by Rich Koski
| At our April meeting Dr. Carl Rahkonen gave a very entertaining and informative talk on the kantele, the national instrument of Finland. He explained that the kantele manifests itself in three separate ways to the Finnish people; first, as a musical instrument, second, as a motif of Finnish folklore and third, as a symbol of Finnish identity. He then played us some field recordings he had made in Finland of old time players while doing research for his doctoral dissertation on the kantele. Finally, he played several of the different kinds of kanteles that he brought to our meeting. |