Ievan Polkka: A Song History

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"Ievan Polkka" sets comic Finnish verses to an older dance melody.[1] Loituma's website traces the melody back to the late 1700s, chiefly in Finland's southeast, and notes that it also circulates as "Savitaipaleen polkka."[1] Sources differ on its age: FolkWorld observes that the polka reached northern Europe only in the late 1800s, so the tune in its present shape probably comes from then,[2] while a 2010 Yle report noted that its origins had been traced to Russia.[3] The words are by Eino Kettunen, a comic-song performer born in Juuka in 1894 who died in Helsinki in 1964.[4] A small booklet of his "Savo-Karelian and other humorous songs," printed in Tampere in 1928 and published by Kettunen in Lieksa, lists "Ievan polokka" among its contents.[5] The verses are in Savonian dialect and played for laughs,[1] specifically the eastern Savonian speech heard in North Karelia.[2]

Wooden kantele, a Finnish zither, with its strings and two round sound holes

Kantele, wood and metal, 19th century. A Finnish kantele, shown for the song's Finnish home.

According to Loituma, the first recording was made by Matti Jurva in 1937, setting Kettunen's words to an entirely different tune.[1] A university thesis on Kettunen credits the singer and actor Jorma Ikävalko with turning "Ievan polokka" into one of the best known of Kettunen's songs.[4] The a cappella quartet Loituma first sang its arrangement on 27 May 1992 and nearly left it off the group's debut album of 1995.[1] In that version the accompaniment is built from words and syllables drawn from the text, while Hanni Autere's solo uses improvised syllables with no meaning.[1] FolkWorld credits the arrangement and its added lyric passages to the four members, Autere, Sari Kauranen, Anita Lehtola-Tollin and Timo Väänänen.[2]

In 2006 an animation set to Loituma's recording appeared on YouTube and brought the group fresh attention,[6] showing Orihime Inoue, a character from the Japanese anime Bleach, twirling a leek.[2][3] By early 2008 Yle counted roughly ten million views in all for the ten most popular Loituma videos on YouTube.[6] The band's site says the song's most-watched YouTube video was copied from a 1996 Yle TV2 programme.[1] A version sung by the Japanese virtual singer Hatsune Miku copied the leek-waving image and had passed three million YouTube views by 2010.[3] Despite its folk-song reputation, FolkWorld noted in 2021 that Kettunen's words remained under copyright, and that Loituma's lyrics and arrangement are published outside the Nordic countries by Warner Chappell Music.[2] "Ievan Polkka" is among the tunes in Mark Gilston's Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer, a collection of mountain dulcimer arrangements sold as a download with the full book and a folder of 51 separate PDF files.[7]

Our book that contains the song "Ievan Polkka"

Sources

  1. Loituma: "Ievan Polkka".
  2. FolkWorld #76: "Ievan Polkka".
  3. Yle: "Savitaipaleen polkka jälleen nettihitti Japanissa".
  4. University of Eastern Finland: "Terve Huttunen, tääl' on Kettunen: Eino Kettunen kuplettiperinteen jatkajana ja kuplettien kuvaama yhteiskunta".
  5. Finna (University of Jyväskylä Library): "Eino Kettusen savo-karjalaisia y.m. humoristisia lauluja. 9:s vihko".
  6. Yle Elävä arkisto: "YouTuben suursuosikit Elävässä arkistossa".
  7. Mark Gilston: "Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer".
  8. Image: Kantele, wood and metal, 19th century. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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