Ievan Polkka

This article is about the song. For the band, see Loituma. For the animation, see Loituma Girl.

"Ievan Polkka" or "Ievan Polokka" (Savo Finnish for "Eva's Polka") is a popular Finnish song with lyrics written in the early 1930s by Eino Kettunen to a traditional Finnish polka tune. The name is commonly misspelled Levan polkka, due to the similarity of lower-case L and upper-case i in sans-serif fonts. It is also known as "Loituma's Polka" (or "Loituma's Polkka").

Origin

The melody of "Ievan Polkka" is very similar to Savitaipaleen polkka, and in South Karelia the Ievan Polkka is also known as "Savitaipaleen polkka". The melody is also very similar to a folk dance from the area of Smolensk in Western Russia, which is known as Smolenskij gusačok ("смоленский гусачок"/"Small Gander in Smolensk").

The melody can be traced back to the Viipuri Province in the 18th century when the border with the Kingdom of Sweden ran west of the province. The number of Russian soldiers stationed in the border area outnumbered the locals for many decades. At the beginning of the 19th century collectors of Finnish folk dances and folk songs all mention that the dances in the area of Luumäki-Savitaipale were Russian dances only and didn't write them down. Locals who are well-versed in folk music agree the melody is very old and likely to have been known back in the early 19th century and therefore probably of even older origin. However, the polka genre is of much later date. Polka was introduced in northern Europe during the late 19th century, which implies that the actual tune as it is known today originates from this era.[1]

Language

The song is sung in very heavy Eastern Savonian dialects spoken in North Karelia. It differs in many aspects radically from Standard Finnish.

The Loituma version of the song includes an intermezzo of phonetically inspired gibberish containing only a few Finnish words; it is not part of the original song written by Eino Kettunen. The content of the intermezzo varies from one performance to another and is not listed on most lyrics. It is similar to scat in jazz.

Description

The song takes the point of view of a young man. He wants to dance with Ieva (Eva or Eeva in Savo), but her mother will not let him. They sneak away to someone else's house, where everyone is dancing to a polka, and dance all night. When he follows her home, her angry mother is waiting for them, but he tells her straight out that Ieva and he will be together no matter what.

Popularity

Owing to its viral exposure in popular culture, Ievan Polkka has become the most famous Finnish song in the world. Even the songs Maamme and Finlandia Hymn are not as internationally well known.

Very popular after World War II, the song was almost forgotten during the late 1970s and 1980s. The song resurfaced after an a cappella performance by the Finnish quartet Loituma, which was first released on their debut album, Loituma, in 1995. The album was released in the United States as Things of Beauty in 1998.

The a cappella version of the song acquired greater international popularity as part of an Internet meme in the spring of 2006. The flash animation "Loituma Girl" (also known as "Leek Spin") which starred the character Orihime Inoue from the Japanese anime Bleach, twirling a leek and singing along to the song. For the animation, only the second half of the fifth stanza (four lines) and the complete sixth stanza (eight lines) are used.

Furthermore, mobile ringtones based on various mixes of "Ievan Polkka" gained a wide popularity among Russian and Commonwealth of Independent States mobile subscribers in late 2006. The tune is also the theme song to the Internet sitcom Break a Leg.; it was remixed by DJ Basshunter of Sweden, DJ Sharpnel of Japan, and Beatnick of Poland; and a version of the song was part of a Ready Brek television advert aired in the United Kingdom.[2] Also, some videos show a Farfetch'd spinning a leek.[3]

Performers

References

  1. ↑ Red. Greger Andersson, Musik i Norden, Musikaliska akad. Stockholm 1997, article "Spelmannen och hans musik"
  2. ↑ "Ready Brek – Ready For Anything". TV Ad Music. 2009-07-01. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  3. ↑ "Pokemon Loituma (Ieva's Polka) Farfetch'd!!!". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-02-17.

External links