polska

Turning pop into polska

January 12, 2010

I've always said that a hallmark of a truly great melody is that it can cross genres. I recently came across this fun example of turning a Swedish pop song into a Swedish polska. The tune is "Ring Ring", an ABBA tune off of their album of the same name (when the group was known [...]

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MultePod presents: Destination: Finnskog, Part 1

January 9, 2010

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Destination: Finnskog, Part 1 A musical visit to the Finnish Woods, which are not in Finland. You can read more about the Forest Finns on Wikipedia. You can also watch a video of the Norwegian dance from Finnskog and get information about an upcoming Finnskog music/dance workshop in the USA. If you're new to listening to audio online and [...]

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What if Bach played the polska?

October 28, 2009

In 2007, two Swedish musicians developed a concert program and issued a CD called "Bach på svenska (Bach in Swedish)". Lisa Rydberg (violin) and Gunnar Idenstam (small reed organ) asked the questions: What might have happened if Johan Sebastian Bach had come to Sweden and met Swedish musicians? How might Bach's music and traditional Swedish [...]

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How can you possibly sit still?!?!

September 21, 2009

Among the things I like about Nordic dance music is that it often seems to be impossible to sit still when you hear it. I can honestly understand why this type of music was opposed by the more pietistic Christians of the time. However, you would think that they associated the urge to move with [...]

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A polska halling

September 3, 2009

Many people think that halling is a dance found only in Norway. That's not true. Sweden, too, has a halling tradition. Halling is usually played and danced in a beat of 2/4 or 4/4. Here we have an interesting blending of halling being danced to a polska tune, which is in an asymmetrical beat of [...]

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What are the top 5 traditional Nordic tunes?

August 11, 2009

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) [...]

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MultePod presents: A Midsummer Night's Dream

August 8, 2009

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A Midsummer's Night Dream An interview with stage director Susan Carlson, tellng the story of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights Dream" through Nordic music. If you're new to listening to audio online or downloading the shows, here's how to get started. This Week's Playlist: // Related Posts:MultePod presents: Strålande JulMultePod presents: First Edition (rebroadcast)MultePod presents: [...]

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Väsen: Slängpolska efter Carl "Byss-Calle" Ersson Bössa

June 8, 2009

On the first Multe Music show, I featured the Swedish group, Väsen, playing their version of Slängpolska efter Carl "Byss-Calle" Ersson Bössa. Here they are, as filmed by Doug Oines, playing the tune live at a concert in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 2008. Listen carefully at about :54 as they segue into another familiar tune — [...]

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Storis & Limpan Band + Dan Berglund: Brottet

April 21, 2009

Just yesterday, a neat video appeared of the Storis & Limpan Band, joined by Dan Berglund on double bass. They were playing a concert at Cafe Rosenberg in Reykjavik, Iceland, and this is world music version of a polska and the tune is called Brottet. The musicians are: Magnus "Storis" Holmström – nyckelharpa (also a member [...]

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Tagelharpa

April 1, 2009

Here we have a demonstration of a tagelharpa — a harp-like bowed instrument that may have its roots in Viking times. The demonstration is done in Norwegian Swedish, but the hand gestures help even non-Swedish speakers understand a bit of what the presenter is trying to get across. The instrument has a form like a [...]

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HamBAO and Bach…

March 20, 2009

The traditional Allsång på Skansen (Allsang at Skansen) in Sweden usually has some unforgettable moments. One of my personal favorites was the time that Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson interupted a BAO (Benny Anderssons Orkester) performance as  "Sten Broman", a well-known Swedish music critic. At first, the announcer introduces BAO to play a hambo (a hamBAO?) [...]

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Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän: Klinga mina klockor

February 20, 2009

After the breakup of ABBA, Benny Andersson embarked on a new phase in his musical career — one that actually took him back to his roots. Many people are unaware that Andersson is an accomplished accordionist. His first album after ABBA was an album of music he composed, much of which is traditional gammeldans music [...]

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Maria Wernberg & Linnea Fredricson: Fardume-Lennarts polska

February 11, 2009

Some musicians and dancers in the Nordic countries have pointed out to me that more "folk" musicians seem to be coming out of classical music training at music academies. They point out that there are significant differences in playing styles between how you play a violin in the classical style or a fiddle in the [...]

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Nyckelharpa, harpsichord — and Japan

October 6, 2008

The Swedish nyckelharpa has a growing and enthusiastic following in Japan. There's a fun video of two Japanese women from Nyckelharpan i Japan in Swedish costume playing nyckelharpa and fiddle at the IKEA ShinMisato store Midsummer Festival. They're playing the tune, "Skålarna". In October 2004, the Swedish nyckelharpa player, Torbjörn Näsbom, presented a concert at [...]

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Improvising Finnish folk dance

September 23, 2008

I recently ran across an interesting YouTube video from a folk music/dance enthusiast in Finland. It features a "dance jam session" where Finnish dancers were improvising using the polska tradition brought from Sweden and danced in western Finland and the Karelian dance tradition from eastern Finland. The music is traditional. The session took place in [...]

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