Norden Folk's Domain

[Tex]

I enjoy playing my Swedish pipes for friends and family but, I have to admit I cringe a little inside when I am asked for the name of the tune I just played. With no one around to help me with the pronunciation of the tune titles I do my best and try not to be disrespectful but.....I am sure what I say is very laughable. I know it is asking a lot but, would it be possible to have some of the more common tunes titles with appropriate pronunciations posted on the NSAA page or it might be a nice addition to your site Olle? It sure would boost my confidence.
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Luck follows the generous.

[Olle Gällmo]

Let's begin with some tune-independent information.

"Säckpipa" which, to Swedes, is just a general name for bagpipe (a literal translation in fact), not specific for the Swedish one which they never heard about anyway, is pronounced "sec-pee-pa" with equal stress on the first two syllables and less stress on the third.

The Swedish letters å, ä, and ö, are unique letters in the Swedish alphabet, sorted (in that order) after z in the alphabet. They are not considered umlauted a's and o's as for example the Germans do.

There are slight variations in how these letters are pronounced, depending on where in a word they appear, but here is a general rule of thumb:

å is pronounced like the o in "more".

ä is pronounced like the a in "man" (unless you're from Jamaica), or in a more 'open' way like the e in "men", depending on the situation and dialect. For example, in Stockholm and Uppland, people lean towards the e in "men", while people up north lean towards the a in "man".

ö is pronounced like the u in "burn", the i in "bird" or the o in "word". (It's funny that the English have at least three different letters for the same sound.) As for ä, there is a more 'open' pronouncation which depends on the situation and dialect. I can't think of a corrensponding sound or word in English, but if you pronounce the ö as decribed above and then stick out your jaw you will come close. You will also look ridiculous.

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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[texasbagpiper]

I'd like to know some of the English translations for some of the tunes on Olle's page. Originally I was learning tunes exclusively from Olle's website but I'm now finding other tunes that are suited for the Sackpipa. My most recent tune is " Let all Mortal Flesh Keep Silent".

[Olle Gällmo]

The titles are usually very simple. <tunetype> efter <name>, e.g. Polska efter Nedergårds Lars, or <tunetype> från <region>.

"från" (pronounce "fraun") means "from".

"efter" means "after" and until the 20th century just meant that you learned the tune from that person, or that this is the way that person played it. It does not imply that that person composed the tune, though that may of course be the case. However, when we started writing tunes down in the end of the 19th century, these descriptions of how you learned the tune became titles. Of course I haven't heard Nedergårds Lars play the "Polska efter Nedergårds Lars" (he died in 1895) but I still call it that.

As for the types, polska is the most common - a three beat dance with an emphasis on beat 1 and 3. There are variants of course, such as slängpolska (which tend to be more smooth / equal stress), senpolska (which are slower), etc. A springlek is also a polska (a faster variant).

A brudmarsch or bröllopsmarsch is a wedding march (there is a slight distinction between the two, but never mind). A gånglåt is a march. A vals is a waltz. A schottis is a two-beat tune similar to hornpipes.
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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[Tex]

All this information is awesome! Thank You, Olle. The one idea that I did not clearly state in my original post was that I was hoping there could also be sound samples.....asking a lot I know but, I really need help.
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Luck follows the generous.

[Olle Gällmo]

I plan do do something about that as soon as I get my recording equipment back, which a friend borrowed from me recently.
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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[texasbagpiper]

This all sounds really cool. Seth

[Olle Gällmo]

Here is a recording of the tune names on my music page

http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa/sounds/tunenames.mp3
_________________
Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[Tex]

Thank you so much! My pronunciation may still be miserable but at least I know what I am aiming for , this is so helpful, thank you again.
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Luck follows the generous.

[texasbagpiper]

Very cool, I like the sound of the language. Swedish always kind of sounded like German to me, just a little bit. I may be way off but that's just how I hear it. Cheers, Seth

[Olle Gällmo]

It is a germanic language so that's no surprise. In the 17-18 century we were heavily influenced by the French, however, and since then by English so it's a mix.
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Info on Swedish bagpipes at http://olle.gallmo.se/sackpipa
More about me at http://olle.gallmo.se

[Aaron K. Holt]

Ironically though, as far as pronunciation goes (and most strikingly with its consonants) German is the least conservative Germanic language.
The High-German dialects underwent a pretty extensive consonant shift which began sometime around the fourth century.

The Scandinavian languages exhibit a higher degree of conservatism in their consonants. For obvious reasons, Icelandic is about as close to the "parent" language as any of the living Germanic languages get.

While the huge influence of French (and subsequently Latin) on the English language has seen the borrowing of a substantial amount of Romance vocabulary, the core vocabulary (i.e. the most frequently used, or common words) are still distinctly Germanic - and the phonology evidenced in that vocabulary shows a few archaisms that are shared only with Icelandic: most notably, the retention of two distinct pronunciations of the sound "th": unvoiced as in thin and voiced as in that (old English and Icelandic wrote these sounds as þ or ð respectively).

And English is alone among the Germanic Languages, and indeed, the entire Indo-European language family in it's pronunciation of "W" which has remained unchanged since the transition from the stone age to the bronze age - almost all other Germanic languages have changed this sound to an "f" or a "v".

A few Indo-European languages have a "w" sound (Welsh comes immediately to mind), but this is a later development in those languages and not an inherited feature

Sorry about that...that had NOTHING to do with bagpipes.
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Aaron

[texasbagpiper]

I keep listening to this but I don't think my ears were meant to comprehend this language. I guess I'm just not hearing it, LOL. Seth