Here are some tunes from Sweden which have been featured at some of the previous Nordic Harp Meetings:

• Skomakarpolska – one of Erik Ask-Upmark’s teaching favourites. Not many Swedish polskas have lyrics, but this one has:
  Dansa vill du och dansa vill jag, men skorna de äro sönder
  Skicka lilla vän till skomakaren, skomakarn bor i Finne.
  Nej skick an inte dit, han sular som en skit, slår inte i en enda pinne,
  Trån drar han bar och becket har han kvar, skomakarn sitter inne.
  

• Evighetspolska (polonäs efter Anders Larsson, Västergötland)
  Polonaise from the tune collection of Anders Larsson which was found at the Lalarp manor in Sexdrega parish, Västergötland, in the 1920s; it contains popular dance melodies from the 1770s, mostly polonaises and menuettes. This one is a marvelous tune for the harp, and since it is almost impossible to stop playing, Erik Ask-Upmark calls it Evighetspolska (=Eternity polska).

• Björnlåten – the Bear Tune from Ore, Dalarna. It is another of those “eternal” tunes which are impossible to stop playing… The Bear tune was the “hit of the year” at the Nordic Harp Meeting 2011 in Broby, where it was played every evening (see video on youtube).

• Engelska efter Alfred Pettersson från Nättraby, Blekinge. The tune can be found as number 275 in “Svenska Låtar Blekinge” and was collected in 1907 by Nils Andersson. In the British isles, it is known under the name “Fisher’s Hornpipe“, first published in London around 1784 as “Hornpipe #1” in James A. Fishar’s “Sixteen Cotillons Sixteen Minuets Twelve Allemands and Twelve Hornpipes”. Blekinge is known for its seafaring, Royal navy and oversea trade, and if you imagine life at sea, international crews spending months together on the same ship and listening to each other’s tunes, it is not surprising after all to find Fisher’s Hornpipe in Blekinge…

• Dä dansa en Göing (långdans från Skåne) – a very simple tune, playable on a 5-string kantele.

Back to the NHM tune archive