IcelandTraditional/Folk music

By: Joana Alexandrova

Iceland is a Nordic island country between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. It has a population of 329,100 so it’s pretty small.The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, while many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands, it’s known as a “magical” country.

Iceland

Traditional Icelandic music is strongly religious. Hymns, both religious and secular, are a particularly well-developed form of music.

When it comes to Iceland’s musical exports, we have to go way back in time and pay homage to the composers of the sagas. Back in the Viking era, it was considered a sport to compose and perform opuses at court festivals.

Traditional roots

Iceland was still relatively isolated in comparison to the rest of Europe, so while European musical instruments and musical styles developed into what we now call classical music, traditional Icelandic music was either sung a-capella or played on primitive instruments. It wasn‘t until the very end of the 18th Century when young Icelandic scholars started to explore European music that music in Iceland started to evolve. But despite the evolution, thanks to that deep-rooted sense of tradition and place, there has always been something different and unique about Icelandic music and musicians - no matter how far they stray.

Traditional Topics

● Love● Sailors● Masculinity● Hard Winters● Elves, trolls, mythological creatures

Instruments

Traditional instruments like thelangspil and fiðla, are the few of the musical instruments traditionally played in Iceland. Iceland's isolation meant that, until the 19th century, foreign influences were virtually absent, which resulted in the maintenance of a particular rhythm, called hákveða, lost in other Nordic countries and considered one of the main characteristics of Icelandic folk music. Hákveða refers to a special emphasis placed on some of the words of a song, often the last word of each sentence in each verse. For example; Ólafur Liljurós (Icelandic Folk Song)

Fiðla (violin) Thelangspil

Ólafur Liljurós

Is a traditional song which talks about Olaf who is out riding by the cliffs, when he suddenly meets a beautiful elf maid that lives alone in the mountains. She calls him over and asks him to come and live with her in the mountains. He says yes to the offer but quickly regrets his decision and tries to ride away. He cannot leave without giving the maid a goodbye kiss. As he bends over to kiss her, she stabs him with a knife. He manages to come home to his mother, but later dies of his wound.

Rímur

Rímur is a type of epic vocal poem, with fixed diatonic melodies. Rímur melodies (rímnalög, kvæðalög, stemmur) are often standard. 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 verses. There were mostly versified sagas, or episodes from the sagas, a form of adaptation that was popular in Iceland from the 15th century.The earliest known text of a rímur dates to the 14th century. The rímur texts were the most prolifically produced form of Icelandic literature. Rímur, specially the short four-line metres form "ferskeytla", is still very popular today in Iceland in most social groups.

End of Iceland, now we move to...

Inuit culture

CultureInuit describes the various groups of indigenous peoples who live throughout Inuit Nunangat which includes:

1. Canada (Greenland) 2. United States (Alaska) 3. Aleutian Islands4. Russia(Siberia)

The Inuit are descended from whale hunters who migrated from Alaska to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic around 1000 AD . The traditional lifestyle of the Inuit is adapted to extreme climatic conditions; their essential skills for survival are hunting and trapping.Major changes in Inuit life and culture occurred during the Little Ice Age (1600–1850), when the climate in their homelands became even colder. European whalers who arrived in the latter part of the nineteenth century had a strong impact on the Inuit.Wherever they live, the Inuit today are much involved in the modern world. They have wholeheartedly adopted much of its technology, as well as its food, clothing, and housing customs.

Mythology

Mythology was really important for these aborigines so a lot of their traditional music was inspired in it, they had several stories, and deities myth figures.Most of their folklorical musical history is inspired in tales and their lifestyle.

Agloolik Amaguq/Amarok Pinga

Sedna Linnorm/Lindworm

Qallupilluit

Traditional MusicTraditional Inuit music, the music of the Inuit, has been based on drums used in dance music as far back as can be known, and a vocal style called katajjaq (Inuit throat singing)

Vocal GamesKatajjaq is a type of traditional competitive song, considered a game, usually held between two women. It is one of the world's few examples ofovertone singing.When competing, two women stand face-to-face and sing using a complex method of following each other. They repeat brief motifs at staggered intervals, often imitating natural sounds, like those of geese, caribou or other wildlife, until one runs out of breath, trips over her own tongue, or begins laughing, and the contest is then over.

Vocal Games

Instruments

PercussionThe main percussion instrument is the wooden frame drum called the qilaut. Other percussion instruments include smaller drums and rattlesThe Jew's harp has also been introduced to the Inuit and are played by certain groups such as the Inuit in Eskimo Point (now Arviat) in Canada

String instruments

The tautirut is an Inuit bowed zither, similar to the Icelandic fiðla.The kelutviaq is a one-string

fiddle or lute played by the Yup'ik of Nelson Island and southwest Alaska

Icelandic Clothing

Inuit Clothing

THE END