipe was known, but it was called rakkopill or bladder instrument because the windbag of the bagpipe was made of swine cyst. The zither is called kannõl by Votians and kannel by Izhorians. Even though the old Izhorian-Votian zithers looked exactly like the ones in Estonia or Karelia and Finland, they were held half-across the lap with the shorter side up, as the Russian stringinstrument-players used to do and still do. The zither was quite popular in some Izhorian and Votian villages at the beginning of the century. Despite the survival of the runo song, at the beginning go this century it were often already the Russian melodies that were danced and sung after. Even Estonian melodies were not ...
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