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Songs of the Finnish Migration
A Bilingual Anthology
Simo Westerholm
Translated with additional notes by Thomas A. DuBois and Marcus Cederström
Languages and Folklore of the Upper Midwest
Joseph Salmons and James P. Leary, Series Editors
“For Finnish-American musicians, or Finnish Americans interested in their own cultural heritage, this work is of generational importance. For English-language scholars interested in Finnish, Finnish-American, or Upper Midwestern musical traditions, this work is of similarly outstanding value.”
—Tim Frandy, Western Kentucky University
Songs of the Finnish Migration presents music, lyrics, and chords for more than eighty Finnish-language immigrant songs, alongside singable English translations and detailed notes on Finnish migration history and music making in the New World. At times boisterous and confident, wry and irreverent, or impassioned and sorrowful, Finnish immigrant songs provide a vivid and imaginative portrayal of the momentous process of migration that forever changed Finnish and Finnish American society.
The current volume expands upon Simo Westerholm’s 1983 groundbreaking collection Reisaavaisen laulu Amerikkaan: Siirtolaislauluja, which drew from archival sources, manuscripts, sound recordings, and a wide array of published songbooks to recover the musical culture of the more than 300,000 Finnish immigrants who traveled to North America to try their luck in the New World.
Thomas A. DuBois is the Halls-Bascom Professor of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore, and Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. B. Marcus Cederström is a public folklorist working at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as the community curator of Nordic-American folklore. Hilary-Joy Virtanen is an assistant professor of Finnish and Nordic Studies at Finlandia University.
Praise
“The translators have not only produced English translations, but also admirably, painstakingly, elegantly offered singable translations matching the originals’ ineffable sense and spirit.”
—James P. Leary, University of Wisconsin–Madison
“In translating these songs, the editors have discovered deeper meanings and the significant cultural contexts of the songs. It makes it possible for these songs to be performed again on both sides of the Atlantic, bringing back reflections of immigrant life. The result is something far more than a mere tunebook. It is one of the best scholarly books on Finnish American music and sheds considerable light on American ethnic music in general.”
—Notes
“Provides a rare window to the rich past of songs and life which cannot be reached in any other way. I am convinced that this book will be an adventure to everyone who takes it for a closer look.”
—Journal of Finnish Studies
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Larger images
March 2020
232 pp. 7 x 10
88 musical notations
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