Ilmari Krohn and the Early French Contacts of Finnish Musicology : Mobility, Networking and Interaction

Abstract

Conceived in memory of late Professor of Musicology of Estonian Academy of Music Urve Lippus (1950–2015), to honour her contribution to music history research, the article analyses transcultural relations and the role of cultural capitals to the discipline at its early phase in the university context. The focus is on the early French contacts of the founder of the institutional Finnish musicology, University of Helsinki Professor Ilmari Krohn (1867–1960) and his pupils. The analysis of Krohn’s mobility, networking and interaction is based on his correspondence and documentation concerning his early congress journeys to London (1891) and to Paris (1900). Two French correspondents stand out for this early phase of his career as a musicologist: Julien Tiersot in the area of comparative research on traditional music, and Georges Houdard concerning Gregorian chant and neume notation. By World War I Krohn was quite well-read in French-language musicology. But Paris was for him also a stronghold for international networking more generally. Accomplished musicians, Krohn and his musicology students Armas Launis, Leevi Madetoja and Toivo Haapanen even had an artistic bond with French repertoires. My results contradict the claim that early Finnish musicology was an exclusive domain of German influences.