janolov - Posted - 01/17/2009:  12:12:14

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Even if I am Swedish, I am more familiar with traditional American music than with traditional Swedish music. I started to listen to OT music (American) in the end of the 1960's and I have never been real interested in Swedish music until recently. Now I have begun to explore the Swedish traditional music and I have found that it is possible to combine the Swedish and American music. The two tunes I post here is an example. I think they are well suited for clawhammer and two finger picking. They don't sound typical American but they work well on the old-time banjo, I think.

I bought my first banjo in the end of the 1960, but I have usually not been focused on the playing, and I have had long periods, several decades, without playing, so I am still a beginner. Even if I have had a banjo for forty years I have in reality been playing banjo for only about three years. I think I am a poor banjo player but I have a lot of music ideas, and these two tunes are examples of both poor clawhammer and good music ideas.

Here are two old Swedish songs that were published in songbook in 1791 by a famous poet and composer Carl Michael Bellman (1740 – 1795). He is especially known for his drinking songs (which were based on his own experience). When I have worked with them I have found that they also are good instrumental tunes. You don't have to neither drink nor sing to enjoy the songs (well.....).

I have made some rather easy arrangement of the two songs. The core melody notes are played with the frailing and I have added a lot of ornaments by pull-off, open-string-pull-off, hammering-on, double thumbing, drop thumbing and slides. Just to play the core melody you can just play bum-di-ty and skip all ornaments. I have written down the chords according to the original notation. When I play without other accompaniment I don't bother at the chords, but if you have accompaniment the harmonies can get an extra dimension to the melody.

About the composer and songwriter: Carl Michael Bellman
Carl Michael Bellman lived 1740 – 1795. He was a Swedish poet and composer, whose songs have remained very popular in Scandinavia. Beginning as a writer of "Bacchanalian" songs, Bellman produced over seventeen hundred poems, most set to music. His life was very turbulent. For a period he had to run away from Swedish creditors. He has good musical and poetic gifts but was devoted to drinking. Carl Michael Bellman was born into a respectable middle-class family in Stockholm. Around 1760 he started to write drinking songs. By the late 1760s Bellman had already became famous with his songs and biblical parodies, which circulated by word of mouth and in handwritten copies and printed sheets.

In most of his songs, Bellman borrowed the tunes from minuets, folk songs, opera, and march music. Some of the melodies Bellman composed himself. The two songs here are probably composed by him. You can read more about Bellman here and here.

First song: Gubben Noach / Old Man Noah
The first song, "Gubben Noach" (Old Man Noah), is an old Swedish song, a drinking song and bible travesty written by Bellman in 1766 (or possibly earlier). The song is probably the best known of all Bellman's compositions. The setting in the song is when Noah from the Old Testament had come to rest on the mountains of Ararat, and is inspired by the Book of Genesis 9:20–21, when Noah established a vineyard and got drunk from drinking the wine. The song is one of the biblical travesties that made Bellman popular during the 1760s. Being somewhat afraid of the church, Bellman chose to first publish the song anonymously on broadsheets throughout the country; although it was generally known at the time who had composed the song I was published in a song book "The Songs of Fredman" in 1791 (Remark: Fredman was one of the characters that often appeared in Bellman's drinking songs. He was a real person and worked as a famous clockmaker before he landed in the gutter and become a drinking-brother to Bellman).

Earlier sources for the song's melody have not been found so it is probably a composition by Bellman. Simplified and more innocent versions of the song have become popular as children's songs. The song (the more innocent variants) is also very usual in the Swedish music education. It is usually early included in the repertoire of school children trying to learn to play an instrument, such as guitar, piano, violin, flute.

I haven't found any good English lyrics for the song, but a unpoetic translation is like this (I give three verses only)

Old Man Noah, Old Man Noah was a gentleman
Old Man Noah, Old Man Noah was a gentleman
When he came out of the Ark
He planted wine in the ground
A lot of wine, a lot of wine, that was what he made

Noah rowed and Noah rowed, out from his Ark
Noah rowed and Noah rowed, out from his Ark
He bought a lot of bottles
that were made for drinking
for to have a, for to have a party in the park

Mrs Noah, Mrs Noah was a real wife
Mrs Noah, Mrs Noah was a real wife
She gave her husband some liquor
If I met a girl like this
I would marry, I would marry the girl just now

Here are two videos showing how Gubben Noach often is performed in Sweden:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCdCeo3fxOI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezw49W9mHjg


The song Gubben Noach (Old Man Noah) was in the 1791 issue of the song book notated in F major. The notation was for keyboard instruments. A facsimile of the original issue can be found here (and chose "Originalnotor" (the fourth button from above) on the menu in the left frame.

I prefer to play the song in G major in G-tuning. I have tried F-tunings (aCFCD and fDGCD) too and they work well too, but the tabs and sound file here are in the ordinary G-tuning. The melody is rather simple but gives opportunities to a lot of variations.

Sound file
Here is how I play Gubben Noach (Old Man Noah) clawhammer in G tuning.

I also have experimented with two-finger up-picking, both thumb lead and index lead and you can listen to the result here.

Tab
Here is a tab of basic CH version (click on the image to enlarge it!)

And here is a tab of CH up the neck. CH up the neck (click on the image to enlarge it)

If anyone wants the TableEdit files you can just send me an email. The midi files have a little more accurate timing and dynamics than I have.

I have also tabbed out the two-finger version, but I don't present it here. The index lead version is rather close to the CH version. Send me an email if you want the specific two finger tabs.

Second song: Måltidssång (Dinner Song, or Meal Song)
Måltidssång (Dinner song) is another song that was presented in the song book "The Songs of Fredman" 1791. It is a popular drinking song, and I remember it from the student parties (it is often a tradition so sing a verse or two before each drink). It has a rather grey, or sooner black, lyric. A bad translation of the first verse is here:

So, at last we walk away from the racket and uproar of Bacchus,
when Death calls out: neighbour, come! now your hourglass is filled up.
Old man, put away your crutch, and you, young man, obey my law:
take the arm of the prettiest nymph that smiles at you.
Do you feel that the grave is too deep? Well, then get yourself a drink,
then have another, have a second, have a third,
and you will die more content.
(read more about the lyrics here)

You can watch a typical Swedish version by a Swedish troubadour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp_pxM-NWOg

A facsimile of the original issue can be found here (and chose "Originalnotor" on the menu in the left frame).

I prefer to play the song in G major in G-tuning. I have tried F-tunings too, but the tabs and sound file here are made in the G-tuning.

Sound file
Here is how Måltidssång is sound by me playing clawhammer

Tab
Here is a tab of the basic CH version.

If anyone wants TableEdit files you can just send me an email. The midi files have a little more accurate timing than I have.

Medley of the two songs
I have also recorded a medley of the two songs with Minstrel Nylgut strings (eBEG#B-tuning).



Jan-Olov

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Edited by - janolov on 01/17/2009 12:25:45

tfaux - Posted - 01/17/2009:  12:29:29

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I think I'd have liked this guy Bellman. And I like that there's a genre called Bacchanalian songs. Thanks for posting these Jan-Olov, this music works very well on the banjo.

(edit: fixed the spelling and reestablished Jan-Olov's good name.)

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Edited by - tfaux on 01/18/2009 06:33:50

dhwhite - Posted - 01/17/2009:  14:30:03

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I like them Jan-Olav, thanks for sharing with us!

Don

dhwhite - Posted - 01/17/2009:  14:31:59

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Oops Jan-Olov! spelled your name wrong

torhougen - Posted - 01/18/2009:  09:51:20

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quote:

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Originally posted by janolov
Medley of the two songs
I have also recorded a medley of the two songs with Minstrel Nylgut strings (eBEG#B-tuning).

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I really liked your medley of the two songs!

"Gubben Noach" (Old Man Noah) really brings back memories.
It was one of the first tunes I learned on piano as a young boy (in the open C position).
My Norwegian father taught me this song (as it had been taught to him).

I appreciate all the background info as well!

Tusen takk!

Tor

Arcadian - Posted - 01/18/2009:  09:51:43

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This was a really interesting post, and thanks for the sound files. Both tunes sound good CH, but Måltidssång especially.

I only discovered CH and American OT music about 5 years ago, but have downloaded at least 12 hours of OT music in mp3 format from the Internet. After going through the OT tunes available on eMusic Downloads for about the 5th time, I realized I had purchased just about every OT tune I really enjoyed enough to pay money for. One day I pulled up their Nordic section, and found several tunes I liked. A month or two later, I found a couple more. I started paying attention to hardanger fiddle music, strange and dissonant though it sounded. To make a long story short, I got seriously hooked on Nordic traditional music, and so far have collected about 8 hours of it. Much of it is fiddle music. Can't understand a word of the lyrics; don't know if the tunes I enjoy came from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or Finland. All I know is it's wonderful stuff.

Though the traditional Nordic music I enjoy parallels American OT music in some respects, it is very different in others. The hardanger tunes have been an acquired taste, and some of it is still so strange to my ear I can't enjoy it. Strangest of all is the Sami (Lapland) "yoiking"--I wouldn't know how to describe it, but some of it is delightful.

I agree with you completely that there are many traditional nordic tunes that can be transposed to CH style. One could spend a long lifetime building a repertoire of Nordic CH music.


BTW, there is a remarkable and mostly unheard-of American musician, Sadie Compton, http://www.fiddola.com/bio.html , who manages to blend OT, Country, Cajun, and hardanger fiddle into a rich musical stew that I think is wonderful. She only has one album out, Trouble Comes Knockin', but her website says another is due this month. Sadie is talented and creative, with a style like no one else.

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Edited by - Arcadian on 01/18/2009 10:25:51

vrteach - Posted - 01/20/2009:  14:23:54

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Very interesting, Jan-Olov. Like Arcadian, I've been on a bit of a Scandinavian traditional music kick recently (even to the "yoiking") but it's kind of a revisit for me. I grew up in northern Minnesota, and as part of the Minnesota folk music scene of the mid 1970s I would occasionally get to hear this music, and even learned a few of the tunes on dulcimer. But by the time I moved to banjo I was caught up with the standard US Appalachian stuff.

I'm particularly drawn to the "ganglat" class of tunes, but I'm glad to learn of these songs. Bellman sounds a bit like Robert Burns. Great job on adapting them to CH banjo. And thanks so much for the background detail on these songs.

Erich -- There''s always room for cello..

http://vrteach.org/banjo/
http://prairiegrapevine.org/
U of Illinois-Springfield Old Time Music

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Edited by - vrteach on 01/20/2009 14:24:36

whyteman - Posted - 01/20/2009:  15:11:48

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Jan-
My fiddler buddy made me learn a tune called "Swedish Waltz" in C . I have no idea if it really is Swedish, but it sure is pretty, containing a Dm chord in C . It sounds more Celtic than Scandanavian to me, but that might be my fiddler's take on it.

I play it fingerstyle, due to the timing.

Don.

Haul off your overcoat and roll up your sleeve.

janolov - Posted - 01/20/2009:  23:34:17

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quote:

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Originally posted by vrteach


I'm particularly drawn to the "ganglat" class of tunes, but I'm glad to learn of these songs.
http://vrteach.org/banjo/
http://prairiegrapevine.org/
U of Illinois-Springfield Old Time Music

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Erich, I know your interest for "ganglat". You have a nice version of Gardeby Ganglat /Swedish: "Gärdebylåten") on your homepage, and I recommend you all to listen to it!

I am working with some ganglat ("gånglåt") which I will post some time in the future. There is also a similar class called wedding march ("bröllopsmarsch") which also is nice.


Jan-Olov

redspruce43 - Posted - 01/28/2009:  19:30:46

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Tak ska du ha, Jan! I was in Sweden in 1964 and Gubban Noach was a song I heard and partially memorized. Unfortunately, I could only understand a few words. I really appreciate getting the history and the translation!
Alan

maxmax - Posted - 01/29/2009:  00:32:55

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Hi,

This was fun! I missed that you had done these jan-Olov. I can't say that I am much for Swedish folk music, never given it a fair chance I guess. But I have been absolutely sold on Jan Johansson for a while now. He was a jazz pianist who did one recording called "Jazz på Svenska" (jazz in Swedish) which is only Swedish folk tunes played his way. It is my all time favorite record! I was working on a CH arrangement for this one a while back http://se.youtube.com/watch?v=0CeqBE_EP7A but must have forgotten about it before I had it down. Maybe I'll give it a new try once I find some more time. Maybe someone here could work it out in advance and give me some hints?

Max

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Edited by - maxmax on 01/29/2009 00:34:25