- Crosstuned
In 2008 I was teaching a group of fiddle students at Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. The subject was scordatura in fiddle music (scordatura = ital. mis-tuning, i.e. tuning of a stringed instrument differs from the standard tuning). At that time I knew only a couple of examples of Finnish fiddle tunes with open tunings. It began to bother me because I knew that in neighbouring countries there are still open tunings in active use. Without a doubt the situation in Finland has been the same; there are many examples of scordatura in old music books. These have now emerged into the daylight for this project and I think there are even more to come. Folk fiddling is pretty much tied to modes therefore it surprises me that open tunings are not much in active use anymore. Every tuning has a character of its own and some tunes work better in open tunings. For example most tunes in D-major or D-minor can be played with so called A-bass tuning (aeae). That makes the fiddle ring better and it enriches the overtones of the instrument. For this CD I have collected tunes I have found in the archives over the last two years. Some of them are traditional and some are from my own tune bank. The descriptive notes explain which tuning is in use with each tune. Strings are mentioned from the lowest to the highest.
I wish you an enjoyable cruise with Finnish cross-tuned melodies!
Arto Järvelä
