Swedish bagpipes

The music

Happy piper (the author)

Not much is known about the tunes played by the bagpipers of old, nor how they played them. There is a (very short) list of tunes known to have been played by bagpipers, but all of them passed through other instruments on their way down to us.

Consequently, almost nothing is known about how, and to what extent, the old piper's ornamented their tunes. However, ornamentation in Swedish traditional music has never been that strict anyway - it is almost always improvised. So, the modern piper's ad hoc gracing may be exactly what the old pipers did as well.

There is no consensus on how a Swedish bagpipe chanter should be fingered, and most chanters are very forgiving to strange fingerings. Most experienced pipers play in a half-closed manner to facilitate a trick to simulate pauses and staccato notes; The six-finger note (e' on an E/A-chanter) is normally the same, and approximately as loud, as the drone note. So, momentarily closing all six finger holes gives a very convincing illusion of a pause. This can be heard in the music examples below.

You can read more about playing technique, including how to squeeze a few extra notes from your bagpipe, if you follow the link on how to play.

Bagpipe by Peter Frodemo

The adjoining music example is one of the most well known tunes among Swedish bagpipers. It is a polska - the most Swedish of all Swedish dances (but actually with Polish roots and closely related to the mazurka and polonaise). This particular polska is attributed to Nedergårds Lars - a legendary 19th century piper from Dalarna. Nedergårds Lars was a bear hunter (among other things), which explains his nick name, "Björskötten" (the bear shooter).

Click the music score to hear the tune (541k, 1:09, mp3)

Here is a video where I play the above tune:

and here is another video, where I play a wedding march, also after Nedergårds Lars:

Visit my YouTube channel for more videos.

Here are some other mp3 examples of traditional tunes, played by me on pipes made by Alban Faust:

• Enkronaspolskan ("the one crown polska", 700k, 1:30). This is a form of polska called "Bakmes" and is after Omas Ludvig Larson (GIF score)
• Polska efter Troskari Erik (453k, 0:58) is from Malung. (GIF score)
• Another polska efter Troskari Erik (501k, 1:04), played on two bagpipes.
• Gärdsbygubbarnas polska (628k, 1:02). This tune is from Dalsland and is played here together with my good friend Peter Frodemo on guitar. (GIF score)
• Brudmarsch från Dalby (486k, 0:48). This is a wedding march from Värmland. One wonders if the marriage was a happy one ... (GIF score)
• Springlek från Lima (990k, 2:10). Played on a bagpipe in D/G with two drones (GG). (GIF score)
• Säckpipslåt från Norra Råda (2520k, 2:45). A bagpipe tune from Värmland, played in D on two bagpipes in D/G. (GIF score)
• Ljugaren/The Miller of the Dee (3330k, 3:38) is a set of two tunes, played on two bagpipes in E/A. The first is a Swedish traditional tune, said to have been played by a woman after having seen her husband go through the ice and drown in lake Ljugaren. The Miller of the Dee is an English traditional tune with a long history and many common characteristics with Ljugaren. The two may very well have a common source. (GIF score of Ljugaren) (GIF score of The Miller ...)
• Polska efter Måns Olsson (1430k, 3:08). A tune from Jämtland, played on a bagpipe in D/G. (GIF score)
• A polska efter Troskari Mats (977k, 2:05). One bagpipe in E/A. (GIF score). The tune is played, and written down, in minor here but it is often played in major. See the Troskari collection below.
• Polska efter Oppigårds Lars (597k, 1:16). Oppigårds Lars was a neighbouring fiddler to the above mentioned Nedergårds Lars. One bagpipe in E/A. (GIF score)
• Polska efter Carl Magnusson (959k, 2:02). A polska from Dalsland. Played in D on a bagpipe in D/G. (GIF score)
• Brudmarsch efter Bleckå efter Maklin (1314k, 2:47). A wedding march from Orsa in Dalarna, played on a bagpipe in E/A with a low E drone. (GIF score)
• Bröllopsmarsch efter Nedergårds Lars (927k, 1:58). A wedding march, played in F on bagpipes in D/G with a low C drone. (GIF score)
• Glad Sigfrid (1454k, 1:30), is a polska after Sigfrid Fridman, Norra Råda, Värmland. I learned it from Anders Norudde, who usually plays this tune with neutral thirds (pipes tuned halfway between major and minor). I play on pipes tuned in major, but I alternate between minor and major thirds. See the section on how to play for details. (JPG score)

There are some more tunes under the section on Tunes for beginners, and also on my Facebook page.

Collections of written music

• 25 tunes after Petter Dufva, from a notebook he dated 1807. Petter Dufva was a fiddler but many of his tunes fit well on the bagpipes. The collection is commented in Swedish only, but the written music is of course language independent. Some of the tunes require the more advanced playing techniques described in the section on how to play. Here are four of these tunes, number 63, 101, 128 and 177, in a medley on Swedish bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy (with Göran Hallmarken):

• 11 Troskari tunes (two of them in two versions), arranged for two Swedish bagpipes and commented in Swedish and English. The Troskari were fiddlers in Malung, but many of their tunes fit the bagpipes very well.

• 69 tunes for Swedish bagpipes, which I have taught on courses in Germany 2011-2018. The tunes are comented in English. If you don't read music very well, you might also be interested in listening to the midi files for all the 69 tunes. Be warned, though, that these were automatically generated from the written music. They are not recordings of someone actually playing them.

• Olle Gällmo - med pipan i säcken. All the tunes from my solo CD, and most of them in two versions (for E/A and for D/G chanters).

A few recordings

The quartet Blå Bergens Borduner (The drones from the blue mountains) include three Swedish bagpipers. Their first album, by the same name as the group, include 8 tracks with Swedish bagpipes. In 2015 they made a new CD called "Inga kônstiheter", also this one with many good bagpipe tracks.

Another classic is the CD Bordunmusik från Dalsland (Drone music from Dalsland) with Alban Faust. Most tracks include bagpipes of Swedish, French, German or Flemish origin. 10 tracks include Swedish bagpipes. I also recommend the more recent Pipmakarns polska with Alban Faust and Jonas Åkerlund.

Then there are a number of records where bagpipes are used, but more sparingly. Groups to look out for are, for example, Hedningarna, Lure (Valramn), Faust, Frifot, Dråm and Svanevit. Piper names to look for include Erik Ask-Upmark, Folke Dahlgren, Stefan Ekedahl, Alban Faust, Pär Furå, Per Gudmundson, Olle Gällmo, Per Jensen, Ulf Karlsson, Mikael Lund, Anders Norudde, Anton Olausson, Harald Pettersson, Anna Rynefors, Jan Winter, Jonas Åkerlund, and David Åsbrink.

(Erik, Folke, Alban, Olle, Per J, Ulf, Mikael, Anders, Anton and Anna have received the honorary title "riksspelman" on Swedish bagpipe, which would roughly translate to "piper of the realm")