Swedish world music
di Dan Lundberg
Sparve lilla: as Swedish as it gets
University Studies and Higher Education
Folk Chamber Music and Drone Rock
We Want to Embrace the Listener in a Nordic Atrium World
At the end of the 1980s, a new music term was launched:world music. This was due to commercial reasons; the record industry needed a label that could cover as much as possible within the field of "ethnic" music, since these music genres tended to be sorted "somewhere in between" the racks in music stores. Some small British record companies tried out the label "world music" as a new concept, and the term proved to be a success. It was diffuse enough to cover almost every kind of music outside the genres of classic, pop and jazz while, at the same time, striking enough to gain the attention of both consumers and the media. In other words, the term was purposefully vague and has consequently been used in many different disguises to describe everything from local forms of folk music from different music cultures all over the world to different non- Western forms of art music.
When the term "world music" is used in Swedish, it mostly refers to different forms of musical mixtures. The mixtures are usually based on traditional folk music fused with ingredients from different forms of popular music such as rock, jazz and techno.
With the term world music, a world-wide media-based music arena has been created in which folk music from different cultures can be used and sorted into what can be called a "global structure". Within the rock-influenced style of this new mixed music, the form or structure comprises a pop/rock-affected sound, a prominent heavy "beat" and a tangible presence in the mixing. The style also comprises a combining of the accompaniment with local, preferably exotic, instruments and styles of song. Let us summarise this music type as "global structure - local contents".
The term world music catered to the need of categorising already existing music. Due to its rapid spread in the media, the term has contributed to homogenising and strengthening the characteristics of its own genre, which in Sweden takes on the form of something of "folk fusion".
As in other parts of the world, world music in Sweden was played both in both live and mediated form long before the term was coined. Already in the 1970s, Swedish groups such as Contact and Kebnekajse experimented with fusing folk music and pop, whereas others, such as Mynta and Orientexpressen, mixed different types of ethnic music (1) From the 1980s and onward, the music groups Filarfolket and Groupa tried out new sets of folk music instrumentation in which they used bouzouki, wind instruments and percussion for Swedish polskas. (2),
Polska efter Pål Simon. Arrangement by Ale Möller (song and bouzouki) in the orchestra Ellika Frisell (violin), Per Gudmundson (violin), Hållbus Totte Mattsson (mandola), Bill McChesney (recorder), Katarina Olsson (violin), Peder Åkerlund (double base).
Apart from the musical changes, there was a new and strong support for the global form in the media and on the music scenes of the 1980s. In January 1982, the programme Trender & Traditioner (trends and traditions) was launched in the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation's channel P3, a programme featuring "modern folk music". In 1986, Steven Rooney opened his music shop Multi-Kulti on Södermalm in Stockholm. The shop is still going strong selling its particular blend of records, books, instruments and videos covering music from all over the world, as well as exotic spices and Indian cigarettes. Also in 1986, in the summer, the folk music festival in the city of Falun was started up, and from the very beginning it focused on both old traditions and modern and on more innovative forms of folk music. Apart from featuring Nordic folk music, the first festival presented such things as Indian raga, Tex-Mex accordion and Bulgarian bagpipes. Clearly, by the time some small-scale British record companies managed to agree on the label "world music" at a London pub in 1987, the issue was really that of finding a name for an already established genre (3).
"At the time, West Africa was the hottest factor in world music. This gave rise to a shifting search for new trends: Bulgarian polyphony was traded in for Malagasy valiha, Tuvian throat-singing, Colombian cumbia, Australian didgeridoo, Celtic harps, Cuban son... (Gustafsson 1998a). [trans. by the author]"
Today, world music is an extensive and still expanding genre for the record industry. According to Karin Högström, who is responsible for the world music section at Åhléns City, one of the major department stores in Stockholm, there were about 1,500 and 2,000 titles categorised as world music in the Swedish GLF search register Grammotex in 1997 (4).
In recent years, the search for new trends has opened the eyes of world music producers to Nordic music, and many Swedish artists and culture institutions have jumped on the train in order to utilise and contribute to the publicity. The Swedish Concert Institute has taken on a new role as a conveyor and marketing organisation of Swedish jazz and folk music. Among other things, in October 1998 it hosted WOMEX, the World Wide Music Expo, a combination of conference, fair and artists' forum to which about 700 delegates travelled from all over the world. Festivals, agencies, record companies, the media and artists were all represented, from small idealists to international giants such as Microsoft and Disney.
In the beginning of 1999, the Swedish Concert Institute participated in the music fair Folk Alliance in Albuquerque in New Mexico, USA. World music groups Frifot, Väsen and the folk fiddlers Kalle Almlöf and Björn Ståbi represented Sweden. The Swedish Concert Institute's venture to launch Swedish folk music outside Sweden is extensive. "During the next two years, we will launch Swedish folk music in the USA and Canada", the producer Sten Sandahl said in an interview in the publication Metro.
Musical Changes
Since 1969, the Swedish branch of IFPI has awarded "Grammisar" (Swedish Grammy award), i.e. the industry's special awards, to Swedish "artists, musicians and creators who have accomplished interesting phonogram productions within different fields of music" (5). A clear trend within the category "ballad/ folk of the year" is the preference for music forms and groups that experiment with mixed music comprising folk music pop and jazz.
Sparve lilla : as Swedish as it gets
The Swedish group Groupa was awarded a Grammis in 1995 for the CD Imeland, which showcased the group's "energy and sensitivity and innovative folk music". The instrumentation on the first track Sparve lilla is characteristic of the whole record: willow flute (6), berimbau (7), double bass and synth.
The tune opens with an improvisatory introduction on the willow flute: a Swedish soundscape floats on a dense background of timbres played on the synth. As would an Arabian neyplayer, Jonas Simonsson guides the listener by way of his willow flute, step by step, into the melody and its musical build-up. The first impression is one of a modern, world-music composition. the distinctive local/exotic sound of the willow flute mixed with global musical means of expression. Gradually, the rhythm is built up by a berimbau and the willow flute transcends into the theme of a Swedish polska. Interestingly enough, despite the Arabian influences in the composition and the Brazilian rhythm instruments, Sparve lilla sounds very Swedish, in many ways even more Swedish than most of the music that is usually labelled "authentic" or "original" folk music.
As far as we know, it has never been the praxis of Swedish ensembles to improvise against background timbres or drones. The reason why the opening of Sparve lilla sounds so Swedish is of course because several of the "Swedish" characteristics of the music have been emphasised. A drone that strengthens the modal build-up has been added to the traditional tune. With the free-metric introduction, the modal characteristics appear even stronger. Although the style has more in common with an Arabian taqsim than with a Swedish polska, one still experiences the tune as Swedish since the tone language stems from the Swedish tradition. In addition, the berimbau amplifies the regional features of western Sweden in the music. By tradition, rhythm instruments are not used in folk music from the region of Värmland but in this case the berimbau emphasises the typical uneven rhythm of the polska, a characteristic that makes the music sound as if it were from western Sweden.
University Studies and Higher Education
Sparve lilla establishes that the musicians in Groupa have acquired skills within several music traditions, not least within Swedish folk tonality and rhythm. This is an important difference compared to earlier generations of musicians. During the last 20 years, folk music has gained more ground within music education and training programmes at universities and academies of music in the Nordic countries. One result of this is the development of "new" folk music theory. To be able to discuss and teach the rhythm, interval structure and modal principles of folk music, it has also been necessary to develop a subject terminology. Sven Ahlbäck, who is responsible for the folk music programme at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, is one of those who have put a lot of effort into developing the subject. The theory of music outlined in the textbook Folkmusik i Sverige (folk music in Sweden), published by Lundberg & Ternhag in 1996, and which is used at most folk music programmes in Sweden, is based on Ahlbäck's work. During the last ten-year period, Ahlbäck has published two textbooks on rhythm and pitch relation in Swedish folk music (Ahlbäck 1995a, b). Ahlbäck also discusses four Swedish modes apart from the "major and minor" ones, i.e. willow pipe mode, shepherd song mode, magdalene mode and carol mode (Interview with Sven Ahlbäck, by Dan Lundberg 98/07/01 [M.DL980701]). The terms are constructed based on the type of environment, instruments and tunes of the music, and have evolved in answer to the need for a joint language for education and discussion of musical structures.
Has the increase in insight regarding folk music theory had any direct bearing on how instruments and songs are played? the issue is perhaps more complex than one initially thinks. Knowledge of modal structures naturally enables musicians to emphasise typical characteristics, such as in Sparve lilla. Knowledge has also created scope for "compositions" such as Ahlbäck's own Vallåtar från Gammelboning in which he combines herding calls and a traditional shepherd song into a polyphonic web, i.e. a new way of composing building on old musical principles.
"I have cut apart the herding call and placed the parts in contrast with each other. I have fused two monophonics into a three-part. But I have also added some newly written parts. It is strictly arranged but should sound free-floating. It is intended to sound like a taqsim. Shepherd songs are taqsims. They have the same basic feeling. For the shepherd song, I have thought in terms of key notes. When the herding call is in D, the shepherd song is in G. What is first pitch position 1 becomes 4 in the next one. In other words, two shepherd song modes that are related to each other. In the last section, the ostinato, you change back to 4, D, and you place the herding call in D against that. It is thanks to the theoretic knowledge than I can arrange things this way." (M.DL980701)
Another influence can be seen in the fact that the use of quartertones in Swedish folk music appears to have increased in the last 10-20 years. This, together with more popular use of drone parts, results in many young Swedish musicians sounding more old-time than their older colleagues. The singer Emma Härdelin's ballad Den bortsålda is based on a 1957 recording by the Finnish-Swedish singer Helmi Brenner (born 1891). Interestingly, Härdelin's version from the 1990s sounds older than the original regarding tone language (c.f. Lundberg & Ternhag 1996:72p). Whether such musical features have to do with an increase in knowledge regarding folk music theory, or whether they "just" form a part of a "blend of new and old" folk music fashion, is, of course, impossible to determine.
Folk Chamber Music and Drone Rock
Apart from a continued strong tradition of folk musicians, two main lines of development can be seen within the branch of Swedish folk music that is commonly known as world music. Both lines strive to arrange and play songs in ensembles. Previous studies have labelled the two styles "drone rock" and "folk chamber music" (Lundberg & Ternhag 1996, p. 166, Lundberg 1997, p. 48). As its name indicates, drone rock is influenced by rock music, not least in the instrumentation where drums and electric instruments have a central role. Wellknown groups within drone rock include Hedningarna, Garmarna and Hoven Droven. Folk chamber music, on the other hand, is characterised by attempts to achieve acoustic sounds and a delicate musical "fine-playing" comprising intricate voices and rhythms. Groups such as Väsen, Rosenbergs sjua and Frifot are prominent representatives of this style. Many of the groups who are linked to the Stockholm Academy of Music and have been formed in recent years, can be included in this category.
From time to time folk chamber musicians are criticised for turning their folk music into art music. Drone rocker and guitar player Gotte Ringqvist in the group Garmarna discusses the question of whether folk chamber music will become the folk music of the future:
"Is drone rock losing ground?"
"It has its
limitations. I don't know. I consider most of the things produced today
boring. Especially all that Atrium stuff. It's too nice. There are
loads of records produced in the 1970s recorded in people's kitchens
that are better. Even the way they played the tunes, sometimes on only
two fiddles, they still had more of a rock'n'roll sound. More passion,
you know, or fervour, or whatever you want to call it. Nothing like
that gets made today because everything has to be so damn beautiful.
Väsen have managed to maintain some of the original feeling but they
are incredibly good musicians. And so have Frifot, their stuff is
strong. But they are just about the only groups who have vibe.
I believe that this has to do with education. They all studied at the College of Music in Stockholm: the school is often behind the phenomenon. That gang is talented as hell, but they tend to play folk music in a kind of classical way. I prefer a more unschooled and raw sound." (M.DL981104)
Hedningarna has been appointed by many as the group that paved the way for drone rock. Anders Norudde, Hållbus Totte Matsson and Björn Tollin formed the group in 1986-1987 and became successful when they helped cement the popularity of a stage play through their composing in the summer of 1989. In 1992, the group achieved its commercial breakthrough when the members worked with the Finnish singers Sanna Kurki-Suonio and Tellu Palulasto on the CD Kaksi. Until summer 2000, Kaksi has sold 40,000 copies, as has the followup 1994 with the CD Trä (Wood). These are very high figures for folk music in Sweden.
Hedningarna also had predecessors in groups who had undertaken similar experiments already during the 1970s. Hedningarna, however, emphasises the drone and uses recreated instruments such as bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and moraharpa (a 3-string keyed fiddle). The same year that Hedningarna released Kaksi, the importance of folk music was substantiated when the group Garmarna played at the Hultsfred festival - the most important rock festival in Sweden. Garmarna, which comprised four members at the time, signed a record deal with Swedish Massproduktion, a record company who had up till then only produced punk music.
Mediaized Folk Music
Naturally, the development of Swedish world music has gone hand-in-hand with technological developments. As folk music has drawn closer to pop music, it has also made use of new technology and new media channels. Today, there are several styles of mediated Swedish folk music, i.e. styles based on or dependent on a media. Drone rock groups such as Garmarna find it difficult to perform parts of their repertoire live in cases where they cannot use computers, multi-channel equipment and large separated monitor systems. Since not all folk music organisers have kept up with developments this sometimes creates problems for performances, as Gotte Ringqvist of Garmarna points out.
"We use samples and drum loops that Jens (the drummer) plays against to keep on track. So we are dependent on good monitoring, and we need 20 channels because otherwise not all... well, we just need them. It's not that we are flashing the need for major equipment, just that we need it. When we toured Germany we discovered that they are still into folk music performed by way of one mike. Or we performed in places that only had eight channels and no monitors, and we tried to explain that we wouldn't we able to play. We really can't play. They managed to cough up one monitor system. We couldn't play everything so we had to leave stuff out and we couldn't put a mike on the drums. We just had to cut things out. We couldn't play all the instruments, and that happened a lot in Germany." (M.DL981104)
By tradition, folk music has lived on by oral transmittance. This has even been a prerequisite and a fundamental part of the concept of folk music. Recordings made up until the last 20 years have, as a consequence, been documentary, i.e. performances were recorded live often without overdubs and with the use of a limited amount of channels. The growth of "world music" as mixed music incorporating pop and folk ingredients has to a large extent been linked with an increase in the mediaization and mediation of the music. The documentary recording tradition is still with us, mainly represented by record companies such as Giga, who still make two-channel recordings without add-ons. But several other companies who are usually equated with world music productions basically undertake documentary recordings.
The Role of the Producer
Although Olle Paulsson at Drone calls himself a producer, he actually has very little to do with the production of "music" during the process of recording.
"So you are more of a publicist?"
"Yes, and
that's the role I want to have. I don't feel that I... First, I haven't
the skills needed for recordings, i.e. to be a music producer, since I
haven't the experience that is needed. Second, I would probably be
preoccupied by estimating what each minute costs so that I would put
pressure on the whole situation. And third, I'm more of a doer and I
believe it's best not to get involved in that other stuff. ... I was
involved in the recording of Nyckelharpsorkestern's Till Eric. I was
occupied in a much nicer capacity as the one who ensured that
meatballs, sandwiches and good food were in constant supply. That was a
very nice role to play and the best I could do in that situation. And
carry loudspeakers, cords and other items of course. But that's as far
as I am prepared to go in terms of being a producer." (M.DL980930)
The opposite occurs at Atrium, where the producer Manne von Ahn prefers not to record finished material. Ahn says that he wants to build up a CD world that differs markedly from the world of live music.
"You create an environment on the CD, an environment of sound. So it is very important what you choose to fill out the space between tracks with, i.e. in which form the songs, that is the sequence of the songs, are laid out. I see the CD as an environment and the studio as the tool whereby I can achieve my goals." (M.DL991203)
We Want to Embrace the Listener in a Nordic Atrium World
"According to Greek mythology, the atrium, which was probably pronounced in a different way, was the part of the main building which was used for eating, meditating, having sex and relaxing: the four cornerstones" says Manne von Ahn in an interview. "The Romans redid the atrium somewhat in terms of design and architecture", he continues, "and atriums began to be built where toga parties were held."
In other words, with its label Atrium, Warner Music Sweden hopes to create a virtual CD room furnished with Swedish folk music sounds and rhythms (8).
Today, the record label Atrium is one of the most debated phenomena in the arena of Swedish world music. Many are the critical voices that have objected to the commercial profile a Warner Music label undoubtedly entails, but there have also been objections to the world of sound created by Atrium. Manne von Ahn is happy to describe Atrium as a concept: a whole in which the Nordic scenery is coloured by music. Atrium is meant to reach beyond the music, and each production involves as much work on acoustics as on visual design; of form and homogeneity in music, sound, photography and lyrics.
"I have certainly tried to build a philosophy around Atrium. You may feel it is feigned, but I want the name to conjure up images, poetry and music from the Nordic region. And in the long run, we plan to build further on the company to incorporate book publishing and image publishing too." (M.DL991203)
The inspiration comes from the German record company ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) (9),
In 1994, ECM issued Willemark & Möller's CD Nordan. Nordan gave ECM access to the genre of world music. The company had previously focused on jazz and art music. For ECM it was also a question of creating a "concept", a series of records that had a particular profile in both layout and sound. Nordan has been followed by the CD Agram in 1996. In the beginning of the 1990s, Ahn freelanced at ECM as a technician. He learned that Manfred Eicher had plans for a Nordic world music venture and decided to "steal back" Nordic music.
"...he has lined his pockets at the expense of our Nordic history, our image of the Nordic region and our Nordic atmosphere. Look at his CD covers for groups such as Nordan, Agram and Frifot and all the Norwegian jazz and folk musicians that he has launched abroad. We have a lot to thank him for. He has certainly gained international attention for what we do but he has nicked our concept. When I was freelancing for ECM, I couldn't let go of the idea that I would one day return and steal back all that he has taken." (M.DL991203)
In 1995, the guidelines of a venture involving the Atrium label were drawn up by a team comprising Klas Lunding, Manne von Ahn (producer), Lars Nylin (promotions manager, Warner Sweden) och Kent Nyberg (designer). The marketing plan was based on the idea that "we wouldn't give a damn about the Nordic countries since this kind of music sells nil there". The label would have an exclusive profile, a "state of the art label" in terms of both design and sound. With financial backing from Warner, the label would be able to afford the major resources needed in order to catch on abroad.
"And what did they say? What did the Head of Warner Music International say? The Head of Warner International thought it was a brilliant idea since Warner wanted a more cultural feather in its hat. We need to focus on things other than Madonna and Bruce Springsteen so that it seems as if we have something cultural to contribute with." (M.DL991203)
Sanji Tandam, who is Head of Warner in Scandinavia, fully endorsed Atrium, and the consensus is that if the label keeps strictly to its niche - the Atrium concept - and maintains high quality, sooner or later the efforts will pay off, as long as those involved can stay on course long enough. But Manne von Ahn had made a name for himself in the record industry was probably a decisive factor for Warner's goodwill. In advertisements and interviews, Ahn's skills as a producer and technician are often emphasised. Warner likes to call attention to his training and his Tonmeister Diploma from the Decca school in Germany, that he has worked at GRP (Grusin Rosen Production), that he has worked with Brian Eno and so on.
For a new label to establish itself a number of titles are needed to build up a catalogue, and Atrium has achieved this very quickly. In May 1997, four albums were released, and in the beginning of 2000, the label had already produced 15 releases that are sold in 28 countries. Sales are between 5,000 to 20,000 copies per CD, according to Manne von Ahn, and most of these are sold outside Sweden. Atrium recordings sell best in Japan and Canada. The label also produces special editions of the CDs in order to better access local markets.
"As an example, one can ask Swedish traditional fiddler Ola Bäckström to
write more focused songs. And then one can invite guest musicians from
Taiwan to perform Swedish folk music with him, which makes it easier
for the Warner office to sell Ola's stuff in Taiwan."
"What?!... You add local colour and so on. Are you doing that now?"
"With Ola?
"
"Yes."
"No, not with Ola."
"But you have done it with others?!"
"Yes." (M.DL991203)"
So, to achieve better sales figures, local musicians can be included to form a link with a certain public, thereby implying that the record is the result of a collaboration between domestic and international musicians. Although it hasn't yet been done, it is perfectly feasible to release the same CD in, for example, Canada and Japan, whereby in the first instance one adds a North American Indian song and, in the second instance, perhaps some taiko drums.
"Yes, but it is also a way of shamelessly utilising commercial channels."
"Judging by your reaction it seems that you yourself do not all together endorse this!
"Well, yes I do.
"But why use the word "shamelessly"?
"But...."
"You are fully expecting to be hanged for this!"
"Well yes, I suppose I am."
"So what can you do about it?"
"Just carry on. What else can I do?"
"But
what I mean to say is that when you, yourself, describe it as
shameless, perhaps you feel that you have gone too far, that you are
too commercial."
"But I don't feel that. As long as the artist doesn't have to renounce his or her integrity or material." (M.DL991203)
So Ahn is worried of being criticised for using "shameless" sales tricks. But the artist should not have to renounce his or her integrity, he says. At the same time, the artist builds up his or her material in the studio together with Ahn, who, as we have seen, prefers musicians to present unfinished material. On the other hand, Ahn does offer his artists full freedom in terms of working with other record companies while under contract to Warner, and this is hardly a choice open to pop musicians.
"I want to give the artists as much opportunities as possible. Take an artist such as the saxophonist Jonas Knutsson, for example, who plays in 23 different constellations and releases 18 records at the same time. I ensure that he has the possibility of playing what he likes apart from what he does for us. If Knutsson were a pop musician he would not be given the option of playing for anyone but Warner. He would have to stick to that. But I have explained the situation to Warner, that this is how musicians of this kind need to solve things, and that we have to draw up a different kind of contract. When I sign an artist, I explain that this is the prerequisite for joining us. That I understand if the artist prefers not to play for others but that the opportunity is there if he so wishes. And that he is allowed to do what he wants outside of Warner. Knutsson plays classic jazz and that weird oriental saxofon, as well as playing for Atrium."(M.DL991203)
Bad Dancing
An interesting tension exists between world music's local and global means of expression as between world music as a genre and the older traditions on which it is built.
During the 1980s, Swedish folk music "borrowed" many instruments from other styles of music. With the groups Groupa and Filarfolket as models, increasing numbers of folk music ensembles began to use wind instruments, synthesisers and percussion. Guitar and bouzouki have become accepted as folk music instruments and many older drone instruments have come back into use. In addition an international ethnic instrument depot has been created during the last 20 years. It includes instruments that originally had a local use and that have, through distribution on courses and via media, extended beyond their original domains. The Brazilian berimbau, which has been mentioned earlier and also percussion instruments such as the djembe and darbuka, belong to this group. In an article (Didgeridoo:from Arnhem country to the Internet), Ronström (1999) tells us how music at a wedding in Tofta church on Gotland was played on the didgeridoo. It is clear that the Swedish nyckelharpa is currently undergoing the same type of internationalisation as, for example, the African kora and mbira did before it.
The question of which instruments are included in the "ethnic instrument depot" depends on many different factors. First and foremost they must have a particular ethnic distinctiveness and be associated with local traditions. But also factors such as social and cultural acceptance and status, accessibility, ease of play, distribution and communication possibilities etc. have great significance. Then there are the more solid musical circumstances such as, for example, scales and systems of harmonics. Rhythm instruments are often more easily adapted than other instruments. The didgeridoo's double function as drone and rhythm instrument fits into many modal musical traditions perfectly. The chromatic nyckelharpa fits into the majority of Western folk music traditions but still gives a distinctive "exotic" touch.
The incorporation of instruments or idioms from other cultures is seldom painless. Changes can be seen as a threat to the "real" tradition. Many Swedish world music groups are criticised for spoiling "Swedish folk music". No doubt many raise their eyebrows when they hear djembe players at folk fiddle player assemblies or didgeridoo in folk music ensembles. The conflict between innovators and traditionalists has several times been expressed during Swedish world music groups' tours of the US. The tension between folk music and world music seems to be especially strong in the American public. The folk music following seems to mainly be of Swedish decent while the world music following belongs to a category of omnivores in a folk music context (10), The nyckelharpa player Bart Brashers in Seattle talks about the American public's preferences:
"Which music works in these circles then? Is it contemporary Swedish
folk music or is it old folk music? Do people listen to Väsen, Garmarna
and Hedningarna or to Per Hans?"
"In the US it is predominantly Per Hans
[Olsson], Johnny [Soling], Kalle [Almlöf] and the older more
traditional folk music. There are many here in Seattle especially, like
when Väsen have been here, I've fixed it for them to come here twice
now, that have come up to me and said that this is... Many don't like
Väsen. Many do like Väsen of course, but especially no when they added
the drummer [André] Ferarri, there were very many who thought it wasn't
folk music any more. Roger [Tallroth] they can put up with but André,
it was too much. They want it to be more traditional. When Garmarna
were here and played in Seattle I don't think anyone from the Swedish
folk dance or Swedish folk music movement came down. It was young rock
enthusiasts or folk rock followers who came to their concert. They made
a big loss I think. I personally listen to both and I like both, but I
can also keep them apart." (M.DK980416:1)
The reactions to Väsen's drum kit and to Garmarna or not unexpected. Swedish folk music fans are more tolerant, perhaps because they most often do not re gard the two lines of development as threats to each other. At the same time, the same tendency exists here, even among the musicians themselves.
Gotte Ringqvist in Garmarna explains that when they included the percussionist Jens Höglin in the group, they did not at first want him to play the drums. Höglin had no folk music background at all and was instead a hard rock drummer in Sundsvall. In Garmarna his fellow musicians required him to stand up and play. He would only use the kettledrum and cymbals and snare drum was absolutely ruled out. He successively built up his drum kit, almost surreptitiously, with a bass pedal drum, hi-hat and finally even a snare (M.DL981104).
Olov Johansson in Väsen bears witness to how the group's modern arrangement and style of play has contributed to the polarisation of American audiences and how they have been accused of encouraging "bad dancing" by playing too far from "tradition".
"It was also interesting when we were at a "folk music camp" in Maryland; it was called Ramblewood. And it was going to be "Scandinavian week" there as it was called then, one of these folk music camps. And it was organised by Bruce Sagan and his wife, they organised it for many, many years. But this was the first time they invited a folk music group. It had previously been very focused on dance. Dance pedagogues had been there, ever since the late 1960s I should think, and taught dance. And people who had their roots in the Youth Ring went there. They've had music too and they've asked these dance teachers, who have brought along their dance folk fiddle players. They're not always the most innovative fiddlers, and perhaps not the most motivated either in many cases, more like functional fiddle players. So its that scene that has become a bit predominant there, so when we arrived with Väsen then, then... The camp was divided into two camps. Half of them thought "at last something that swings and lets loose, you feel like dancing and sort of letting loose". They loved it. And the other half thought it was terrible. "You can't do this to Swedish folk music." the course organisers received an e-mail afterwards telling them that "Väsen encourages bad dancing". And it gets sick when you come from Sweden and live in an environment where it works. You can go out and dance, like now on Saturday you can go up to Vendel and dance to music from this district, a public dance you know, that the fiddle team there puts on. There's so much here now, the music has developed. The old stuff also still exists. There's a whole spectrum. But in the US, there was a particular section. And when you did something else they were completely confused. At first, when we realised what it was, it was frustrating. Then it became a bit comical." (M.MB980116)
Bart Brashers reported an opinion he had heard on Väsen's dancing audience in the US: "They look like a bunch of dolphins you flicked up out of the water" (M.DL980416:1).
The same fear that modern music will cause the extinction of the traditional is to be found in the Assyrian case study where the musician and composer Joseph Malki expresses similar fears regarding satellite TV channels with Turkish and Arabic music. Swedish-Assyrians and American-Swedes seem in other words to be wrestling with the same dilemma in their fear of the dilution of traditions. It maybe that it is a sign that the situation in exile makes tradition particularly vulnerable.
Actors
At the Falun folk music festival's music fair Norrsken 2000 a public debate was arranged with the title "With qualified folk musicians and pedagogues: what is happening to the music?" the invited panel was comprised of music schoolteachers, music researchers, musicians and people from record companies. The following was in the programme sheet:
"Nowadays there are professional qualifications in the area of folk music in all Nordic countries. The oldest is more than 15 years old, which means the effects of the qualifications can be listened to. Because what happens to the music when the folk music scene is increasingly populated by well-educated musicians and singers, and when teaching in music-play and ballad is undertaken by trained folk music pedagogues? The music changes, this much is certain, but how?" (Information sheet for Norrsken 2000) [trans. by the author]
Behind this wondering a fear can be glimpsed that folk music will lose its "magic" if the musicians become over schooled. Since the 19 century compilations the image of folk music and its practitioners has been characterised by the absence of education. The fiddle player as a child of nature and music that has sprung from the collective folk soul was how the romantics saw the context of folk music. With folk music as an object of study at the colleges of music, that image changes as the folk music pedagogue replaces the mysteries of music yore as mentor.
But the programme text above also reflects something else; the shift in folk music from practice to science. During the 1980s and 1990s, many of folk music's doers changed position and now work as experts/knowers in various fields. One of the authors of the most recent handbook Folkmusik i Sverige (folk music in Sweden) is an active folk musician. The majority of currently active Swedish music ethnologists have backgrounds as musicians. Several of folk music's/world music's active debaters have similar backgrounds. Two of the researchers on this project, Dan Lundberg and Owe Ronström, are active musicians in the folk music field. A not uncommon "career move" for folk musicians is taking the step, via the pedagogue role, from doer to knower.
In previous works the change of terms from "fiddle player" to "folk musician" has been discussed by Lundberg (Lundberg and Ternhag 1996, p.153). The fact that increasing numbers of young musicians in the domains of folk music choose to call themselves "folk musician" reflects a new perspective on both their own role as a musician and the music. Through education and increased competency certain actors in the folk music field have undergone a process of professionalisation and formalisation. This has led to a more tenuous link between the musicians and their own tradition. Many folk musicians are individually active in different styles and genres. At the same time folk music increasingly resembles other art forms in its forms of expression and contexts. Against this backdrop it is natural that this category sees themselves as musicians rather than fiddle players. The category maker has also changed significantly during the last 20 years. Festival arrangers and folk music agencies are new actors in world music's arenas. An increasing professionalisation is ongoing among the makers too. The more commercial direction among agencies, certain record companies and music producers involved in folk music is also a new phenomenon that has created a more distinct boundary between enthusiasts and professionals.
"An important part of Garmarna since Guds spelemän is "Sankan", i.e. our producer, Ulf Sandqvist. He has produced åström (well-known Swedish rock musician) and the like, played with åström. He's never been into folk music but he is damned good at music. Unbelievably good at tuning in sound. It's crucial because if you're a band, regardless of whether you want to or not, you get stuck in way of thinking when it comes to arrangement and it's so difficult to move beyond it. Because you don't see the obvious. So when we began working with Sankan, he just said: this song, it's too long. We can't make it interesting on CD. He thinks commercially of course in a completely different way from us. The CD has to sell as well. He taught us to change key, changing key when you're playing drone music, we'd never thought of that." (Interview with Gotte Ringqvist in Garmarna M.DL9811904)
"Sankan" and other mediaization experts have come to mean more and more not least for groups with international ambitions. Robert Simonds at North Side Records in Minneapolis, USA pointed out that they are sometimes dissatisfied with the mixing on the master tapes they get from Swedish recording companies. Even less satisfactory is the "non-commercial" sequence of tracks in Simmond's opinion. Many Swedish bands are out to create a whole out of the tracks and do not concern themselves with trying to attract buyers with the help of the track sequence.
"We can create a different sequence for the American market. We've done that a few times on records here. You know it's really critical for us for the first track to be probably the strongest track on the record because we spend a lot of money putting these CDs in listening stations in these stores. The consumer will put the head phones on and they'll scan through the disc, and if they don't like what they hear in the first 20 seconds you've lost them. So, we're doing the record by Swåp, and we've put a different lead track on and switched the order, because... I don't know if you are familiar with that record, but it opens with just Ola [Bäckström] doing a solo fiddle thing for the first minute and a half. Very quiet kind of echoey solo fiddle thing and then finally the rest of the quartet comes in and plays a higher energy part but we wouldn't get past the first minute and a half to the usual American listener so we put a track that is kind of a more immediate quartet interplay. That's the type of things that we feel our role is as the US record company." (M.DL980420)
Many new ways of using the technology and adapting to new media have, as previously mentioned followed pop/rock influences. There is a lot of truth in the humorous epithet that Klas Gustafson gave the Falun folk music festival: "the arranger who taught Swedish fiddle players to do a sound check" (Gustafson 1998b).
In the increasing mediaization and commercialisation there is a tendency to increased homogenisation and reduced diversity. At the same time musicians like Hadrian Prett in Rosenbergs 7a, Tractorpullerz and Urga would like to see more groups in the same styles. A clearer genre formation would contribute to an increase in the number of arenas for world music and thereby in concert opportunities.
"Imagine there were 15 groups that sounded like Hedningarna and Garmarna, then maybe we would get a stage. I'm probably thinking of the way it is in the pop world now with 14 Oasis bands. That diversity means that a need is created." (M.DL980923)
Prett is of the opinion that many bands in the same genre are necessary in order for permanent stages for Swedish world music to be created. Music distributors and retailers think in the same way. Better defined genres create a broader audience and thereby greater demand. But this type of genre breadth is not, from the commercial recording companies' perspective, a goal in itself. At a hearing on Swedish folk music called "The Next Big ing", which was arranged by Swedish National Concerts and the National Association of Folk Music and Dance in Stockholm in March 1998, the advice from foreign guests (Andrew Cronshaw, Phillip Page and Robert Simonds) was unanimous: that more should be invested in individual groups and projects to attain commercial success.
Previously, Swedish institutions like the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs and Swedish National Concerts set out to safeguard diversity but this idea must be abandoned if success is to be achieved on the world music market. If Swedish world music is to be marketed abroad, all resources should be invested in one or two groups. In an interview Robert Simonds says it would be possible to sell music on the Swedish hurdy-gurdy in the US, but there are only a few hurdygurdy players in Sweden does not matter. It only took one Jimmy Hendrix he says, half-joking.
"But there aren't very many good vevlira-players."
"Well, it doesn't take many. It only took Jimi Hendrix. Only one Jimi
Hendrix. How many do you need? Just give me one good one!" (M.DL980420)
In the doers category there have never before been so many young, skilled musicians in the folk music genre. Swedish folk music has never previously had so many women practitioners as today either. At the international youth camp for folk musicians, Ethno, the number of women participants has been higher than the number of men during recent years. The young people at Ethno are between 15 and 25 years old and are invited from throughout the world to a week-long folk music workshop where they teach each other under the supervision of experienced Swedish musicians. During recent years the gender division has been the following (11).
1996: 46 Swedish participants, of which 35 girls
1997: 49 Swedish participants, of which 32 girls
1998: 54 Swedish participants, of which 34 girls
1999: 52 Swedish participants, of which 36 girls
The girls in other words significantly outnumber the boys. This can be taken as a sign that the production of folk music, as with instrumental music in general, has become less tied to gender.
Against this background it is remarkable that there are so few women musicians in Swedish world music. It seems as if women musicians stop sometime in their twenties. One need only look at the groups named in this case study to realise that the number of women instrumentalists is negligible. On the other hand, song is very much on the rise. The situation at the colleges of music perhaps provides an explanation. Very few women apply to study to become musicians, instead they choose the courses in pedagogy to a greater extent than male students do. On a question about the division of gender among folk music students at the College of Music in Stockholm, Sven Ahlbäck the head of the Folk Music Department and a folk musician, replies by e-mail:
"The short answer is that the majority of female instrumentalists attending courses at colleges of music choose teacher training after which they often settle down locally (working at schools of music and/or having children) and strikingly seldom take up the path of performing again until (sometimes) much later. Because this does not at all apply to singers to the same extent. I am of the opinion it is a question of culture. One might possibly object that maintaining a high instrumental standard of play places greater demands on time compared with song, which one quite simply cannot practice to the same extent. But it is insufficient as an explanation... There are stubborn structures here, which [...] I believe relate to the image of ones own significance for the world and as art being conditioned by gender roles. For the guys on our courses a large ego is more acceptable, as it is for the singers: a profession where it is okay for a girl to be a great artist (role models exist)." (12)
Tendencies
It is conceivable that the next trend on the world music scene will be female instrumentalists. Tendencies in this direction have despite everything been present during the 1990s. At the same time, the rapid development on the vocal side of things has not taken root at all among male practitioners. Female vocalists seem almost more dominant within world music than in other areas of popular culture. What is more, this seems to be an international tendency. What is required for a hit on the world music scene? What does the ideal Swedish world music group look like? When this question has been put to interview subjects, both musicians and record company representatives, they have often been able to provide quick answer.
Olle Paulsson (Drone Records AB):
"Väsen with André Ferarri and a female vocalist".
Hadrian Prett (folk musician):
Live:"A festival band. Either incredibly broad or incredibly narrow. Base, drum kit, electric guitar. And out of that you have a sound; it should be pretty strong. I'd have a music group with sound pressure. That's probably the main part. It's not primarily attentive listening that counts... I would probably have a singer that had some ethnic style, maybe select a few ethnic instruments".
CD (for the US):
"It'd be unbelievably commercial, but I'd have a nyckelharpa, which is a symbol for us Swedes too, so there'd be no doubt among the musicians that this was going to be Swedish. I'd probably have a repertoire that was mixed with the drone so you get a mystical air. But there's quite a lot there that's well established; schottische, pentatonic, the Irish. To get this... It's exotic but not strange".
Ellika Frisell (folk musician, pedagogue):
"This choir-thinking is going to be a stylebuilder... And Väsen, I think that this genre is going to grow steadily in every possible direction. You can just as well meet a musician from some other land and turn on to that music. The contacts mean that it isn't always fully worked out ideas but that it just happens to be so".
Per Moberg (folk musician, music college student):
"Drum and base, drone instruments like the hurdy-gurdy and a female singer".
Robert Simonds (North Side Records):
"Well that Väsen record was pretty damn close. I can't tell you that because it's a magic that happens when musicians get together that can't be preconceived".
Ahlbäck, Sven, 1995 a, Karaktäristiska egenskaper för låttyper i svensk folkmusiktradition. Ett försök till beskrivning. [Characteristic features of tune types in Swedish folk music tradition. A descriptive attempt.], Stockholm, Kungl. Musikhögskolan.
Ahlbäck, Sven 1995 b: Tonspråket i äldre svensk folkmusik. [The tonal language in older Swedish folk music] Stockholm, Kungl. Musikhögskolan.
Gustafson, Klas, 1998a: "Farväl till världsmusiken". [Farewell to World Music], Musik no. 8.
Gustafson, Klas, 1998b: "Polskefällan ?", [The Polska Trap ?] Lira no. 5.
Lundberg, Dan, 1997, Musik i mångfalden. Tre musiketnologiska uppsatser om musik, mångfald och identitet. [Music in diversity. Three ethnomusicological articles on music, diversity and identity.], Stockholm, Kungl. Musikaliska akademien.
Lundberg, Dan, Ternhag, Gunnar, 1996, Folkmusik i Sverige. [Folk music in Sweden.] Hedemora, Gidlunds.
Ronström, Owe , 1999, Didjeridu från Arnhem Land till Internet och tillbaka. [Didgeridoo from Arnhem Land to the Internet and back], http://www.musakad.se/mmm>http://www.musakad.se/mmm
1 C.f. Lundberg & Ternhag 1996.
2 "Polska" is a common Swedish folk dance. It's a couple dance in tripple meter.
3 Gustafsson, Klas in the article Farväl till världsmusiken (farewell to world music).
4 Grammotex is accessible on the Internet (www.grammotex.se).
5 http://www.ifpi.se/sidor/grammis1969.html
6 Willow flute is an overtone flute without finger holes that is played in western Sweden and Norway.
7 Berimbau is a Brazilian rhythm instrument: a single stringed musical bow.
8 C.f. "atrium" in the Swedish National Encyclopaedia: "Atrium (lat. a word of uncertain origins, perhaps related to lat. ater black', dark, and in that case possibly originally referring to the part of the house which became blackened by smoke from the hearth; a number of etymologies assume however an Etruscan origin for the word). [trans. by the author] the central room of the Roman dwelling house of antiquity, surrounded by smaller rooms and with a roof opening in the centre (compluvium) and a sunken basin beneath (impluvium)".
9 ECM was founded by Manfred Eicher and initially had a jazz focus. One of the most important artists was the Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek.
10 Compare North Side Records' market survey p. 233.
11 Information from Peter Ahlbom, the Swedish Concert Institute. Dan Lundberg, Svenskt visarkiv Swedish World Music.
12 From an e-mail from Sven Ahlbäck 1 February 2000.