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Abstract

Understanding Yoik Melodies
In the sofi-archive in Uppsala there are almost 1200 recordings of yoik songs. In 1958 and 1963 some of them were published in two books, Lapska sånger. 8 of these melodies have later been published in other books and articles. I have chosen these 8
melodies for a closer examination of the musical structure of yoik melodies. I wanted to examine if the melodies were composed by well defined motives and if the motives were combined to make larger units. Two of these melodies were transcribed as having no motives and no larger form, whereas I found both motives and form. Some melodies were transcribed as having motives but no form, some as having no motives. For all the melodies I found it possible to conceive the melodies as having both firm motives and form. So the common view that yoik songs are just improvised, seems to be wrong, or more accurate, structure and improvisation must be seen as two different aspects of the same melodies. I try to explain the difference between some of the original transcriptions and my own by using the theoretical concept of emic and etic.