Local culture in a global society – folk tonality in

Local culture in a global society – folk tonality in contemporary Sweden

Sven Ahlbäck Royal College of Music, [email protected]

1torsdag, 2009 november 19

Sweden

Stockholm




Is there a place for elements of style that are different from what is accepted in the dominant culture of the

society?

How does theoretical conceptions about music affect the change of a musical style ?


Gössa Anders Andersson (1878-1964), Orsa, Dalarna, Sweden with Orsa fiddlers team

”A portrait of Gössa Anders Andersson”, Swedish Television 1963


Background

•Swedish fiddle music. Anton Jernberg (1909-1990)

•A “tacit”, intuitive knowledge - not formulated

•An encounter with the other musics: need for communication apart from the music itself


- Was there a way to understand and describe this practice that was in my hands and I heard in other

fiddlers playing?


Tonal style in older swedish folk music

An example: Falska klaffare folk melody sung by Lisa Boudré, Gästrikland, Sweden rec. 1935)


Falska klaffare

Falska klaffare stå mig emot,

de bjuda till med sin arga list och hot

De bjuda till med allor lönn,

till att omgöra !vårt förbund

Lyrics, first strophe


Pitch set (tonal material)

Is this the “scale”?


The melodic pitch category set (scale structure)

variants of the same scale degree

9 pitches

7 scale degrees


Tonality - relationships between scale degrees:Finding the tonal center (tonic)

•How does it sound? Can you sing it?

•Tonal center (tonic) - central referential pitchThe tone (or tones/interval) to which the melody tones are conceived in relation to, the main referential pitch for the melodic structure

1

How can we tell?


Analysis of tonal center - structural indications

1. Relative structural importance of tones given by melody structure

- Frequency of appearance

- Duration of tones

- Appearance at the end of a composition or of its subdivisions or initial position

- Rhythmically (and metrically) stressed position

- Extreme (high/low)

2. Appearance at the low end of a “complete” scale structure

3. Fourth-fifth structure in accordance with an idealized harmonic partial tone series

Indi

catio

ns m

ay c

ontra

dict

eac

h ot

her


Falska klaffare - converging indications

Most structurally marked scale degrees (frequency, endurance, end/start, extremes etc.

At the low end of diatonic scale structure

Fourth-Fifth frame

1


Mode

1 2 3-2-4 4 5

- What is the mode? Major or Minor?


The “herding tune” mode - basic description

• variable 3rd , 4th and -2, most often all three

• ca 57% of vocal folk music in a large collection “Svenska låtar, Dalarna”, very frequent in herding tunes

1 2 3-2-4 4 5

• When a sixth is added it is usually high or variable

• When a seventh is added it is usually variable, in-between or low


Is there a systematic variation of intonation?

- When is the major third used? the “43#1” - pattern

- When is the minor third used? stepwise motion, up-down


The “43#1” pattern

•A falling second plus third is tuned towards minor 2nd - major 3rd, even if the intonation of variable scale degrees has to be altered in relation to stepwise motion

[8 7b 6#] 5 4 3b 2# 1 -2#

-4

8 7# 5

7b 6# 4

5 4# 2

4 3# 1

3b 2# -2b

1 -2# -4

scale motion

Common “43#1”

patterns


When is the “neutral” third used?

the “23k1” - pattern - a rising second + falling third

common “getting in tune” motif in herding tunes


Fiddle music: Vallåtspolskan played by Gössa Anders Andersson, Orsa (1949)


”Herding call mode” in ”Vallåtspolskan”

- Mode categorization in terms of variable and stable ’scale degrees’ rather than major/minor scale

- Style dependent patterns of variation of intonation


‘Assimilation’ of Gössa Anders music in the 20th century

Svenska låtar (1921) Younger local fiddlers (1960s-1980s) Olle Moraeus & Nicke Göthe

Gössa


‘Assimilation’ of Gössa Anders music

Variable third becomes Minor

Melody and Ornamentation survives

Younger local fiddlers (1960s-1980s) Olle Moraeus & Nicke Göthe

Gössa

’Conceptual filtering’


The power of concepts - we hear what we know

• Folk music wave (1970s): growing interest for archaic performance styles

• Norway

• Tonality in older Swedish Folk music was published - there was a name for it!

Ellika Frisell (1997) Väsen (1999)

• An attribute of Swedish ”World Music” and new art music

Karin Rehnqvist: Puksånger (1990)


A musical style does not just change, someone has to change it


Documents

Local culture in a global society – folk tonality in