Hurv KRCD-42: Historical Recordings of Swedish Folk Music XIII: Older Fiddlers from Malung: Herman Strömberg, Troskari Mats Olsson & Troskari Ingeborg Eriksson

Herman Strömberg was born in 1882 at Rimäkk, an isolated spot in the forest not far from Avradsberg in Malung's Finnmark. His fiddler's traditoin goes back to his grandfather, the great fiddler Lejsme Per Larsson (1822-1907), via his father Lejsme Erik.

Herman worked in the forest all his life, manual work which made him very strong, and it was a lumberjack's fingers that produced the happy triplet polskas and waltzes on the fiddler and single-row button accordion. In 1904, when he was 22, Herman found work in Älvdalen where he had help with the fiddle from Lars Åhs of Blyberg, laerning to read music too, and that's probably how he came to the notice of the collector Nils Andersson, who in 1907 noted some of Herman's tunes for the momumental publication Svenska låtar.

Troskari Mats Olsson, 1869-1972, came from a family of millers; on his mother's side we find several of Malungs best-known fiddlers. Troskari Per (1813-1880 ) was Mats' fiddler teacher, and Troskari Mats played at many dances in the summer pasture and on the old wooden bridge across the Västerdal (Western Dales) River.

In his younger days Troskari Mats drove horse and cart delivering tweed cloth from the mill, sometimes even over the border into Norway. After his military service he maried and worked locally in the forest.

When artist and folk-life researcher Anders Zorn organised the first fiddlers' festival in 1906, Troskari Mats was aprt of the group of fiddlers from Malung.

Mats had a spare fiddle at the home of his sister Ingeborg (1885-1961) so he could play tunes with her on the zither. She was also an excellent singer, as was Mats himself.

He lived to the ripe old age of 102.

Firtunately his playing is rather well documented and recorded, some tunes were recorded more than once and it's fasincating to hear how he could vary both melody and rhythm with very small means. It feels as if he played very intuitively, 'from the heart'.

Troskari Mats aged 60 - Mats and Ingeborg in 1953 - Mats at age 102

41 tracks:

- 16 with Herman Strömberg on fiddle, recorded in 1952 on a wire recorder, later transfered to tape

- 25 with Troskari Mats on fiddle , recorded in 1954 and 1962
-- of which 7 with Ingeborg on zither, and one where Ingeborg sings too

Total playing time 64:41