A great introduction to the Swedish folk fiddling repertoire.

Here’s how Tom Gilland introduces his collection of 26 Swedish tunes:

"Ever since my regular visits to Swedenduring the 1970's I have enjoyed listening to Swedish folk music, and fiddle music in particular. It therefore seems very strange that it was only about 3 years ago that I decided to learn to play the fiddle. I was playing some old records so that my wife, Anice, could hear the music I enjoyed so much when I, quite suddenly, decided that I was going to play music like that. For the last two years I have been taking regular fiddle lessons and at long last I can now start playing tunes that are recognizable.

Swedish music has been greatly influenced by the surrounding countries. Evidence of this can be found in the names of some types of tunes e.g. Polska from Poland, Schottis from Scotland, Engelska from England and Reinlander from Germany.

Tunes which say they are "efter" someone means that the tune is as played by that person. With Swedish music being very much an aural tradition there are almost as many versions of tunes as there are people who play them. For this reason I have not included much in the way of ornamentation in the music notation. Please feel free to add grace notes and trills wherever you think they are appropriate. One point about bowing is that you should try, wherever possible, to begin bars on a down bow.

Second parts have been included with some of the tunes. For those which do not have a second part it is easy to create your own. A common way of doing this in Swedish music is to play 'andrastamma' or second tune. Using this method the second fiddle follows the first, playing the same melody, usually a third below the first. Another common, and easy, method is to play the second part an octave below the first.

Some popular types of tunes are ganglat which is a kind of march, brudmarsch which is a wedding tune, skanklat is played at weddings when gifts are given to the bride and groom, schottis is a schottische, vals is a waltz and polska is a dance tune in 3/4 time with the emphasis on beats 1 and 3.

I generally prefer tunes from the north of the country (Norrbotten) with "Vals" (waltzes) and "ganglat" (walking tunes) my particular favourites."

The book is A4 size with colour gloss covers and 38 pages.

When comparing prices, remember that all Dance of Delight products come with free postage to the UK / EU.

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