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Original Arrangements
These are pieces that have I have arranged for The Maine
Kanteles. While we play many traditional Finnish tunes, I
have tried also to arrange pieces that are familiar to American
audiences. Most are arranged for 10- and 15-strings, but some
include concert kantele as well. I use traditional notation as
well as string numbers because the numbers may be easier for those
with little music training. However, it is important to note
that you should change the fingerings if it makes a particular
passage easier for you. It is not my intent that these tunes be played exactly
as written, but I encourage you to adapt them to your own ensemble.
I have included some notes about how we have played them but
this is an evolving process and it is never exactly the same.
Please feel free to use them; I only ask that you credit the source.
Just click on the title!
~Sarah Cummings-Ridge
If you enjoy these
pieces, please consider making a donation to Kantele Laulu, Inc.
I believe that we started and ended this piece with an
improvisation section. For those who are a little shy about
improvising, I also included some ideas
here, but I would
encourage the use of original improv.
Arrange the parts in any combination. Also available,
flute
countermelody.
Performance suggestions are included on the sheet music.
It seems that we created a fairly complicated arrangement of
this. Concert kantele is required due to quick tuning changes.
We start this by playing a repeated harmonic on low B, continuing
one per measure while humming the melody or singing it on "loo."
Again, the parts can be combined in a variety of ways. Those
playing the accompaniment part need to tune low A to A# (which means
they cannot switch to the melody part-way through the performance).
This was arranged especially for The Maine Kanteles trip to Finland in 2004.
We start it by having two people repeat the first measure of the
accompaniment part as an introduction. The first time through,
we only play the melody and accompaniment parts, followed by the
"introduction" again (this reminds me of the "rolling river").
All three parts are played on the repeat. We again use the
"introduction" as a vamp and then segue immediately into
Simple Gifts.
The melody could certainly be played by any instrument - violin,
flute, concert kantele, etc.
I arranged this piece for 10- and 15-string kanteles, but we
usually have a few additional 10-strings playing the 15-string part.
It adds such a nice color to have this part played in octaves.
In the opening rubato section, we usually have one player on each
part so that it has the kind of give-and-take that I'd like.
Everyone else comes in at "in strict time."
Villiruusu, a favorite of our grandparents, is playing on the
concert kanteles. We have just added the original
countermelody to "make it our own."
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