"kvea" redirects here. For the Spanish TV station in Los Angeles, see
KVEA
.
Icelandic folk music
includes a number of styles that are together a prominent part of the
music of Iceland
. When speaking of traditional Icelandic vocal music, there are two prominent vocal performance styles, one using the term
kveða
and the other
syngja
. The first is a performance practice referred to as
kveðskapur
or
kvæðaskapur
.
Kveðskapur
is also the generic Icelandic term for
poetry
. The term
syngja
translates as
to sing
.
Kveðskapur
was very connected to
sagnadansar
, or traditional dancing (literally "story dancing"). Vikivaki is the best known of the
sagnadansar
, and its origin can be traced to the 11th century. Vikivaki saw a decline at the beginning of the 20th century, although efforts are being made to keep it alive.
While the prevalence of instrumental music before the 20th century is widely debated, folk instruments include the
langspil
and fiðla (Icelandic fiddle). Both instruments are in the
zither
family and are primarily played with a bow. Though very little is known about the fiðla, the langspil is closely related to the pan-European
Scheitholt
and
Appalachian dulcimer
.
[1]
Traditional Icelandic folk music remained widely performed into the last decades of the 19th century, when folk collecting began in the country. However, the advent of
Western classical music
and other foreign influences in the same period began leading to a decline in traditional music. Later, the arrival of popular music furthered this change; some folk music was recorded between the World Wars, but intense collecting did not begin in earnest until recently.
[2]
Rimur
[
edit
]
Rimur is a type of epic vocal poem, with fixed diatonic melodies (except in
Breiðafjorður
, the district where the traditional music is oldest in style, and folk melodies are variable, not based on fixed scales). Rimur melodies (
rimnalog
,
kvæðalog
,
stemmur
) are often standard, and found throughout the country. These epic poems are written in a
narrative style
, using elements of Icelandic literature and folklore. The performers were lauded for their ability to tell a story in verse.
A rimur verse is made up of
trochaic
lines which use
literary techniques
such as
rhyme
and
alliteration
. There are between two and four lines with a pattern of syllabic stress and alliteration. Music author
Hreinn Steingrimsson
describes rimur this way:
The four-line metres are a combination of two couplets with four stressed syllables in the first line of each, and two such syllables (first and third, second and third, or third and fourth) alliterate with the first stressed syllable of the second line.
[1]
The earliest known text of a rimur dates to the 14th century; for the subsequent six hundred years, the rimur texts were the most prolifically produced form of
Icelandic literature
. Rimur melodies date back to publications by folklorist
Olafur Daviðsson
and were then collected in the first Icelandic folk music collection,
Islenzk þjoðlog
, by
Bjarni Þorsteinsson
.
Rimur, especially the short four-line metres form "ferskeytla", is still very popular today in Iceland in most social groups. It is common to put together a rima (setja saman stoku) about current events usually in the form of a joke or ridicule. These short rhymes tend to proliferate via email. It is also common during parties that a guest may say a rima that they have learned or composed as a form of a joke, often an insult. Skill at composing rimur is often admired. A common game is to tell the first part ("fyrri partur", the first two lines) of a rima, and for others to complete the third and fourth lines (to "botna"), each in their own way. The one whose "botn" is the cleverest wins. This game can become a serious competition (known as "kveðast a") when two or more who are particularly skilled at composing rimur come together. It is an informal rule that if one is ridiculed or even insulted with a rima they must answer back in kind; any other form of answer is invalid. Use of rimur as a form of joke or games is most common in relation to inland travel and sports such as horsemanship but also in relation to cultural/seasonal periods like Þorri as well as in political circles. Many members of parliament pride themselves on being good at composing rimur and using them to ridicule each other, or opposing parties, in a friendly manner.
References
[
edit
]
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Cronshaw, Andrew (2000). "Waiting for the Thaw". In Broughton, Simon; Ellingham, Mark; McConnachie, James; Duane, Orla (eds.).
World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East
. London: Rough Guides. pp. 168?169.
ISBN
1-85828-636-0
.
Traditional music of Europe
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