Versification describes the marriage of language and poetic form through which poetry is produced. Formal principles, such as metre, alliteration, rhyme, or parallelism, take precedence over syntax and prosody, resulting in expressions becoming organised as verse rather than prose. The aesthetic appeal of poetry is often linked to the potential for this process to seem mysterious or almost magical, not to mention the interplay of particular expressions with forms and expectations. The dynamics of versification thus draw a general interest for everyone, from enthusiasts of poetry or forms of verbal art to researchers of folklore, ethnomusicology, linguistics, literature, philology, and more. The authors of the works in the present volume explore versification from a variety of angles and in diverse cultural milieus. The focus is on metrics in practice, meaning that the authors concentrate not so much on the analysis of the metrical systems per se as on the ways that metres are used and varied in performance by individual poets and in relationship to language.
Author(s): Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, Jarkko Niemi (eds.)
Series: Studia Fennica Litteraria, 12
Publisher: Finnish Literature Society
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 308
City: Helsinki
Preface
Hans Nollet/ Helsinki sive in Tartarum descendens sive Katabasis: ad urbis nomen lusus
Helsinki or Sinking down into Hell or Katabasis: Pun on the Name of the Town
Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, Jarkko Niemi / Introduction
I. An Overview
Frog, Satu Grünthal, Kati Kallio, Jarkko Niemi / Metrics in Practice
What is Versification?
A Diversity of Forms
Diversity of Source Materials
Versification and Language
From Language to Performance
Approaching Semiosis
Music and Meaning
Indexicality of Form
People and Social Practices
Reflections
II. From Metre to Performance
Kati Kallio / Performance, Music and Metre in Kalevala-Metric Oral Poetry
Metre and Performance
Kalevala-Metre and Local Singing Traditions
Singing or Dictating?
Singing Longer and Shorter Verses
Playing with the Metre in Song
Conclusions
Jarkko Niemi / Styles of Northern Uralic Sung Metres in Comparison
The Song Traditions as the Object of Study
Earlier Research
Methodological Considerations
Western Siberian Indigenous Song Structures
Encrypted Hexasyllabism: The Nganasan Keyngeyrsya Case
Northern Samoyedic Isometricity: The Nenets Verse Form
Hidden Hexasyllabism: The Forest Nenets Case
Stylistic Zones of the Verse Form Constitution in Indigenous Western Siberia
Nicolas Royer-Artuso / Towards a Generative Model of Ottoman Aruz to Usul Textsetting
The Component Systems
Composing a Song
A Tentative Proposal
A Simulation
Acknowledgements
Jacqueline Pattison Ekgren / 'Not Singing, Not Saying.' Performance Flexibility of Norwegian Stev and Re-performance of Accentual Poetry, such as Old English and Old Norse Poetry
Common Germanic Roots
A Framework of Stresses as a Stev Performance Formula
Corpus and Methods
Stev
Challenges of Musical Notation
Analysis
Stev and Old Germanic Poetry Performance
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Sergei B. Klimenko, Maria V. Stanyukovich, Gakuba B. Sychenko / Poetic Language and Music of the 'hudhud ni nosi', a Yattuka Funeral Chant, the Philippines
Hudhud
Composition
Rhythmic Structure
Synopsis and Boundary Markers
Melodic Shifts
Conclusions
Acknowledgements
III. Poets and Metres over Time
Erika Laamanen / 'Do Not Think Whether This Is Poetry or Prose'. Metre and Poetics in the Works of Lauri Viita
The Metrical Development of Viita’s Poetry: A Brief Overview
Betonimylläri and the Problem of the 1940s
Expanding Metrical Repertoire
Hans Nollet: A Case Study. The Dactylic Hexameter in Justus Lipsius’ Poetry
Spondees and Dactyls
Most Frequent Patterns
Pauses in the Centre of the Line
Line Endings
Conclusion
Hanna Karhu: Many Ways to Use and Play with Rhymes. The Poet Otto Manninen and the Rhymes in Finnish Rhymed Couplets
Finnish Rhymed Couplets
Otto Manninen and Finnish Rhymed Couplets
First the Rhyme, Then the Rest
IV. Language and Poetic Form
Janika Oras, Mari Sarv / Metrics of Runosongs of the Border Area. Quantity and Broken Lines in Seto Songs
Research Material
Methodological Premises and the Principles of Analysis
Placement of Syllables of Different Quantity in the Analysed Songs
Shortening the End of Eight-Position Verses in Musical Performance
Seven-Position Verse Structures
Conclusion
Acknowledgements
Yelena Sesselja Helgadóttir / Migration of Poetic Formulae. Icelandic Post-Medieval 'Þulur'
Metrical Changes in Loan Formulae
Main Elements of Metrical Changes
Metrical and Semantic Aspects of Variation
Variation and Non-Variation
Concluding Remarks
Acknowledgements
Frog / Metrical Entanglement. The Interface of Language and Metre
Terms and Foundations
Formulaic Language and Metrical 'Capsules' of Periodic Metres
Grammatical and Syntactic Paradigms
Alliteration and Rhyme
Parallelism
Isolated Entanglement
Overview
List of Contributors
Abstract
Index of Persons
Index of Languages
Index of Poetic Terms
Index of Places
General Index
