(Belated) December meme: Folk music

[luzula]

garonne asked: "I'd love to know how you came to like folk music, and which different countries' music you know and enjoy."

I grew up on Swedish folk music. My parents liked it and would play it, especially the Swedish '70:s group Folk och Rackare (="Folks and Scoundrels"). You can hear them here, singing a Swedish version of Child ballad #10, The Twa Sisters. They sang medieval ballads a lot, as well as some instrumental stuff and some humorous songs. I remember being all fascinated with the imagery in those ballads, and also being kind of traumatized by a sailing song where someone was being "gnawed by the black cat", which the footnotes helpfully explained meant that their limbs were rotting away from gangrene.

Anyway. I started playing the violin when I was nine or so, and played it until I was 20-22 or so (I also played the piano, but that's not relevant to folk music). I had a teacher who was into Swedish folk music, so I played a lot of that--Swedish folk music is heavily fiddle-based. I also went to summer folk music camps, some of which had young folk musicians from all over the world, so that was pretty cool. I also danced Swedish folk dance and sang a lot of folk songs, some of it together with my sister. We would sing that "Twa Sisters" ballad together when we were kids--I would play the evil sister and she would play the good sister and we would dramatize it with me pushing her into the river and everything. After that she became a teenager and thought folk music was deeply uncool and preferred boy bands. *g* But hey, after that our interests have converged again and she's done three years of music training, a lot of it for folk music.

As for non-Swedish folk music, my parents had folk music from the British Isles when I was a kid, as well, especially Irish music. But I first became fascinated by it when I discovered how many of the Swedish ballads had equivalents there, and I've listened to a lot of it since. Also, I used to collect versions of the "Twa Sisters" ballad from different countries--there's a beautiful Norwegian one that I've sadly forgotten.

American folk music was not a part of my childhood (aside from a Peter, Paul, and Mary album that my parents had)--it's something I've discovered later. I remember the exact moment when I fell for country music, actually. I think I was 22 or so, standing in a record store listening to an Emmylou Harris CD (I think it was "Wrecking Ball"). Not so folksy, I know, but I went from there and found my way to American folk music, Gillian Welch being one of the first ones I found. My sister and I have sung a fair amount of American folk, too.

Comments

[seascribble]

Oh, I LOVE Gillian Welch.

That is pretty great about your sister singing with you (especially you playing the evil sister, heh).

[luzula]

We have so much fun singing together! Since we've done it so long, I feel like our voices just fit together really well.

[jesse_the_k]

They do! Beautifully!

Do you have any idea how a Child Ballad traveled to Sweden? They weren't created in time for Vikings to bring them back; they were extant way before sheet music, much less radio or other broadcasting.

"Gnawed by the black cat" is a truly horrific image. I've also seen "followed by the black dog" to mean depression. Lord only knows what the black birds signify.

[luzula]

I would think there was enough contact between the various European countries that the ballads could spread (by shipping and trade, for example)? And it's not clear that all of them spread from the British Isles to Sweden, either, rather than the other way around. : P I don't know where all of them come from originally, but I know that some of the ballads have medieval roots in Scandinavia, at least.

[jesse_the_k]

/o\ or as we say in Amuuurika, d'Oh.

Of course the travel between Sweden and Britain was two-way.

Sorry for my bone-headedness.

[luzula]

Hee, no problem. It just amused me a little! And now I want to look up the research about these ballads and if anyone actually knows where they originated. I googled a little bit, but it didn't actually give me much.

[mergatrude]

It's lovely growing up in a family where music is an integral part. Singing with my sister (folk, classical, anything) is one of my greatest pleasures.

[luzula]

Oh, cool, I didn't know you sang with your sister, too. \o/

[garonne.livejournal.com]

Hehe, folk music can quite often be bleak and/or gruesome, can't it? :D

I really liked that version of the Twa Sisters you linked to. Sounds like a group to follow up on! (I don't know anything at all about Swedish folk.)

I was interested to hear about all the different traditions you're familiar with. I mentioned different countries in my question because I had a feeling you had a much broader knowledge than I do. For instance, it was only quite recently (thanks to DS's use of Stan Rogers) that I really paid attention to the fact that North America certainly had an enormous folk tradition I was completely missing out on…

Hearing that you were playing folk music with your violin teacher made me wonder something. Is there a difference in technique between Swedish folk and the standard classical technique? I know there often is in Britain and Ireland - different hold for both bow and instrument, no worrying about bowing direction in folk the way there is in classical… I don't think it's that difficult to switch, particularly from classical to folk, but as a beginner you would usually take lessons in either one OR the other.

[luzula]

Actually, I put together a mix of Swedish folk for someone else a while ago, with a helpful commentary on the tunes. I've uploaded it again for you. : )

I dunno, I feel like I am only familiar with a tiny fraction of all the traditions out there--like, the only non-Scandinavian traditions I am into are English-speaking ones.

Yes, there are differences! There is pretty much never any vibrato in folk, for example, and yeah, no worrying about bowing direction. Fiddling technique in Scandinavia and the British Isles is related, I guess, though the feel of the music is a bit different. There's a group called Swåp with both Swedish and British members who do really cool mash-ups of Swedish and British folk music, and play with the different styles.

[garonne.livejournal.com]

Hey, thank you! I've downloaded it - very much looking forward to listening to it.

Well, compared to me you're not doing so badly :) But yes, there is a whole lot more to folk music than that. I'm shamefully unfamiliar with the German tradition, for instance (where I live!)