Hurv KRCD-44: The Light-blue Tune: tunes from Västerdalarna, the West Dales, from Transtrand to Nås: Anders Rosén & Jonas Åkerlund

This disc contains music from the villages along Västerdalälven, the West Dales River. But it’s an open question whether you can use the worn-out term "Västerdalmusik", 'West-Dales music' to describe it, since when you listen to this music you get the impression of more than one playing style and repertoire.

THE TWO WEST DALES

South of the village of Äppelbo there seems to be a border between the northern and southern parts of the West Dales. It can probably be seen as a reflection of other traditions, not least of trade and other economic factors. The border is naturally not a clear-cut one and through a great number of variants we can see how the tunes have travelled widely round about, not least in a north-south direction.

If we were to characterise the northern playing style, we could say that it’s more ‘Norwegian’. In older times the dances were said to sometimes be rather wild: acrobatic, ‘heels in the ceiling’. The bold rythms of the ‘springlek’ dances are the same as in some parts of Norway [ethymogically the world can mean both ‘jump-dance’ and ‘running-dance’]. The ‘halling’ [a word with unknown and debated origin] also points to connections to the west.

The southern style is calmer, we might almost say courtly. ‘Fläckpolska’ [there is a dance-master’s term for it: ‘tour sur place’, meaning ‘rotation on the spot’] – also known as ‘kringellek', ‘twisted dance’ – is an important part of the repertoire, and 16th-note polskas are rather common. The ‘hupplek’ or ‘hop-dance’ from Floda is the best-preserved suite of folk-dances in Sweden, having roots in the polska/Polish/polonaise dance suite of Renaissance and Baroque times. We see reminders of the same form of dance as far as the parish of Järna. It’s in these parts that the Swedish bagpipe tradition lived on longest, even to our own times.