February Album Writing Month - FAWM.ORG

Hallanvaara (Danger of Frost) (*26803)

mikedebenham

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Tagged As:

finnish non-english piano ballad

Challenges:

W1: The Weather

Liner Notes:

I enjoy making an idiot of myself in foreign languages, so I asked my friendly neighbourhood Finn to write me something in Finnish. She wrote a touching story with plenty of vowels for me to mispronounce. I asked for something simpler. She rolled her eyes and wrote this.

A couple of Finnish in-jokes. 'Aja hiljaa sillalla' won a European contest for most pleasant sounding sentence in 1900, and 'Alavilla mailla hallanvaara' was apparently judged the most appealing Finnish sentence by non-Finnish speakers living in Finland, who tend to hear it a lot on the weather forecast.

Lyrics:

poutaa
lauhaa
juhannuksen tienoilla

tuulta
puuskia
aja hiljaa sillalla

alavilla mailla hallanvaara

--------------------------------------

dry
mild
around midsummer

wind
gusts
drive slowly on the bridge

danger of frost in low-lying areas

Feedback:

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kimotcj 2 months ago

Well, good on you. I wouldn't even attempt the foreign language thing - I suck at that.
ericdistad 2 months ago

I love the timing and space you give each section - each chord ringing for slightly longer than might be expected - The "foreign-ness" of the words works on a Latin level - pure consonant and vowel sounds that allow your voice to float through. And it has to be said, Finnish sounds absolutely gorgeous at this pace.

Excellent work!
psyt 2 months ago

The piano's beautiful, as is the vocal performance, and I loved the story about how the lyrics came to be.
groundhog591 3 months ago

This is beautiful. I love the fact that you chose to do something in a different language, especially one that not many people would know.
jdschramm 3 months ago

Beautiful! Glad you were able to Finnish
oddbod 3 months ago

every fawm you seem to come up with at least one very clever and imaginative concept and this year is no exception.
philnorman 3 months ago

Not that I speak Finnish, but the translation is poetry. Evocative brevity, skirting the edges of haiku.
eyeseaewe 3 months ago

This is the first time a weather forecast has made me tingle but your voice is beautiful and the Finnish suits it's ethereal quality ... Noice job!
$TJ O\'Donnell - tjod$ tjod 3 months ago

Really pretty. Yeah, brave to go full Finn... the piano is perfect. You always have just the right restraint.

on a side note, are you sure it's Finnish and not a string of obscenities in different languages? I thought I recognized that first word from my days in the southwestern U.S.
adforperu 3 months ago

Oooh it's like listening to Sigur Ros (except not Icelandic). Beautiful stuff, love the chords. If only all weather forcasts were like this, we wouldn't mind bad weather..
jharms 3 months ago

Beautiful! Especially the chord progression and fermata on "alavilla mailla." You're brave to do foreign language stuff! I've never been that brave.

I go back and forth on whether I'd want more than the piano's simple chords; they beautifully express the melancholy of an empty autumn, but they also leave a little something to be desired. Of course, it's always better to leave the audience wanting more, rather than the other way around!
songsville 3 months ago

Those hallnvaara chords are just beautiful, they really make the whole thing special. Reminds me of the Shipping Forecast book/film for some reason ... Hyvä biisi!