Scandinavian Folk Music
The Scandinavian folk music scene has been gaining strength
in recent years! The phenomenon is due greatly to young Scandinavian
folkmusicians "stretching" their folk music. This is
a trend seen in many folk cultures around the world. The inherent
danger of this "stretching" is the loss of individual
cultural identity in the music.
Safe to say, this is not happening in the Scandinavian
new folkmusic movement because the players are truly grounded
in their tradition. They've put in the hours with elder master
musicians learning polska phrasings and springar pulses. This
way they can always keep an "ear" to their unique musical
heritage as they explore rhythms and sounds from other cultures.
On a "dual" track, this increased visibility
of the "new" Scandinavian folk music has inspired lots
of budding folk musicians, in Scandinavia and here in America,
to take up the torch themselves. They are playing the old tunes
in the old way and enjoying it just as much as their forefathers
did.
As you can probably guess, there are many, many sites
of Scandinavian folk music out 'there'. These sites represent
the "traditional" music players and the "new"
traditional players. If you are interested in some of these links,
please go to our music links page.
.and remember that it's a wide world out there --- there's room
for us all!
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