Remember this page of Norwegian folks songs? #10 on that page is our song. Click through to find two different tunes given. The first tune is the one used by Trio Medieval and Glitterind. The second tune is the first one given in that Danish 1908 book of Faroese tunes; there are four tunes total given.
They are similar but not the same. Most notably, in the second and fourth lines, the more modern contour proceeds through scale degrees 5-3-4-1-3-2-7-1. The dance tune proceeds 5-3-4-3-1-3. (EDIT: Scale degrees are for Dorian mode. Add 1 to all the numbers to get the scale degree for the major scale.)
The "2-7-1" cadence is a major folkie thing, IMO. The Faroese dance does give an alternate tone on degree 2 for the very final cadence; it gives 3-5-1, with a smaller note on 2 written under the 5. Harmony on a fourth? A variant? I'm not sure. And some of the other tunes at least do use scale degree 1, although not that I noticed in that particular telling pattern.
I'm not surprised that I had a hard time telling that the tunes were in fact different at first look. But now I know why the video of the Faroese dancers didn't quite sound like the other performances.
I'll have to give a more careful listen to some of the Faroese tunes. It's sort of a philosophical question - all the tunes under consideration are only documentable to the 20th century, but the Glitterind tune with that cadence sounds even more 20th cen to my ears. But it also sounds good.
Tablature for comparing the two tunes under the cut.
Number is the scale degree. These particular tunes go from the 7 below tonic to the 5 above.
"1" is the shortest tone in a piece (an eight note in both cases). "1-" is a quarter note, "1--" is a dotted quarter, "1=" is a half note. | are bar lines.
EDIT: Again, scale degrees are for Dorian mode. I'm sort of pleased and amused that I now deal with period music so much that I automatically assume Dorian tonic is scale degree 1, but for most folks out there, that tone is scale degree 2. If your brain thinks in major scales, add 1 to all the numbers below to convert to your preferred scale (except for the 7s, which become 1s).
"Glitterind" tune, in 4/4 time
5- 5 5 5- 5- | 4- 3- 1- 1 7 | 1- 1 1 3- 4- | 5= 5- 5-
5- 5- 3- 4- | 4- 1- 1- 1- | 3- 3 3 2- 7- | 1= 1=
3- 3 3 5- 5- | 4- 3- 3- 1- | 1- 1- 3- 4- | 5= 5=
5- 5- 3- 4- | 4- 1- 1- 1- | 3= 2- 7- | 1= 1=
Faroese dance tune, 3/8 time
5- 5 | 5 5 5 | 4- 4 | 3- 1 | 1- 1 | 3- 4 | 5- 5
5- 5 | 3- 4 | 4- 3 | 3- 3 | 1- 1 | 1- 1 | 3- 3
3 3 3 | 5- 5 | 4- 3 | 3- 3 | 1- 1 | 3- 4 | 5- 5
5- 5 | 3- 4 | 4- 3 | 3- 1 | 3-- | 5/2-- | 1--
I get the impression that "folk rules" are really in effect; the words to the first verse show tied notes on the first and last bars of the first line, for instance, because the words there are only one syllable. So I really tried to look more at how the contours lined up with each other rather than getting too much into a twist about note durations or number of notes.
You can see that the first and third lines of each of the two songs follow very similar contours, and the second and fourth lines are obviously related variants. I haven't tried to analyze the stressed notes although at a glance, I see a few places where different spots on the contour in either song are emphasized. It's vaguely maddening to me how subtle the differences are; they're real and they're there, but it's hard for me to see and hear them clearly.
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