An experimental approach to the “inner power” improvisation in 19th-century Karelian kantele tradition

December 09, 2025

An experimental approach to the “inner power” improvisation in 19th-century Karelian kantele tradition is a new publication on the Research Catalogue.

The publication  was developed as part of the research project, Kantele of the Runosong Culture and the Dialogue of Creativity, and is based on documetation of the old kantele tradition recorded in the Karelian region during the 1800s and early 1900s.

This exposition introduces an experimental framework for acquiring the “inner power” improvisation associated with 19th‑century non-literate Karelian kantele players.

While their precise thought processes remain unknowable, it is clear they did not focus on finger control. The method emphasizes internalizing traditional plucking patterns without sheet music, allowing subconscious decision‑making to guide improvisation.

Stepwise learning of increasingly complex patterns enables musicians to combine and vary them freely, creating a continuous flow of tones in which the player becomes part of the sound field.

Contemporary practice thus reconnects with what kantele players once described as “playing their inner power” (“soitan omaa mahtia”), a style later termed “Quiet Exaltation” by folk music researcher Armas Otto Väisänen.