determination and persistence, and rehearsals were held evenings, Sundays, whenever there was free time. The hardest problem for these bands was the economic instability which drove workers to quit one area and move off to another. Ilmonen has reported, for example, that in the 30 years of existence of the Conneaut (Ohio) band, it had 20 different conductors, while the musicians were apt to be an entirely different body of players from concert to concert.

Band music, in general, preceded other musical forms, and it is not difficult to explain: band music was popular in the country, among Americans too, and in Finnish settlements there were often so few women present that it was impossible to consider starting such things as mixed choruses, for example. However, a change came soon, and choruses gained in importance. Palm has explained this ascendance: "Without a doubt the Finns are a singing people - even the heroes of the Finnish epic won their battles not with the sword but through song. This tradition of song, as well as many another national tradition, came to America along with the immigrants. Perhaps no Finnish meeting of any kind has been held in Minnesota where there has been no singing. And what kind of song has impressed us most deeply? The answer is clear: our folk songs, which appeal to all of us, speak to all; these have been the popular songs among the Finns of Minnesota."

From the moment when Pekka Westerinen started the first Finnish chorus in Calumet, Michigan, in 1884, hundreds of choral groups have been born and have died. The life expectancy among Finnish-American choruses in Minnesota, according to the experience of Lauri Lemberg, was about three years. Few lived beyond that time, but as soon as one died, plans were soon underway for a new one. The first one to be born in Minnesota came in 1887.

The Journal o f American Folk-Lore (October 1934) states that the Finns in Minnesota had preserved many elements of the folk music of their country and through it had enriched the musical life of the state. Indeed, choral music is the one form of music of which one can speak of an existence continuing into the post-World War II era, when most Finnish organizations were dead or moribund. The fruitful activity in choral music which the workers' societies and the temperance groups had fostered was approaching its end about the year 1950; choral work continued, however, within the churches and has reaped its share of praise: in the 1920s, for example, the Minneapolis chorus per

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