On Sunday afternoon I went to a concert by Huutajat, an apparently famous (and infamous) ‘shouting choir’ from Oulu in northern Finland. It was a popular event, with Tartu’s largest concert hall practically full. I had never heard of Huutajat until seeing a trailer for the concert on Estonian TV a couple of days earlier.
And they do exactly what the description suggests – 24 men shouting their way through arrangements of various pieces of music. All the melody is removed, and often only bits and pieces of the original words remain. It’s hard to describe the effect of this – a bit like a vocal version of “Stomp” (this was Shelley’s way of putting it, based on my description of them).
The members of Huutajat dress identically in black suits and black rubber ties (apparently made from inner tubes …). They seem to specialize in arrangements of two sorts of pieces: Scandinavian folk tunes, and national anthems / patriotic songs. Their rendition of “Rule Britannia” was one of the highlights of Sunday’s concert, while their arrangement of the Star-Spangled Banner was just plain weird. An award-winning documentary has been made about Huutajat. Below is a link to a preview clip.
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1 comment:
Hi!
Alan, the "Men Screaming" is totally bizarre! Guess they need some diversions in that cold climate. I clicked on the preview clip also..the computer at work doesn't have speakers, and it's probably just as well! When I first logged on the photo of the "shouting choir" came up and I said, "eeeek!" I thought I might see a photo of Chloe so it was a shock. I hope this comment goes through o.k. The google posting is very tempermental. My sister (Aunt Mary) read the blog and tried to send comments..she logged in exactly how they instructed and when she was done it would send her back to the beginning again...that happened to me as well. I loved reading about Chloe's "school days" and loved the photos. Please keep comments and photos coming! Hugs to all.
Big kiss and hug to Chloe from Gramarlene!
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