Livet I Finnskogarna -- Mandolin
Описание:
Livet I Finnskogarna (English translation: Life in the Finnish Woods) is a famous Swedish accordion piece and seems to be a Swedish song written perhaps about a vacation in a Finnish forest? This is something a little different for me on YouTube.
But in addition, to Celtic music I also like to listen to Scandinavian music especially fiddle tunes from that part of the world and they are great fun to play on the mandolin as well. Of course, many of those fiddle (and accordion) melodies are dance tunes as well.
Livet I Finnskogarna is obviously a waltz -- and its interesting because it has three parts. It is unsymmetrical however. The first time through each part is played 2 times (i.e., a a b b c c)-- but on the second round it is a different pattern (i.e., a b c c a). So it might sound a bit confusing -- at least it was to learn!
It was written by the famous Swedish accordion player and composer, Carl Jularbo. I learned this tune as well as a number of other Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish dance tunes off a great LP recording project from the 1980s entitled Scandinavian-American Folk Dance Music which was produced by the fine Minnesota Scandinavian Ensemble who are based in St. Paul. I am playing along with a digitized version of their version of the tune here -- I probably could have increased the volume of the recording a bit. Also for the accordion players I realize now that I am not in the standard key for the song. I did not realize that until recently as I just used the same key as the Minnesota group's record.
It is played on a 1920 Gibson F-2 mandolin with GHS silk-bronze strings and a Wegen TF-140 pick.