World Music Research Paper
Sami music and the Joik
Dylan Marsh
MUSI 125-Kinne
11 November 2017

The Sami people, also known as Lapps or Laplanders by the English, are an indigenous people who reside in a region known as Sápmi, which encompasses areas of northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Since prehistoric times the Sami people of Arctic Europe have lived and worked in these areas, and it is believed that they have populated these northern lands for at least 5,000 years. Sami people have always been a naturalists and shamanistic peoples, living off of the land and surviving through a combination coastal fishing, trapping, and herding reindeer, all of which continues to be the majority of their livelihood today. Roughly one tenth of …show more content…
The membrane is traditionally made from reindeer hide, strapped over a burl or over a thin piece of ovular bentwood, and it has a bright timbre. In Sami culture, shamans known as the noaidi use the drum to put themselves into a spiritual trance, usually to bring about visions of the future or guide decisions. It is believed that while the noaidi is in trance, his spirit is projected out of his body and towards the spirit world or place he’s trying to attune with. The drum is used together with a specialized mallet and an vuorbi, made of brass or reindeer horn. Answers can be interpreted from which symbols the vuorbi land on, which are marked on the membrane. The patterns on the drum membrane are personalized to mirror the world view of the creator and his family. The drums are always oval, but the exact shape varies with the starting piece of …show more content…
Generally, this aerophone has some sort of curvature to make it easier to handle, and angle the sound away from listener somewhat. There are two types of lurs, but the kind used in Sami musics is the more modern type, which is made of wood and has been used in Scandinavia since the middle ages. It has several parts, including a mouthpiece and several segments or pipes. They are typically between 1.5 meters to 2 meters long, but can be an upwards of 5 meters long in some other cultures. Lurs have been used in various countries in and around the Sápmi, and they are also known as birch trumpets by the English. Generally used by farmers and herders throughout Europe, One can get up to 10 tones from the natural scale on a lur, and it sounds very similar in timbre to a bugle or French horn, which is to say that it has a bright, clear and warm