About Our Music


The Instruments

A nyckelharpa is a keyed, 16 string violin with 4 bowed strings and 12 sympathetic strings that ring along with the melody.  Its history in Sweden dates back to the mid 1300’s.

A baroque viola has a shorter neck than the modern instrument and uses gut strings. It's tuned a fifth below the violin and has a much wider body and richer sound. Younger than the nyckelharpa, it was developed in the late 1500's.   

The Music
Sweden has a rich history of baroque music partly inspired by communication with other countries in northern Europe.  During the “Age of Greatness” (1648-1721), musicians, luthiers, writers, poets and scientists moved back and forth from continental Europe bringing with them the latest music and culture. 
The lines between what we call Folk and Baroque music were not clear in 18th century Sweden.   Now we recognize some differences when we hear them, but then it was all just music.  Lovely music was commonly played for dances, weddings or any occasion, sung or played by local folks on any instrument. Many important 18th Century handwritten music notebooks have been discovered in Sweden, documenting the music people played and cared for enough to write down and keep for posterity.  These notebooks are treasure troves of tunes played in the various styles and localities and have been made available to us to study and learn from.    

 The image above is taken from wallpaper painting in Ekebyholm Castle, c. 1650.


Sources 

Published Composers
Johann Helmich Roman (1694-1758)  Roman has been called the father of Swedish music.  He was the first important native musician, composer teacher, conductor and builder of orchestras.  His court appointment afforded him the resources to travel (he was greatly impressed by Handel in London) and to hire singers and musicians for his projects. Roman was the first to compose vocal music in the Swedish language and also contributed cantatas, symphonic and chamber music.


Carl Michael Bellman (1740-1795), during his lifetime this song-writer, poet and raconteur was recognized as a great romanticist and satirist, capturing the flavors of love, society and aristocracy with his songs.  He is among the most important Swedish composers and many of his songs are still well known today.  Among Bellman’s patrons were the King of Sweden, Gustav III.   His most famous works are the songbooks, Fredmans Songs and Epistles, containing 140 songs of love, death and drinking.

Odae Sveticae  (1674) Twelve Swedish Odes.  Poetry by Samuel Columbus and music by Gustaf Duben, the elder. This unified suite of Baroque songs was intended for the “musik-amateur” with instrumentation and tempi left to the taste of the musicians, written with melody and bass accompaniment only.  The poetry deals with the difficult questions of living, nature, time and transience. 


Carl von Linné  (Carolus Linneaus) (1707-1778)
Not a musician himself, the famous Swedish botanist was well connected in the music world of the time and was known to be a good dancer and music aficionado.  In his Hammarby summerhouse outside Uppsala, he kept a mechanical player organ (vevpositiv) with melodies on punched paper rolls; 22 of the dance tunes survive.  As part of the nation-wide, 300th year celebration of Linneaus’ birth in 2007, this organ was respectfully restored and it now sings again.   We play some of his favorite music from these rolls.

Old Music Notebooks
Gustav Blidström, (1715) an oboe player and soldier in the army of Carl XII, he was captured and imprisoned for 12 years in Tobolsk, Siberia. Upon returning home to Kalmar, Sweden, he had a notebook of beautiful tunes written while a prisoner. 

Gabriel Höök  (1698-1769) brother-in-law to Linneaus,  was cantor and organist in Växjö, Småland.  He collected and composed many tunes.

Petter Dufva (1756-1836) was an important fiddler from Småland who notated 200 lovely tunes.
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