Scandinavian Polska Course

First session with the Trad Academy’s Scandinavian Music Course

Yesterday was the first of four sessions for the Scandinavian music course. We met at a lovely new venue, the Vintage Emporium on Bacon street and were taken very good care of by Jess who served drinks as well as played the fiddle. Below are the two slängpolskas we played during the session, both from the island of Gotland, ‘Gamble Mörti’ and Vevlirepolskan (although we only started on the second one). I have also added a few links to other recordings of the tunes.
The music we listened to after the session was played by Gunnfjaun’s Kapell, Jidder, ‘Löfberg, Björnlert, Pekkari’ and Luftstråk.

The polskas:

Gamble Mörti was first recorded by the singer Karl Lithberg for the Swedish Radio in 1956, but I learnt it from a CD with Gunnfjaun’s Kapell, a influential folk group focusing on the music of Gotland. Gunnfjaun’s also recorded vevlirepolskan, which has become a popular tune on the Swedish folk scene.

Gamble Mörti twice through slowly:

Harmony part (slightly different from the session version, sorry!):

Vevlirepolskan, only melody slowly:

Karl Lithberg singing Gamble Mörti:

Gunnfjaun’s Kapell playing the same tune (at 3.15) in a set of short polskas:

Same group playing vevlirepolskan: