In the past, before there were organs in all churches, the church hymns lead an independent existence in the Swedish countryside. In Scania people sang from the ”old book”, i.e. the psalm book of 1695, well into the 19th century. The melodies were adorned with extra notes and trills so that with time they resembled their original versions less and less. They were however cherished and sung to one’s heart’s content, both in church and for private worship. This musical heritage was upheld to a significant degree by women such as the fisherman’s wife Dorothea Lood and Hanna Jönsdotter, mother of the well-known folk music collector John Enninger.
We perform their ”folk psalm tones” in our own arrangements and play a wedding march or polska where we see fit. If possible, we also offer a taste of the local music tradition!
This programme is especially suited for churches.
Miriam Andersén – voice, harp, transverse flute, drum
Anna Rynefors – clog fiddle, Swedish säckpipa, nyckelharpa, voice
The duo Anna Rynefors & Miriam Andersén, both Riksspelmän/”National folk musicians”, launched the project Kvinnolåt (”Women’s tune”) in 2015 and have since been engaged in lifting the women out of the recesses of music history – from the Norse women skalds of the Viking Age to the forgotten female fiddlers of the 19th century.