A spelman () is a player of Swedish folk music. 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 ...

, and corresponds directly to the term ''spillemand'' in Danish traditional music. Less often spelman may be

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

ians from other Nordic countries, from other

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an countries, from non-European countries, and even musicians in other

genres Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

. The meaning of the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

word spelman is very similar to that of the

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

fiddler A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the ...

," except that it is not tied to a specific instrument. Because of the commonality of the fiddle in Swedish folk music, the word is often translated as

in any case. Technically, the actual

word for

would be "fiolspelman" (fiddle spelman). The other common translation of this word is

ian. The problem here is that the

word "folkmusiker," meaning

ian, was invented explicitly in opposition to the older word "spelman."

Ale Möller Arild Staffan Möller (born 26 March 1955), known professionally as Ale Möller, is a Swedish musician and composer. He was born and grew up in Scania in southern Sweden and started in music as a jazz trumpeter. He lived for a while in Greece wh ...

coined the term "folkmusiker" to refer to musicians who played Swedish folk music professionally during the

folk revival The American folk music revival began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Big Bill Broonzy, Billie Holiday, Richard Dyer-Benn ...

, but were not necessarily grounded in the spelman tradition. Some have also considered the term spelman (literally "play-man") to be problematic given its implication that Swedish folk musicians are normatively male. The term "folkmusikant" has been proposed as a

gender-neutral Gender neutrality (adjective form: gender-neutral), also known as gender-neutralism or the gender neutrality movement, is the idea that policies, language, and other social institutions (social structures or gender roles) should avoid distinguish ...

alternative, but has seen little traction.Olsson (2007):21.

Notes

References

* * * {{Authority control Swedish folk music Swedish folk musicians

See also

Notes

References