From time to time, people ask if I can give them a few demo tunes for some sort of music that I play.
This is where I tell them to look.
The music here changes from time to time.
Right now it includes the following:
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Aarne Tarvaisen Masurkka
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I don't know who Aarne Tarvainen was, but someone wrote him a nice tune.
This is supposed to be "old", but I don't know how old.
I learned it in the 1970s in Wisconsin, from some friends.
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Morsiusmarssi
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The title means "wedding march", and was written by Konsta Jylhä,
the Finnish fiddler who left us so many great tunes.
Someone told me that he wrote this for the wedding of a "mixed" Finnish/Swedish couple,
which is why the first part sounds Swedish and the second part sounds Finnish.
Maybe it's true.
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Polska från Lappfjärd
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Lappfjärd is a small town in the Swedish-speaking area along Finland's west coast.
I've found that Swedish fiddlers think this tune sounds Finnish, while Finnish
fiddlers think it sounds Swedish. It's a "16th-note polska", in a slow triple
rhythm with lots of notes per beat.
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Katariina's Polkka
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Any collection like this needs a good polk(k)a.
This one was written by Richard Koski, a Finnish-American accordion player from upstate New York.