Nobody asked for it but here is Snufkin’s Spring Tune played by me on the recorder (which isn’t even my primary instrument). The expectations are low and the quality is even lower.

Enjoy! :)

I was going to send this to my friends but then I decided not to as I still want them to still be my friends after all.

A silly lil doodle I made back when I used Medibang as my main platform. I made this to test out their timelapse feature when it was still new! So here's that!

Volume warning for the beginning of the video :) might wanna turn the player vol down

Song - (Excerpt from) Cherry Blossom - Paolo Nutini.

The sketch I'm tracing is even older, it's from when I first read Tales from Moominvalley, The Spring Tune! Which the Moominvalley episode is inspired by! I'm getting infodumpy now I need to stop.

Moominvalley Picture Books: Format: 250mm x 250mm • Extent: 32pp • Pub Date: June 2023 • UK Retail Price: £11.99

𝑆𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑢𝑛𝑒 - 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑣𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

“Suddenly Moomintroll lifted his nose and listened! Far away Snufkin was playing his gayest song: ‘All small beasts should have bows in their tails.’ And Moomintroll began to run towards the music."

Down by the river he came upon Snufkin who was sitting on the bridge with his legs dangling over the water, his old hat pulled down over his ears.

Hello,’ said Moomintroll sitting down beside him. ‘Hello to you,’ said Snufkin, and went on playing. The sun was up now and shone straight into their eyes, making them blink. They sat swinging their legs over the running water, feeling happy and carefree.”

- Finn Family Moomintroll, 1948

It’s been a longstanding headcanon of mine for Piano Man’s real name to be Saburo Moroi, after the famous pianist/composer who was a close friend of the poet Chuuya Nakahara. 

But when I started researching Moroi a bit deeper for the sake of my Flags backstory fic (which I am still writing, shockingly) I learned a new piece of info that added some fuel to my cracked-out fire:

“During his third year at university, Moroi formed a music group “Surya” (the “sun god” in Sanskrit) with his friends. It served as an organization for performing his own works, and by 1931 seven concerts had been given there. His activities with “Surya” brought wider recognition, and it also became a society for young literary men and artists, including Tetsutaro Kawakami, Hideo Kobayashi, Chuya Nakahara, Tatsuji Miyoshi, Hidemi Kon, Shohei O’oka and Kenzo Nakajima, many of whom were later to become renowned literary critics, poets and novelists.”

So not only were Moroi and Chuuya friends and collaborators, they were also part of the same coterie of up-and-coming young men founded by Moroi himself, with a catchy symbolic name and everything.

So now I’m a little more convinced I was on the right track with the whole "Piano Man is Moroi” thing, and my crack theory has evolved into believing that the Flags are a sort of callback to Surya.

Anyway here’s the musical booklet I gleaned this from: https://www.chandos.net/chanimages/Booklets/NA7162.pdf 

P.S. The recording is on Spotify and I highly recommend the last three movements. They are Moroi’s magnum opus and they go HARD

Tressa + Therion Duopath - Wellspring (2)

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(full series)

Bonus:

Spring Forward “Chariots Of Fur” (1994)

Radiohead - Creep (Live 1993 MTV Beach House)

new spring tune

Snufkin’s spring tune played by me on instruments that are not my primary instrument

part 2

This time on the harmonium (or whatever you call an old fashioned classroom pedal organ)

Just like last time: The expectations are low and the quality is even lower!

Enjoy! :)

I couldn’t really figure out what to do in the end, I played from memory and this is how it turned out… the constant pedalling also sounds like I’m angry :)

If you need a good leg workout - play the harmonium!

while I'm thinking about analysing the moomin stories today, the subject of teety-woo's identity in "the spring tune" is one of my favourite themes in the novels.

it's definitely not a stretch to suggest the outline of that story was inspired by tove jansson's struggles as a creative and a public figure. teety-woo serves as a stand-in for the countless fans who looked to her for inspiration, maybe validation, and her reasonable discomfort with being lauded as some sort of all-knowing idol because of it.

snufkin, as her sort of mouthpiece, sets a boundary that he's just another person in the world who happens to create art and shouldn't be looked to as a role-model. he's flawed, irritable, and a little-self-centred (arguably, through this interaction, sympathetically so). he doesn't have all the answers nor the stamina to help people who are practical strangers, and reminds teety-woo that "you'll never be free if you admire someone too much". a sentiment snukfin understands, not just because of his guilt over moomintroll's admiration of him as well, but also his Own admiration of moomintroll. (earlier, when trying to craft his tune, he imagines going back to moominvalley and playing it for him, and how he'd say that "it's a good one"). it's a message that's especially resonant in a world with an increasing problem with parasocial interaction.

but although that's an important lesson to take from the novel, snufkin Does in fact leave an impact on teety-woo. he's the one to give teety-woo his name, which finally gives him a solid identity - and once teety-woo understands his identity, he almost immediately becomes independent and stops needing snufkin's attention and approval. the message I get from this story is that, while we shouldn't treat other people - regardless of fame - as infallible figures to project ourselves and rely on to solve our problems, it's human nature to "scaffold" from others you admire.

snufkin's role in teety-woo's life was a positive one, but teety-woo needed to learn how to be his own person separate from the idealised version of him. it's impossible to exist without being an influence or source of inspiration to someone. it may not always be easy or what we want but, that's how it is.

BENEX IS IN EVERYONE FUCKING CHEER

so nice of them to make a valentine's event for the singles and aros who just want to gush over our love for snufkin 😌