Slaviūnas Archive SlS III-1748 Tverečius
Sutartinės are generally structured so that two melodies of the same length are juxtaposed so that the melodies and rhythms play against each other. This sutartinė was field collected with 20 beats in the first section, and 19 in the second section. It is possible that this sutartinė has an obscure structure, but we believe that the beat discrepancy is an error in transcription. When we were playing through this sutartinė, we decided to give the sutartinė a regular 7 beat phrase, inspired by our familiarity with Balkan music. We have also used this rhythmic interpretation with an Ingrian song while playing with Amanda Kauranne.
The tree harp was constructed from a dead cedar tree on Manitoulin island. This tree has a prominent spiral shape, and is structurally sound enough to support the eight melody strings and four bass strings. The lowest C string is over two metres long.
Many of the cedar stumps on this