Concerning the Issue of Sonic Semantics of Traditional Saami Musical Instruments

Abstract

The article explores the issue of the sonic semantics of traditional Saami musical instruments.
The problem of studying the semantic aspects of Saami tradition lies in the fact of the absence of
definite images and concepts, which may be explained to a large extent by the fading of archaic
forms of sonic communication in the ethnicity's culture of intonation and acoustics. Meanwhile,
the preservation of syncretic phenomena, which mark the interrelated and indivisible world of
objects' spiritual values, makes it possible to determine the methods of studying the semantics of
the traditional cultural objects in question.
First and foremost, the specificity of the Saami aesthetic belief system is connected with the
highly subtle perception of natural surroundings and is determined by old beliefs, which are based
on the Saami animistic notion of objects of material nature. Integrating the complex of sonic
perception of the surrounding space makes it possible to establish the coordinates of the Saami
conception of the unity between world-view and sound, manifested through non-differentiation
of the sound source – whether vocal, instrumental or kinetic. The author's approach, based on
the equivalence of sound realizations, is equipped to determine the proposed conception from the
viewpoint of ethnomusicological interpretation (catalyst) of the archaic phenomena of the Saami
syncretic art of sound.
The turn to the onomatopoeic vocabulary of the Saami language is conjugated with revealing
the specificity of timbre and articulation in Saami instrumentalism. Such an interdisciplinary
coordination between two branches of knowledge – linguistics and ethno-organology – enables
the researcher to define the performing technique of playing traditional Saami instruments on the
semantic basis of kinesiological and visual perception.

Keywords: saami, semantics of sound, musical instruments, kinesiological and visual perception.