The Nordic avant-garde has increasingly become the focus of research in recent decades (see e.g. Ørum & al. 2012-2022). An independent overall description of the Finnish avant-garde is not yet available, but this is also increasingly being researched (e.g. Hautamäki & al. 2021).

Radical art of all genres, which challenged the habits of the public, was also reflected in a variety of languages in Finland long before and beyond the formation of art theory: Tyko Sallinen's art was described as having a "radical spirit of intoxication" (1911). Elmer Diktoniusʼ appeal Ikkunat auki Eurooppaan päin (1922) can be regarded as a concentrated programme of the first Finnish avant-garde phase. Niels Ringbom's verdict barnkammeroväsen “children's room noise” for the first happening concert of the group Musiikkinuoriso (1962), modified to lastenkamarikonsertti , became a catchphrase of a short but intense era of Finnish musical modernism.

These characteristic examples from three artistic genres and epochs of Finnish avant-garde already indicate that the linguistic construction and mastery of the phenomenon of “avant-garde” is a promising topic for investigation. At the same time, however, they point to a fundamental problem: “avant-garde” was judged and described very differently depending on the period and the perspective of the actors. An undisputed art-historical definition that is valid for a longer period of time is therefore unlikely to be found, and research into the conceptual history of “avant-garde” is also considered a desideratum (Sjöberg 2020: 160).

This research gap leads to the central research approach of the project, namely an explicitly linguistic analysis of constructions of the concept of “avant-garde” in Finland. In line with the idea of a “linguistic world view” (going back to the classical concepts of the construction of the world through language), the scope and content of the term “avant-garde” will be analysed on the basis of linguistic reactions to artistic practices.

The project is based on two basic assumptions: (1) Art discourses can have a focussing function in peripheral cultural spaces, because artistic innovations created in other cultural spaces appear as “explosions” in the sense of Lotman (2009) in a receiver country such as Finland. (2) Social mentalities and their processes of change become particularly recognisable in linguistic-discursive reactions to such conflictual phenomena, which are perceived as disruptive. According to the working hypothesis, a study using Finland as a case study can therefore be expected to produce results and findings that could be suitable for expanding conventional conceptual definitions of “avant-garde”.

Project description in Finnish

Abstract:

The Finnish technical language of music developed largely in parallel with the processes and events that marked Finland's rise to become a “music nation” of importance far beyond the Baltic region. At the same time, it was one of the conditions that enabled the genre to acquire the significance it has today for Finnish culture and the national self-image, and was a by-product of this development. The planned work will first describe the emergence of the Finnish musical language and analyse its structures. It will then analyse how the position of music as a pillar of Finnish cultural identity and as an element of the associated narratives has been reflected in its technical language, not only in terms of terminology, but also in larger textual contexts.

The period under investigation will extend from the first word collections compiled in the mid-19th century to the present day, as each new development in compositional technique and musical aesthetics requires new linguistic means to describe it: the specialised language reacts to the constant change in the arts, which in turn also reflects social changes. This process can be seen as an unfinished series of microperipeties that call into question the concept of language-planning control and the idea (prominent in the narrative of Finnish language history) of the effectiveness of individual actors, publications or linguistic institutions.

In the field of specialised Finnish language research, fundamental work does exist, some of whose methodology and findings can be built upon. However, the field of musical Finnish language is largely unexplored. The approach of examining a specific specialised language against the background of the effects of historical peripeties and cultural narratives promises to produce findings that may also be of interest for specialised language research beyond Finnish Studies.