We may not have classical music be we got this!

July 27, 2010 at 10:48 PM

I must admit that it tickled me to read the responses to my last blog post about the lack of Scandinavian classical composers out there. It´s true that Scandinavia does definetly not have a big population (if anything we boast proudly of being a cluster of tiny countries) and there wasn´t much outside culture influence or diversity until in the 20th century. So instead of being exposed from early on to the glories of classical music the people here developed a strong tradition for folk singing. So we may not have classical music but we got this!

This is a traditional folk melody, a lullaby. The text is from a famous play where a mother that is an outlaw sings this lullaby to her child before throwing it into a waterfall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Nfmf7PtWiI

And this song is pretty special. This type of song is very Scandinavian and is special because it´s sung in perfect fifth. There is always a perfect fifth between the the notes the two voices are singing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwm5Mg442bM

So we certainetly do not got much classical music up our sleeve but we got a proud collection of weird folk melodies. This one is a favourite of mine. It comes from a ghost story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4qECgRnV64

So sit back and enjoy some true Scandinavian weirdness :) And I couldn´t figure out how to post the videos themselves. I happen to be very bad at all things technical.

From John Cadd
Posted on July 28, 2010 at 2:25 PM

What would be the common themes in Scandinavian music ? Chilblains and the fear of volcanic rocks hitting you on the head. Ice and fire.

From Anna Meyer
Posted on July 30, 2010 at 6:57 PM

The most common them in the old folk songs would be Christianity (psalms and such), our want for independence (which we didn´t gain til 1944 and were until then trampled on quite heavily by the Danish) and the good ol´ viking rampaging days and themes from ghost stories. Strangely enough the weather hasn´t been much of an influence. We´re so used to the ever changing unpredictable weather it has stopped bothering us ;)

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We may not have classical music be we got this!

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