Wintermark music

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The Music of Wintermark

Style summary

Alliterative poetry and heroic saga songs spoken or chanted, scraping fiddles, breathy pipes, and low drones. Themes of winter, seasons, mythical creatures, tales of hardship, dark wit, and of course riddles! For inspiration for Wintermark look to the music of the old Americas, Scandinavia and Iceland, along with certain British folk with a minor or modal sound.

Commonly known songs

Pick a few examples from the list below to specifically promote as well-known within that nation. Provide lyrics and score/chords. Preferably in a range of difficulties.

A musical tradition

Suggest how the music fits into the cultural behaviour in general (e.g. battle hakas, wassails).

One for the kids

Ho Ho Away We Go, very easy song with optional harmonies.

Further examples

Songs

• Cattle Calls
• The Snow It Melts the Soonest
• Two Men Came to Your Hall Door
• I Wish My Baby Was Born
• modir min i, TO DO
• Low Down in the Broom

Instrumentation and tunes

Orcadian tunes have the right sort of sound for Wintermark, as does the Swedish fiddle. Pan pipes or low whistles could be used to great effect here too, using any breathy slow music.

• Scandinavian fiddle/folk resources:

http://www.people.iup.edu/rahkonen/Fiddling/scandi.htm

Other performance traditions

• Riddles!

How to adapt your repertoire

• Whether singing or playing, get people to join in with a long low drone or untuned drums.
• When playing from your folk tune repertoire, flatten all your 7ths (turning the major scale into the mixolydian mode). Here is a search for mixolydian mode tunes
• Sing in a raw style and emphasise the story behind the song.

Our sources

• June Tabor, Vasen, Althing (vocal group), Ensemble Norma, Enkelit
• A great source of Swedish fiddle tunes: http://www.norbeck.nu/abc/index2.asp?cat=s&sort=title