Folk Music

in Jamtland

• Music of the pastures 
• Fiddler tunes 
• Ballads.

Music of the pastures  
The music of the pastures consists of shepherd's tunes, calls and tones of enticement. These were mainly used to keep contact with, and to call the cattle. Women's high-pitched voices and the sound of horns, on which improvised tunes were mostly played, could be heard far and wide in the forest and in the mountains. 
[Listen to "kaukning" - Emma Härdelin is  singing a cattle call] 

On lonely summer evenings, these same quavering, trilling melodies were played for recreation on willow flutes and pipes. 

[Ville Roempke is playing the willow flute in the album "Folk Music in Jamtland"] 
  Calle Hernmarck plays the horn: Valllåt från Offerdal

Fiddler tunes  
Fiddler's music is the folk music that has endured the most and been best documented. For more than 200 years, it has been played at weddings and funerals, at village dances and at gatherings at crossroads. Polskas, waltzes and schottisches, among others, have been written down and recorded in thousands by hundreds of fiddlers, and continue to be played at fiddler's gatherings and community events. 

The polska is the most common traditional dance. Lapp-Nils polska or "jämtpolska" as it is sometimes called, has characteristic traits that distinguish it from polkas from other districts. Yet it is closely related to the polskas from the areas around Trondheim and the Gudbrands valley in Norway. 

The legendary fiddler, Nils Jonsson from Hallen (1804-1870) has given names to many of these tunes, passed down by his pupils and successors. Solo fiddlers and duets have long played this type of folk music, in more recent years, it has also been played by groups of fiddlers playing together as a folk music ensemble. 
[Listen to tunes after Lapp-Nils played by Richard Näslin & Göran Andersson] 
 

Ballads 
The tradition of ballad singing stems mainly form women who would sing while spinning or weaving or while sitting by the fireside. Medieval ballads, children songs and, not least love songs are all part of this tradition. 

Listen to  " I fjol gjett je gjeita" 
(Last year I was herding the goats in the valley) 

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Last year I was herding the goats in the valley,  
and now I'm at home on the farm with a baby 

Last year I could dance to the sound of the fiddle, And now every evening I'm rocking the cradle. 

Last year I could lie with the boys in the sunshine
And now all I've time for is nursing and washing 

Don't laugh at me for you know that it's true 
You never know when it could happen to you. 

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