Spelmanslag
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The spelmanslag () is an amateur organization of Swedish folk musicians, usually dominated by fiddles, who play tunes together. Often these groups play tunes from the specific area of Sweden with which they are affiliated. The term has also the same meaning for
Norwegian folk music Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pil ...
. Spelmanslag meetings tend to serve social function as much as they do musical ones; and money from paid performances generally goes to the group, rather than its constituent individuals.


History

The first Swedish spelmanslag was Dalaföreningens spelmanslag, formed in 1940 by folk musicians from
Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norwa ...
who at the time were living in Stockholm. Over the course of the 1940s, the phenomenon spread throughout the
province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman '' provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...
of
Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norwa ...
, and in the 1950s it became a national trend. The spelmanslag movement saw new life beginning in 2003, with the establishment of the annual student spelmanslag world championships (studentspelmanslag-VM) at the Linköping Folk Festival. A number of student spelmanslag have been formed in order to compete—in 2003, there were four competing teams; by 2007 the number had risen to fifteen.Studentspelmanslags-VM homepage
/ref> These student groups tend to be characterized by high-energy playing, and generally do not limit themselves to tunes from one particular region within Sweden.


Sound

The spelmanslag has a characteristic "wall of sound," produced by a large number of musicians playing a melody, with one or a small number of others producing a secondary harmony part, usually based in thirds and sixths. Most spelmanslag are dominated by fiddles, though some are dedicated primarily to the
nyckelharpa A nyckelharpa (, "keyed fiddle", or literally "key harp", plural ) is the national musical instrument of Sweden. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to chang ...
. Often (but not always), the spelmanslag will also have one or more instruments that support the melody with
chord progression In a musical composition, a chord progression or harmonic progression (informally chord changes, used as a plural) is a succession of chords. Chord progressions are the foundation of harmony in Western musical tradition from the common practice ...
s, such as cittra (
zither Zithers (; , from the Greek word ''cithara'') are a class of stringed instruments. Historically, the name has been applied to any instrument of the psaltery family, or to an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat ...
), accordion, bass, and/or
guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
.


See also

* Spelman (music) * Swedish folk music * Riksspelman * Spelemann - player of Norwegian folk music * Spelemannslag - organization of Norwegian folk musicians


Notes


References

*Kaminsky, David (2005). "Hidden Traditions: Conceptualizing Swedish Folk Music in the Twenty-First Century." Ph.D. Dissertation, Harvard University. *Roempke, Ville (1980). "'Ett nyår för svensk folkmusik:' Om spelmansrörelsen." In ''Folkmusikboken'', edited by Jan Ling, et al., 263-296. Stockholm: Prisma. {{Swedish folk music Swedish folk musicians