Scientific publications

The Karelian Folk Music Ensemble “Toive” was founded in Petrozavodsk in 1982. This article studies its activities and repertoire during the first 10 years. The key questions in the article are: what was the role of new folk music performed by the young in the Republic of Karelia, and how the cross-border interaction with Finland affected its functioning. The closeness of the border and the new chances were typical features for the development of the musical landscape in Russian Karelia and created a foundation for the rise of the success of folk music and folk rock that emerged in Petrozavodsk during the 1990s. In the ensemble “Toive” the young generation learned new methods of performing and collecting folk music so that it became part of their own tradition, their personal embodiment of national culture. In the article also the social role of the group for its participants is analyzed via interviews.