Lecture: History of the Polska

Magnus Gustafsson is the latest folk music professor in Sweden after his dissertation on the subject of the history of the Swedish folk dance Polska. With a focus on old fiddler’s music books and notations, he will guide us through the bewildering and fascinating history behind the most common Swedish folk dance type.

Magnus Gustafsson is folk musician and riksspelman and widely known as member of the famous bands Sågskära and Höök. He has also been involved in organising Korrö folkmusikfestival (which has originally started as a gathering of drone enthusiasts and has, over time, developed into Sweden’s largest folk music festivals).

Magnus is also professor in musicology, specialised on the history of the dance polska (his PhD thesis about the evolution of this dance is available here in Swedish). He has also scholarly interest in other fascinating topics such as “medieval” ballads and the spatio-temporal dispersal of popular tunes.

More about Magnus (in Swedish):
https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnus_Gustafsson_(riksspelman)