Gössa Anders Andersson (1878-1963)

Anders was born in the Orsa village of Holen, at the Gössa family farm, Gössagården. His parents were Hassis Anna Larsdotter and the local judge and farmer, Gössa Anders Andersson, Sr. In 1900 he was married to Agdur Anna Andersdotter, in the village of Viborg. He settled at his wife's family farm, Agdursgården, and soon became the head of the farm. He farmed there, and lived there the rest of his life, but retained his own family farm's name, Gössa. The couple had three children, all with music in their blood - his son Anders and his daughter Anna became fiddlers, and daughter Karin sang in choirs and played piano.

Even his youth, Anders showed a strong interest in music. He was eager to spend time with Hans Renström, a fiddler, instrument builder, and fine woodworker who had his workshop on the Gössa farm. There was much music played by the musicians who visited Renström. Anders listened to the tunes they played and dreamed of becoming a fiddler himself. But his dream met opposition. His parents were very involved in a religious revival movement, and opposed his wish. Renström realized, however, that the boy had talent and gave Anders, who was then nine years old, a fiddle. He also taught Anders the basics of playing and taught him his first tunes, an enterprise that had to occur in secret. When Anders' parents noticed how things were, and that their son actually had a musical gift, they gave in. It was lucky that they did, because Anders became a master fiddler.

Anders had an easy time learning, and had a good sense for the old Orsa playing style. He learned tunes primarily from the fiddlers in the village. His father, who was not a fiddler but had a large singing repertoire of tunes, also became a fine carrier of the musical tradition. At age 16, Anders played for the first time at a wedding. There, he met Jämt Olof Ersson. They were fiddling friends of many years, and many wedding and dance performances followed that first wedding.

Around the turn of the century, dance floors were being built in villages and fiddlers were sought out. Anders joined Jämt Olof, Gulis Erik, and others and put together ensemble music for dancing. His children grew up and followed in their father's footsteps. Anna (born in 1906) played publicly for the first time when she was 16 years old. Anders (1900-1961) learned to play the clarinet. The Gössa family trio was soon called on to perform at many events.

Around this time, Gössa Anders had begun to receive acclaim outside the boundaries of his home parish. After 1908 he was employed for several summers as a fiddler at Stockholm's open-air museum, Skansen. In 1910, Jämt Olle traveled with a viola to the fiddlers' gathering there. A tangible result of this visit was that Anders and Olof recorded two tunes on Yngve Laurells' phonograph roll. They also received much attention at the Skansen fiddlers' gathering ten years later. After the latter event, the music transcriber Olof Andersson wrote in a letter to his backer Nils Andersson: "Two new fiddlers I have not heard before were there, Gössa Anders Andersson and Jämt Olof Ersson from Dalarna, who undoubtedly performed the best ensemble playing that was offered up there... and they sounded wonderfully good. They, Höök Olle, and Hjort Anders all used lots of trills all over."

His work together with six-years-older Jämt Olle came to be important for Anders' musical development, repertoire, and technique. After Jämt Olof's death in 1938, Anders' daughter Anna became her father's playing partner and companion. The pair undertook tours throughout Sweden, and they met great approval everywhere they came. Anna always played a flexible accompaniment of her own creation. Bernhard Svensson, a good friend who lived in Mora and ran a concert agency, helped them to organize these tours, providing contacts, ads, and posters.

At home in Orsa, Anders became a central figure because of his personality, authority, and most of all his skill at tune playing. It was he who gathered fiddlers wherever fiddlers were needed, but especially at festivals and parties under the direction of the local community organization ("hembygdsföreningen") that had been created in 1910. It was to him that tune transcribers turned when they needed help finding tradition bearers, so he became an intermediary link. Consequently, since the transcribers Sporr, Gudmunsson, Ståhlberg, and Nils and Olof Andersson were always so well received at Agdursgården, they became the Gössa family's very good friends.

Since he was very conscious of the tradition's importance, Anders was also generous in teaching tunes to younger fiddlers. When the Orsa Fiddlers' Ensemble ("Orsa Spelmanslag") was created in 1948, he became the obvious teacher. I myself had the privilege to play with and to learn tunes from him. I was struck by his angelic patience combined with demand for accuracy.

There wasn't much of Anders that moved when he played. His fingers, his bow arm, and his left foot were in motion, of course, but otherwise he stood where he stood or sat where he sat without a lot of fuss. Well yes, there was also his face: his eyes played and had good contact with his fellow players. Most often it was pleasure that he radiated. On individual occasions a wrinkle of dissatisfaction could show up on his forehead, caused perhaps by some musician's running off musically from the others and playing too quickly.

In his younger days, he like many others used to play with his G-and D-strings tuned up one whole tone so that he was using an ADAE or AEAE tuning. This system was used to get a fuller, more resonant sound. After some time he stopped using this system, since it didn't work well for all tunes. The same thing happened with his use of "blue notes" or "quarter tones. "Although he used this finesse consistently, he was so flexible a musician that he could restrain himself, since otherwise there were intonation difficulties when he played in ensemble with younger comrades.

Anders was very sensitive to having the music's tempo be the right one. He was also a man to rely upon for the proper tempo and rhythm.

It probably would be excessive to say more here about how Gössa Anders played. The tunes on the recording can speak for themselves. A few words, however, on his repertoire: it was impressive. During his youth in Holen, he began to build up his supply of tunes from the fiddlers there, and after he moved to Viborg he also found good fiddlers among his new neighbors. He sought out fiddlers in other villages, including Skattungbyn. He seemed always to have had his fiddle with him.

During lumbering trips to distant forests, it was fiddling, primarily with Jämt Olle, that reigned at the end of the work day. When he shoed Grif Juga's mare, tunes were exchanged during breaks. He learned everything... and remembered! With the broad interests he had, he also expanded his treasure trove of tunes with music from other parishes and other parts of the country. In that process, he benefited from his ability to read written music, which he had acquired around the turn of the century, when he played clarinet in the Orsa Marksmen's Music Corps. His repertoire also included quite a number of tunes that he had played in that band. As a composer, however, Anders was not so productive. He left three excellent tunes to the world: one polska (track 2 on this recording), and two walking tunes, "Digerbergslåten," which has become the Orsa Spelmanslag's signature melody, and "Stockholmslåten," which was his submission to a radio contest.

Gössa Anders participated in many radio recording sessions throughout the years. He was also documented on grammophone recordings and television. He also received a long list of honors. At the fiddlers' gatherings in Gesunda in 1907 and in Sandängarna in 1908, both just outside Mora, he won second place honors. He was awarded the Zorn medal in silver in 1933 and in gold in 1935. He was presented with the Sven Kjellström award and the Gås Anders medal as well.

Our Gössa Anders has been much praised. Here are some examples:

One of the most authentic representatives of the playing of Orsa music is Gössa Anders Andersson from Viborg in Orsa... With his clear sense for the old tunes and all that goes with them, he has eminently comprehended how to main-engtain the traditions of Orsa playing. (Olof Andersson in Svenska Låtar, 1921.)

Gössa Anders is considered to be one of our country's foremost fiddlers. He has like no other been able to assimilate Blecko Anders' repertoire. The majority of Orsa tunes have been transcribed based on his playing. (Erik Moraeus in Orsa Skoltidning, 1951.)

We who have had the privilege to play together with Gössa Anders remember him with gratitude: his stability in rhythm, tone, and performance; his very proper playing style with its characteristic springy clarity, purity, and quickly delivered ornaments; his generosity in teaching his art. I believe that the last-named characteristic has been of extraordinary importance for the continuation of the tradition. (Pelle Jakobsson in an address, 1969.)

If one wants to say something of GA as an individual, one must say that everyone experienced him as a dignified and humble person. He was a man of few words, and one seldom heard the kind of anecdotes and tales of the supernatural that otherwise can be rather common among fiddlers. Rather, he placed the playing of music in the forefront, and concentrated on presenting the tunes in a way that was both true to the style and controlled, without any form of artist's mannerisms, or any attempt to show off." (From Jannes Karlsson's dissertation "Gössa Anders - an Orsa Fiddler and His Tunes, 1975.)

You were the fiddler for all of Orsa's fiddlers. You were our parish's music's born leader. You have given us an inheritance that we believe will be preserved, protected, and passed on to generations to come. (Minister Axel Hambraeus, at Anders' burial in the Orsa church, spring 1963.)

The Tradition Bearers

As is evident from the list of tunes, many folk musicians are stated as sources for the tunes as, for example, in "Polska after Blecko Anders." The majority of these musicians are people who Anders either heard or played together with. But obviously there have also been intermediaries, persons who according to the tradition have carried the tunes further to Anders. Here follows a list of the tradition bearers in chronological order:

Minå, or Minu Per Hansson ( 1790 -1851) was born at the Hans family farm in Orsbleck. In 1815 he was married to Agdur Kerstin in the village of Viborg. He moved to his wife's family farm, Agdursgården, and as son-in-law took his name from that farm. He was officially, then, named Agdur Per. Minu (Minå) seems to have been a kind of unofficial nickname. Eighty-five years after Minu's move there, Gössa Anders settled on the same farm! Per had a sound intellect, and with time he was entrusted with many assignments - church caretaker, church record keeper, and "village schoolmaster." He also undertook estate inventories, estate distributions, and more. However, he is most remembered by posterity as a singer of folk songs, both religious and secular. There is no evidence that Minu Per was a fiddler. Probably he sang his tunes, among others the Bridal Polska of track 36.

Maklins Anders Hansson (1821-1857), as a young man was named Hassis Anders, after the home of his birth in the village of Born. When he was 23 years old he married Maklins Anna of the same village, moved to her family's farm, and became Maklins Anders. He was a reliable fellow who soon was allowed to take over his father-in-law's responsibilities as jury member and church caretaker. He got a very good testimonial from the minister who wrote as follows in the church book: "He has conscientiously completed all these responsibilities and services, and done so always with a kind, obliging, courteous, and respectable behavior, made himself known and revered of all who had some contact with him." But Anders was sickly. He died altogether too young, at the age of 36.

Despite his youth, Maklins Anders became known as a distinguished fiddler. Blecko Anders, who was ten years younger, has named Maklin as his fiddling master, and we can get a feeling for the master's skill through his apprentice's playing. Gössa Anders, who could include Maklin amongst his maternal relatives, always spoke of Maklins Anders with respect and veneration. "Maklin's Bridal March," track 10, is one of the few tunes that bear his name.

Blecko Anders Olsson (1831-1922), commonly called Blickus, was born at the Blecko family farm in Kyrkbyn. His father, Olof Hansson Altidglad, was a soldier and, after his retirement, church caretaker. He was also a fiddler. Anders began to play the fiddle already by the age of seven. He named Maklins Anders from Born as his teacher, not his father. Already by his teenage years, he was sought-after as a musician for weddings and parties. He became a shoemaker and worked primarily around in the villages, making and repairing shoes. During these work travels, which sometimes took him far outside his parish borders, he met other fiddlers and gradually expanded his repertoire, which included a large number of tunes.

Blickus was the one who perfected, and became the model fiddler for, the so-called Orsa playing style, which is characterized by a wealth of ornaments in the form of trills and other embellishments; rhythmic shifts with heavy, pronounced bowing; quarter tones; and so-called "free pulls, "that is an extra stroke of the bow between tune parts. The tunes he played he had learned from other fiddlers, even including some from Hälsingland which he transformed with his Orsa playing style. Some he composed himself, for example, the two "Sister Polskas" (tracks 13 and 14), which are named for their similarity.

Anders was particular about his fiddling companions. Actually, he played most with the brothers Hins Anders and Hins Lars from Mora, as well as with a fiddler called "Frisken." Otherwise, he preferred to keep his tunes for himself. If at a performance he noticed that some colleague stood and listened with the intention of learning the tune being played, he might complicate and vary it in different ways in order to make it more difficult for the listener to remember.

Gref Jon Hansson ("Grif Juga") (1861-1940) from Torrvål was a younger fiddler who for a while was a shoemaking apprentice for Blickus. Grif Juga took up many of his teacher's tunes, and then passed them on to his friend Gössa Anders.

Gössa Anders Andersson, Sr. (1844-1914), lived as a farmer at his paternal farm in Holen. In his marriage with Hassis Anna Larsdotter, who was a relative of Maklins Anders and a good singer herself, he became the father of two musical sons, Anders and Per. The elder Gössa was an upstanding man, and he was eventually appointed district judge. He inherited a good musical background and wished to be a fiddler, but he was strictly forbidden by his religiously absorbed parents to do so. They could not, however, stop him from learning many tunes as a singer, not least from Blickus.

For his son, who also at the beginning was denied the right to become a fiddler, but soon got permission, he became a good teacher. He sang the old tunes with trills and other ornaments and was very particular that everything should be included in his son's playing. It is largely thanks to this inheritance from father to son that we have so many of Blecko's tunes on this recording, which a quick glance at the contents list confirms.

Lorns Anders Ersson (born 1846), also called Herrpers Anders, also answered to the name Lorik. He lived in Kyrkbyn. One can understand from the tunes that are connected to his name that he was a skilled fiddler. Research in the church books, however, tells us that his posthumous reputation was of a less flattering kind. In the church book for catechetical meetings, there is a notation by his name: "1870 June 20, by Orsa Local Court for abuse of an official and for breaking in a window, sentenced to five months and 75 Riksdaler's fine." Furthermore, the parish council's minutes from 1869 say that Anders and his younger brother Erik were called in and given a warning for "wanton living and especially for illicit liquor sales" and for "disturbing the peace with noise and racket on the streets." It was also noted that "Farm hand Herrpers Anders Ersson (Lorik) was reported to be of an especially wild disposition." It has been told that the first-named incident involved throwing a stone at the window of the local constabulary's chief officer. When that constable was about to take Anders in to be jailed, the steamwheeler with Anders on board already had sailed off, Anders standing on deck and playing a walking tune. He thought it best to emigrate to America, which was first noted on April 25, 1872. We know nothing of his further fate. (Tracks 34 and 39.)

Bränd Jon Larsson (1846-1918) was a farmer in Mickelvål. His mother, Agdur Anna, was Minu Per Hansson's daughter and married to Agdur Per Hansson. It is not known if he was a fiddler. He passed on tunes to Gössa Anders by singing them. (Tracks 5 and 7.)

Karns Hans Hansson (1850-1925) lived on his paternal farm in Sundbäck all of his life. He is best known for his skillful playing on a wooden whistle ("spilåpipa") he had made himself. On the whistle he played polskas, waltzes, and herding tunes. Gössa Anders has passed on one of Hans' best herding tunes (track 30). He also played fiddle and accordion.

Gössa Anna Andersson (maiden name Larsdotter) (1853-1936), Gössa Anders' mother, married to local judge Gössa Anders, Sr. She came from the Hassis family farm in Born, and was a relative of the fiddler Maklins Anders. She was a good singer who preferred to sing religious revival melodies. Her son Anders has passed on some of her songs, among others the one on track 29.

Gubb Anders Olsson (1861-1922) lived rather near to Gössa Anders in Viborg and played quite a lot with him. In his marriage with Kerstin Andersdotter, he became father to eight children, but four of them died in their young years. The family was very musical, and its members both played guitar, violin, and home-made organ, and also sung. Gubb Anders led a mixed chorus with members from the villages of Viborg and Oljonsbyn. As a fiddler, he was one of the bearers of the Orsa tradition. On the recording, he is represented with a polska, track 16.

Ryttar Lars Andersson (1862-1906) was born and resided in Oljonsbyn. It is uncertain if he played the fiddle, but he sang for Gössa Anders the bridal song that is on track 31.

Jämt Olof Ersson (1872-1938). His name has been spelled in different ways, but we have chosen to use the spelling that was used on the old 78's that were the basis for our CD. In the Orsa dialect, he was called Jamt Lov. He was born in the village Maggås, which borders Mora. His father, Slott Erik, later called Jämt Erik (1826-1893), was a fiddler of the old tradition; and Olof passed on his father's tunes. The big family of ten children also included Olof's older brother Hans, also a fiddler. Olof married Gubb Anna Honsdotter in Ismarvål and retained his original name, although he moved to her family's farm, not far from the Gössa family's home.

Olof had begun to play already by the age of seven. Remarkably enough, his father, who had become sickly, was not happy that his son played. But Olof found a fiddling companion at the neighboring farm - he who would become the fiddler and soldier Anders Fri, born 1871. When Olof got married, he was already a respected and excellent fiddler. He had heard Blecko Anders and devoted himself to learning that fiddler's tunes and playing style. Further, he had accumulated another sort of repertoire, one with lighter character. These tunes are described as having "Jämt Olle's style." He played at a wide variety of occasions: at weddings and at dances, at community parties, and during his free time in either the lumbering cabin or the grindstone mine.

It was not long before Olof and Gössa Anders found one another and became inseparable fiddling companions. They exchanged tunes and carried out an advanced ensemble style, where Olof was responsible for the flexible accompaniment. Their ensemble playing became even more complete when Olof got a viola and played his accompaniment on it. As has been said, their playing was not given attention only in their home area. They became famous at Skansen's fiddlers' gatherings in 1910 and 1920.

Remarkably enough, Jämt Olof as an individual fiddler did not become the object of the transcribers' interest. Rather, it was his friend Gössa Anders who would carry the musical inheritance to the following generations.

Anders Bergman (1872-1947) was born in Vångsgärde. He was then named Kråk Anders Olsson. Twenty years later he changed his name to Bergman. He remain-enged unmarried and lived at times in Holen and Kårgärde until in the 1930's, when he settled permanently in a little house near Skeerbacken. For his livelihood, Anders was first a stone worker and second a farm worker. His nephew, Tur Hans (1891-1987), himself a fiddler, said that his uncle was a good fiddler who taught him the basics of playing and also many tunes. On the polska of track 3 on this recording, Svenska Låtar says the following: "Gössa Anders got this polska from a farmer in Orsa who was named Bergman. Bergman usually sang it with a particular partiality." (Note: there were two other farmers in the area who were named Bergman. Since the tune was sung, it is possible that one of them had passed it on. One of them, Röjås Jon Andersson Bergman (1898-1964), was a fiddler who had moved in from Boda and is supposed to have played with Gössa.)

Gössa Anna Andersson (born 1906), was Gössa Anders' daughter, born and raised in Agdursgården. In her home village, she has always been called Agdur Anna. It was her father who taught her to play. In 1963, she married the merchant Wiktor Önnegård and moved to Grytnäs in southern Dalarna, where they ran a shop for 30 years. When Anna became a widow, she moved back to Orsa and settled in Kyrkbyn. Her son Sven, who took the name Ingman, has twin daughters Anette and Yvonne, both of whom have won the title of "Riksspelman (National Fiddler)" with Gössa's tunes in their repertoire.

Orsa Spelmanslag (Orsa Fiddlers' Ensemble)

During all his active time as a fiddler, Gössa Anders was a figure around whom the village's fiddlers gathered. With his obvious authority, a kind which only he could display, he brought together his comrades to play. This began in the 1910's, when the local community association's events brought together large crowds of participants. Then, it was natural that fiddlers should be there also, and Anders was the one who gathered them. In the beginning, however, their playing was not truly as an ensemble. Each and every one played somewhat differently from the others. It was, rather, more as soloists playing for an audience.

We usually count 1948 as the founding year for the Orsa Spelmanslag. Of course there were folk music groups before that. The best known was Gössa Anders' ensemble, which began with the family trio of father, son, and daughter Gössa, and soon was expanded with Wille Järnberg and, when they were to play for dancing, accordionist Erik Bäcker. Gulis Erik was also part of the group for a while. In addition, among the many fiddlers there were smaller groups and occasional constellations of musicians that were hired for weddings and dancing events. However, the time had come to create a large folk music ensemble, perhaps because of the establishment of Dalarna's Fiddlers' Association in 1943 and a muster call of its leader Knis Karl with a challenge: "Start fiddlers' ensembles in your parishes!"

It was fiddler and newly trained engineer Erik Moraeus who took the initiative. He had for a while lived in Stockholm for his studies. There, he had been a part of The Dalarna Association's popular fiddlers' ensemble, and there he got a rich experience of ensemble playing on a high level. In 1948 he came back to his home village, eager to play and full of ideas about how the ensemble playing could continue in the future. He called together the fiddlers whom he knew, first a smaller group with Gössa Anders and a few more. By the end of the year, the ensemble's membership was up to 16. After assiduous rehearsal, they were ready for their first radio recording in 1949. It was undoubtedly this group which is represented on the 78 RPM record of the following year, which we can listen to here. This ensemble was comprised of complete individualists, each of whom had his own view on which tunes should be played, and how they should be played. In it were fiddlers of the old stock, with Orsa playing in their genes. But there were also those who preferred to play the rolling-bow tunes from Hälsingland. To unite these desires was not easy, but they managed to do so, largely thanks to their master Gössa and their organizer Erik.

Here are the pioneers in the first group of the Ensemble, ordered chronologically: Gössa Anders Andersson (born 1878), Gulis Erik Andersson (born 1885), Oscar von Knorring (born 1888), Gössa Anders Andersson, Jr. (born 1900) (clarinet), Erik Lindström (born 1901), Harry Christiansson (born 1902), Gössa Anna Andersson ( born 1906), Anders Sandberg (born 1906), Elings Samuel Ersson (born 1906), Anton Moraeus (born 1907), Wille Järnberg (born 1910) (viola), Ollas Birger Olsson (born 1916), Sigurd Nilsson (born 1916), Erik Moraeus (born 1920), Hans Erik Eriksson (born 1921), and Sune von Knorring (born 1925).

When the Orsa Spelmanslag celebrated its 50-year anniversary in 1998, Gössa Anna was the only one of the pioneers who was still living.

On The Recordings

The fiddler Mårten Ohlsén, who was one of those who took the initiative for the original recordings that are the basis for this new release tells the following: "It was at the end of the 1940's. When I presented my father Erik with the idea of making a record of Gössa Anders, he fell in with this idea. He was not musical, but he was interested in culture. He thought that the Local Land Owners' Association ought to pay the costs. But then, of course, we needed to apply to them for a contribution."

"I intended to do that, but in order to give weight to that kind of an application, and to convince them how important it was to accomplish the project, I had to collect statements from people who understood the good things about Gössa and the old tunes. Therefore, from my student room in Uppsala I wrote to some well-known individuals and asked for some words to support an application for support. I wrote to composer Hugo Alfvén, music college graduate Sven E. Svensson in Uppsala, headmaster Waldemar Dahlgren at the Ingesund music college, and the head of Dalarna's Fiddlers' Association Knis Karl Aronsson. All of them answered kindly and their enthusiastic contributions were added to the application. The Land Owners' Committee assented without a grumble and gave a generous grant."

"Gössa Anders and Anna then travelled down to Matts Arnberg at the Broadcasting Corporation in Stockholm and carried through the recording session which resulted in a stack of 78's filled with tunes."

The recordings with Gössa Anders and Anna were made June 6 and 7 in 1950. The Orsa Spelmanslag, which clearly was along for the trip to Stockholm, were recorded a few days earlier, on June 4. Most of the 78's were later re-released as EP's. The Orsa Land Owners' Association is today called Orsa Savings Forest ("Orsa Besparingsskog"), and has consented to this re-release on CD.

Sources, among others, Jannes Karlsson's dissertation "Gössa Anders - an Orsa Fiddler and His Tunes" (Dalarna's Museum, Falun, 1975), as well as my own memories and experiences after working together with Gössa Anders from 1951 to 1963.

Pelle Jakobsson, Orsa, July 1998

For this re-release, recordings from the old 78 RPM recordings were preferred, because they sounded better than the EP recordings. The Orsa Savings Forest and the Orsa Spelmanslag willingly loaned a complete collection of records in very good condition, and the transfer was done by Gert Palmcrantz in Stockholm. Thereafter, the sound has been processed at Studio Hagen by me. The buzzing, humming, rustling, and crackling have been removed to the extent possible without causing the fiddle's sound to suffer. I have taken the liberty to add a slight reverb. Furthermore, the music has been processed in such a way that we hear a careful stereo effect, which obviously is missing from the original recordings. All of this was done to make the music as enjoyable as possible for the listener.

Anders, Yttermalung, July 1998

Recordings by Radio Service, Stockholm, 1950.
Remastering: Anders Rosén/Studio Hagen.
Photos: Karl Lärka, with permission from the Mora Photo Archive.
Layout: Per-Ulf Allmo/Tongång.
Sleeve notes: Pelle Jakobsson, Orsa and Anders Rosén, Malung