Have Fiddle, Will Travel--A Little Taste of Scandinavian Washington

I WAS INVITED by my friend "Louise," who is in one of my bands, to get together to play music, just the two of us. She offered to feed me whatever meal was closest to our playing session. Louise lives south of here in Port Orchard, WA. It's about 1 1/4 hours from my town. We've meant to do this for a long time, but with all our activities and kids in school, it's been difficult to coordinate something. Finally, we got it together! Last Friday was the day.

WE'VE HAD SOME COOL, WET WEATHER LATELY; FRIDAY WAS NO EXCEPTION. Because of Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains, you can drive through many climate zones when you're traveling anywhere, even down your own street. The rain slowed everything down on the highway south. Visibility was affected by the mist throw up by the cars. Then I'd hit a dry patch for a minute and my wipers would get to squeaking. I called Louise to tell her I'd probably be late. Despite the challenges, all went well. I listened to my Scandinavian tape, "The Dancing Bow," the whole way down. This was taped from an old album I owned, a compilation from many Sonet albums of Swedish folk tunes recorded by various bands and individuals in the seventies. I have many of those old albums as well. This is one perk of driving; I get to listen to my favorite music nonstop! That is one of the ways I learn tunes. Once a tune is playing itself in my head all on its own, the work is half done. I only had one directional glitch that threw me when I made the turn into Port Orchard, a stop sign that I didn't expect. I turned west instead of east, but realizing I was heading away from town, I turned around.

LOUISE LIVES NEXT TO A BIG HEALTH CENTER, but amazingly, her property is very rural. It's an old farm from over 100 years ago, set far back from the road down a long gravel driveway. The house was one of those "grow as you go" homes onto which new rooms were tacked when the family expanded. Surrounding the house were old, lichen-covered fruit trees. Everything was overgrown, more so because of the rainy summer we've had.  I wondered if this was indeed her home--did I have the right address? I followed the old sidewalk around to the back of the house. Thankfully, Louise answered my knock.

LOUISE GREETED ME, AND WE SETTLED OURSELVES INTO THE LITTLE ROOM WITH THE PIANO. There was plenty of light despite the rain. As Louise bustled about searching for her music, I looked around. I got the odd feeling that I was in a Scandinavian cottage in the old country. Everything was on the small scale that characterized the old Swedish homes I had seen. Doorways, ceilings. Comfortable old armchairs and sofas were covered with throws. Bookcases leaned here and there. We settled ourselves into chairs and got out our music. Rats! I had put my gig notebook into my bag instead of my notebook of new, unplayed and "band reject" tunes. When we practice with the band, we often abandon or put off tunes that aren't working, or that are disliked by band members for one reason or another. Still, Louise had her own notebooks of stuff to try out, and a Scandinavian tunebook I had never seen, ooohhhh!

THERE IS NOTHING I LIKE PLAYING BETTER THAN DUETS AND HARMONIES, and Louise' tune collection had dozens of these. She had already played through them all herself over time, and we ran through some of her favorites. Louise is a speed-demon music reader, whereas I am slower picking up notes, especially if they jump across the staff. Runs of notes are easier on my eyes and fingers. I was not classically trained; I didn't start playing fiddle until I got out of college (though I had learned to read music in grade school, and played flute and clarinet for a time). Louise slowed down to help me through the melodies. I usually got it after a couple of times through; then she took the harmony part. With the harmony added, we made celestial music, if I may say so, lol! A number of these tunes were familiar pieces I had either heard or played years before, but lost track of.

IT'S DIFFICULT TO CONVEY THE SWEETNESS OF SCANDINAVIAN FOLK TUNES if you haven't heard them.  Violinists who are classically-trained usually can often relate easily to them. The melodies are beautiful, and can be very complicated, with harmony parts often played. They are played mostly for partner or pattern dancing, so tend to be more romantic than hard-driving. A characteristic couple dance in Norwegian and Swedish dancing is a 3/4 beat polska (in Sweden) or pols (in Norway). It differs from a waltz in that there is a hesitation on the second beat, so you are walking or stepping on the 3-beat and the 1-beat. Then you whirl into a spin and the man's and woman's feet take turns instead of doing the same thing. It's beautiful to watch and so much fun to do! In addition to these characteristic dances, a Scandinavian folk dance will have schottis and reinlender (these are essentially the same; the Swedes call them "Scottish" and the Norwegians call them "Germans"), polkas, waltzes, Engelskas ("English"), and a number of mixers and other group dances, the most fun of which are the Danish dances. The Finns will have their own names for these types of dances, such as sotiisi and valssi.

THE FIDDLE IS THE PRIMARY INSTRUMENT;  A SCANDINAVIAN BAND HAS AT LEAST TWO OF THEM. Our band, the Clover Blossom Band, has four. In addition, we have a clarinet, accordion, harmonica, guitar, banjo and upright bass. We have a full, “big band” sound when we are all present, but will perform with as few as five. You will see a wide variety of instrumentation these days among bands and spelmanslagar, or musician teams, in Swedish. Banjos are not uncommon! Drums of various kinds are a new addition. A spelmanslag is usually a community gathering of musicians. No one is excluded. Usually characteristic tunes from the region are preserved in the playing, but frequently the musicians will also play tunes from other regions as well, that they like. They are called upon to play at Midsommar and other festive times where people are dancing or celebrating, such as weddings and holidays, and even funerals. Sweden has many gonglotar (phonetic spelling), or walking tunes, that are played for processions of whatever kind, and also a walking and turning dance called a snoa (pronounced snoo-a).

BACK TO PORT ORCHARD. LOUISE ROASTED SOME PEPPERS, SWEET POTATOES AND HER OWN HOME-GROWN POTATOES FOR LUNCH. This is what you feed a celiac when you don't have gluten-free breads, but of course vegetarians would love it, too. A bit of salt and butter and the veggies were delicious!Then it was back to playing. After another hour, Louise invited me along to her afternoon playing session with a friend in Silverdale. Imagine, playing music all day! How delightfully sinful (religious background raising its head here)! After getting sketchy directions, we set off in our separate cars (it's 20 minutes toward my town) and I discovered that Louise was a speed demon in more ways than one, because I lost her about halfway there; mist was obscuring the cars. I called her friend twice, and 30 minutes later, showed up at "Kate's" house. I knew my neck and shoulder were going to be paying the price for this day of music, but what the heck! It was worth it!