Page:A Dictionary of Music and Musicians vol 3.djvu/621

SONG. old Edda legends also existed in the music, and the same declamatory style prevailed.

As in all other national music, the musical instruments of Scandinavia largely influenced the songs. Thus in Finland the most popular instrument is the Kantele with five strings, tuned G, A, B♭, C, D, which forms the foundation for a whole quantity of Runos.

The harp with which the Scald was wont to accompany his lays has vanished; and the Langleike of Norway and Iceland, though shaped like a harp, is really a bow instrument. The Swedish Nyckelharpe is much the same. The Hardangerfele (fele = fiddle), which is mostly used in the Norwegian Highlands (near the Hardangerfjord), is the most perfect of their instruments, but is only used for marches and dances.

The national dances have also greatly influenced the melodies, though the Syvspring, Slängdansar, or Halling, are not usually accompanied by singing. On the other hand, in the Faroe Islands, musical instruments are unknown, and as the inhabitants are passionately fond of dancing, they accompany it with singing, and chiefly, strange to say, with the old epics and ballads. The Faroe Islands (especially the southern part of the group), Telemarken (in the S. W. of Norway), and the centre of Jutland, are the richest districts of Scandinavia in national songs.

Some of the epic songs collected in Telemarken are evidently of great antiquity, as for instance the following, relating to Sigurd's fight with the dragon, with its curious rhythm and melancholy original melody.

The character of the songs of north-Sweden and Norway, and especially of Denmark, is quite different. In these the eight-bar rhythm is usually well defined, with a refrain at the end, as in the following example taken down by Johann Lorentz in 1675.

Although lyrical songs are very rare in Scandinavia, there is a certain class of Kämpevise, or heroic, melodies found in parts of Sweden and Denmark, softer, more melancholy, and more romantic, and remarkable for having a refrain both in the middle and at the end.

An important section of Scandinavian songs are the herdsmen's. Their age is impossible to state, but they all bear the same character. The herdsman or maiden calls home the cattle from the mountain side, either with the cowhorn or Lur, or by singing a melody, with the echo formed on the intervals of that instrument. The following melody Dybeck gives amongst many others in his Vallvisor, p. 12.