Category: Chromatic nyckelharpa

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Here are videos from the Nyckelharpstämma that I’ve put on YouTube. Thanks Marwyn for doing the recordings, this time on a little Nikon Coolpix A10 which at present is our video camera.

It starts with the spelmanståg (players’ procession), this year with the two tunes Brännvinsmarschen and Harpar-Klas Gånglåt.

Once we reached the stage, the allspel was started by Peo Österholm on cowhorn – the “inblåsning”!

The allspel followed; here are a couple of tunes. An old favourite, Polska efter Båtsman Däck:

The allspel finished with an audience request – a tune not on the allspel list. It’s Eric Sahlström’s “Spelmansglädje” which is not (yet) in my repertoire so I chickened out:

It was great fun and I enjoyed it even more this year as I know the tunes better.

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nyckelharpa and bow

One object of the trip to Sweden was to pick up a new nyckelharpa bow from Erik Arro in Uppsala. I had tried a couple of his bows (owned by Vicki Swan and Pete Rigg) and really liked them. It’s a real improvement on the one I have been using. Here it is sitting on top of my lovely Olle Plahn nyckelharpa.

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We visited Älvkarleby whilst in Sweden so that I could see the clock tower immortalised in two tunes which Byss-Calle wrote to win a bet. “Byggnan” is still on my to-learn list, but I played “Klockstapelvalsen”; here’s the video.

Byss-Calle is probably turning in his grave at the fluffed notes, but hey, when in Älvkarleby standing next to the Klockstapel you have to go for it.

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Posted by TMSA Edinburgh and Lothians Branch on Tuesday, 30 April 2019

Many thanks to TMSA and Bleu Hope for the photo. (Click on the second link – Facebook embedding seems to be broken at present)

The Northern Streams festival was last weekend – a great time had by all as ever. I really enjoyed the concerts with Caolmhar from Sweden, the Jocelyn Pettit trio from Canada, Norway and the USA, and the amazing Kata singers from the Faroe islands.

The workshops were great too, and we held the Edinburgh Scandi Session there on Sunday afternoon as part of the event. Great to see friends from all over at the festival.

There is video linked from the TMSA Facebook page, and more photos here: https://www.facebook.com/pg/TMSAEdinburghandLothians/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2129767887119317

Many thanks to Fiona Campbell and all the other TMSA helpers for putting this together.

 

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Wicker Horse

We had a great week in Dumfries and Galloway over Easter, with glorious weather. The wicker horse was decorating Kirkcudbright centre, I fitted in a couple of bike rides in the sunshine, we visited MacLellan’s Castle, the savings bank museum and kirkyard in Ruthwell, and I had my first sea swim of the season (cold water though, only about 9C I think!). I also found a rather glorious mediaeval goblet in the shop at MacLellan’s Castle! And of course I forgot to add when I first put this up – we went to the lovely session at the Steam Packet Inn in Isle of Whithorn, where the nyckelharpa had a great time as always (joined by the fiddle on this occasion!).

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