Title: El Hambo [link to score]
Performer: East Carolina State University Chamber Singers
Type: Finnish Choral Music
Orchestration: SATB Chorus

For this week’s blog post, my endpoint was quite far from my original premise, yet the concept of authenticity in our musicological quest becomes easier for discussion through this slight detour. I distinctly remember a work from my high school career, “Kde Sú Krávy Moje“, by Hans Schimmerling, which tells the story of a farmer calling back his cows, by name, in a Slovakian dialect. A brief search for information on Schimmerling reveals numerous publications and work in musicology. A search for “proper” pronunciation for the cow names, however, reveals very little. A YouTube search provides no video performances of the work by Texas Tech under Ken Davis’ baton, which would be ideal reference material, which leads to the detour mentioned above. 

I noticed the work El Hambo was performed by East Carolina at the American Choral Directors Association Convention in Miami. A quick listen to the piece, with shifting metrical alignment from 5/4 to 3/4 and back immediately perked up my ears. A quick search about Jaakko Mäntyjärvi, composer, revealed a biography (1) on ChoralNet that allows for contact via the site. A further search about the piece led me to a FaceBook group posting (2) by the Choir Project, which revealed that the words are intended to be nonsense words from the Finnish language. At that moment, the correlation to our reading this week was very clear in my reflection on my own teaching.

My very brief research aligned with the second and third strategies discussed in Koop’s article in the NAfME journal, Music Educators Journal (3), “Can’t We Just Change the Words?”: The Role of Authenticity in Culturally Informed Music Education. Were I to teach this work, I would want to know as much about the proper pronunciation and vowel production necessary before ever teaching a note or 5/4 rhythm. To understand the text, whether a proper Czech name for a cow, or nonsense Finnish words, require the concepts of “authenticity as reproduction, reality, and relevance.” (Koops, 25) Thus, in my own study of a work prior to teaching, I must seek out the cultural authenticity if I ever hope to have my students sing with any cultural integrity. Searching out model performances, either native to the culture, or by strong academic institutions with a focus on appropriate musicological renditions of the work must be sought out in advance of student learning.

(1) http://www.choralnet.org/view/user/700
(2) https://www.facebook.com/TheChoirProject/posts/248374795284913
(3) http://mej.sagepub.com/content/97/1/23.citation