Mi Contra Fa

Pages referring to other folklore collections that include Scandinavian tunes:

https://moeticae.typepad.com/mi_contra_fa/2012/06/roland-more-help-from-sweden.html
https://moeticae.typepad.com/mi_contra_fa/2012/03/roland-wait-i-take-it-back.html  <-- this is the main one
https://moeticae.typepad.com/mi_contra_fa/2012/03/more-on-roland.html

Website with amazing number of sources on it worth another look later: http://www.germanicmythology.com/PoeticEdda/Voluspa.html

Asatru chant for Voluspa, does not use the tune I've found, unclear where tune came from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xisBERxHJ6g

1921 book, translations of some hattr, some sagas, and some rimur ballads.  https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33471/33471-h/33471-h.htm

Website dedicated to a 19th cen Icelandic poet, includes some information on poetic styles (of his time, I think): http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/Jonas/Prosody/Prosody.html

Program from the 2018 Nordic Harp Meeting, with seminars/classes addressing a lot of the same things we're grappling with. Look up the instructors?  : https://nordic-harp-meeting.eu/wp-uploads/2018/10/Programme_book_NHM2018.pdf

Elementary school website, but contains some references to track down later e.g. Sean-Nos singing: https://www.downsjuniormusic.com/anglo-saxon--viking.html

Scandanavian folk music - analysis

Völuspá Text, from http://www.voluspa.org/voluspa1-5.htm

Ár var alda þar er Ýmir bygði,
vara sandr né sær né svalar unnir,
jörð fannsk æva né upphiminn,
gap var ginnunga, en gras hvergi.

OK, text again, with alliterating (and assumed stressed) syllables highlighted:

Ár var alda þar er Ýmir bygði,
vara sandr né sær né svalar unnir,
jörð fannsk æva né upphiminn,
gap var ginnunga, en gras hvergi.

The music from the 1780 French book:

Notes that correspond to highlighted syllables:

(F-G) F A
A A G
F F (maybe)
A G G

Notes:

All assignments of stresses are my best guesses, as I don't speak a lick of Icelandic.  Will have to ask Deirdre for help.

Line 1: Not really sure if 'Ar' is stressed or not. It looks a lot like a pickup here.  Aside from that, the two stressed syllables have half notes.

Line 2: Does the "sv" in "svalar" alliterate with the 's' in 'sandr' and 'saer'?  The two plain s-words take half notes, svalar does not.

Line 3: The French rendered "ne upphiminn" as "Neu-phi-min", and it has the most complicated mapping of notes to syllables in the piece, of course it does.  The French has 3 syllables with 6 notes; the Danish has 4 syllables (I think) to assign to the six notes.  I am guessing that the half-note (an F) is what is properly assigned to the stressed syllable.

Line 4: All 3 'g' words take half notes.

Looking at just the words that alliterate AND take half-notes, I get:

F A
A A
F F
A G G

So if this is a 'melodic outline', to be filled in as the unstressed syllable arrangement requires it, it's on a per-stanza basis, not a per-line basis.  Which makes sense, because singing the same melody over and over and over for each verse is already a lot; if it was the same melody for every line, it would be ridiculous.

Interestingly, the final note corresponding to a stressed syllable is a G - the key signature is a B-Flat, so F Major.  If this were the usual final note, I'd say, yup, Dorian mode!  As it is, the piece actually ends on an F.  F also seems to play an important structural role, much more than I would expect if this were really a Dorian piece.

The B-flat actually gets played in the second line (second syllable of 'sandr' and the 'ne' that follows) so, if this was accurately recorded by the collector, it's not a Lydian mode piece (where the B would be natural).

The range is from E to B, a fifth, which fits with other things I've read about epic songs often having that sort of very narrow range.  Also fits on either a lyre or even a kantele.

Interim working scratchpad - Scandinavian folk music

_{Nordic Harp Meeting - Tune Archive Iceland - links to several songs with medieval lyrics, tunes collected later}

_{Songs of the Vikings - interesting book}

_{Essai sur la musique ancienne et moderne, vol 2, page 397, 1780 - start of the chapter on Scandinavian music} 

_{Images from the Essai:}

_Voluspa:

_Havamal:

_{Harold, Prince of Norway:}

_Lilia:

_{I did the thing where I was reading and not taking notes - somewhere in a recent trawl, I came across YET ANOTHER reference to a 'basic melodic pattern' that underlies an oral epic poem, in one of these alliterating countries.  Must track down.  I have been getting the strong impression that Kalevala works the same way - there's really just one basic tune that has variations.}