Every Monday night here in Northfield, Minnesota, we have a group — Nordic Jam — that gathers to play traditional music from the Nordic countries. We've been meeting for almost seven years and it's been a joy to share both the traditions and music with each other.
Recently, we were discussing repertoire and some new(er) attendees asked about the basic tunes that they should be learning.
It's a question worth asking, so we're asking those of you most familiar with this music around the world:
What do you think are five tunes every player
of traditional Nordic music should know?
Just use your own choice of criteria. There are no right or wrong answers. And no limit. You can suggest one or 10.
UPDATE: As an example, here's some of my suggestions to get started, in no particular order.
- Gånglåt från Äppelbo efter Ärtbergs Kalle ( SE)
- Metsäkukkia, valssi [Skovblomsten / Forest Flower Waltz] ( FI)
- Ringnes'n [Ringnesen, reinlender etter Ola Ringneset] ( NO)
- Nordfjordvalsen [Svensk Annas vals] [Peek-A-Boo Waltz] [Fjordavalsen] ( SE / NO)
Just for good measure:
- To play with hardingfele players in the key of E: Vossavalsen or Jenta va' mi, se' du, vals [Jenta fra Hallingdal, vals] ( NO)
- To play with nyckelharpa players: Båtsmann Däck, bond polska från Viksta efter Ceylon Wallin ( SE)
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Guess it's not supposed to work that way. For a folk musician, there's to be no such thing as a Nordic traditional music canon, but maybe one top five tunes for future spellemenn to be measured by in the musician's area of origin, but that's a limited area, like Sætesdal or Hornindal or Härjedalen or Bornholm. And is restricted to instrument. A fiddler would be more subject to orthodoxy than i.e. a jew's harpist, etc.
This is true — if you live in one of the Nordic countries.
But outside of those countries, musicians who play this music tend to be more “ecumenical”. They don't usually completely restrict themselves to one country, let alone one area, although some might specialize in a particular area tradition.
This is, in part, because although it is possible, it is more difficult to build and maintain a group that plays music from only one area of one country. There are some groups that specialize in the music of one particular country, but even they know tunes from other areas and other Nordic countries and play those with others during “allspel”.
In our town, many of the people who come to our jam session have their roots in the Nordic countries. Some of them have mixed heritage. They want to learn the music. And some individual musicians choose to specialize in learning the traditions of a particular country and/or area. But it would not be easy (or desirable), for example, to convince everyone to play the music of just one country/area. By playing tunes from different countries, we learn to appreciate each other's traditions and our knowledge and enthusiasm grows.
So answering this question might be more of a challenge for readers from the Nordic countries who play only one tradition than for those from outside those countries. Maybe not.
The point here is to have people give their opinions about which they think should make up a “top 5″ canon. The responses are sure to be interesting and perhaps even thought-provoking.
Rumlequadrillen (DK)
Meget Gammel Vals fra Vendsyssel (DK)
Holev Vals (DK)
1. Gånglåt fr. Äppelbo
2. Furuboms polska (hambo) aka Polska efter Lisa Furubom, Boda
3. Emma, vals fr. Finland or maybe Orevalsen instead
4. Schottis fr. Idre #2 (this one: http://vcn.bc.ca/scandi/SheetMusicPages/Idre2Sc...)
5. Steffaleken, pols fr Rørås
Pretty Swedish-centric, I admit…
They’re all good. We should just include everything we play in the Top 5000 list.