User:McLennonSon/sandbox/pols/springar

NOTE: This is a script i'm planning for an essay, I might reuse a lot of this in related wikipedia articles, but i just love the formatting of wikipedia so i'm just doing it here

script

As a wise friend of mine said, “You ain’t got balls if you can’t dance pols.”

[1]

The Pols and Springar is a family of related folk dances in Norway. Its first documented uses are from manuscripts from the 1700’s, where these are indicated Polonaise (or variations in spelling thereof). [Egeland 2016]

The rhythm and music of these dances are most often defined by what district they are from, and the rhythm is most often the defining factor to differentiate these local variations. The districts mostly correspond to how they were since the Viking ages.

Almost all of the local variations of the dance music has ristetak. This can be translated to “shake-bow”, but in essence is referring to the bowed triplet in the pieces. Ristetak are most often used to define the end of a phrase. According to tradition, Jørn Hilme (1778-1854) is the one who introduced the ristetak to this family of dances. A story about Jørn Hilme and a finn named Hjorte-Jo in Borgund, which he met after leaving the autumn market in Lærdalsøyri can be interpreted as a folkloric explanation of the origins of the ristetak and the many tunings that Hilme used in his playing.

Gjetordet gjekk at ein finne heitte Hjorte-Jo, og som budde saman med ei heks av ei kjerring i ei fillehytte øvst på Borgund i Lærdal - like uppunder fjellet. [...] Jørn hadde vore på Lærdalsmarknaden, og no på heimturen vilde han, som ung, ihuga spelmann, freista å få han Hjorte-Jo ut med kunstene sine. [...] Den natti lærde Jørn dei kunstene som seinare gjorde han til meisterspelmann. Han lærde slåttar, og han lærde å trolla av strengene for medtevlarane og mange andre kunster. Etter den tidi fekk han dei underlege felestille som gav spelet hans slik ein dårande, duld dåm — 21 — i alt, og etter den tidi hadde han dei trollske kast med bogen som ingen — ikkje ein gong Myllaren — kunde gjera han etter. «Jørn tok ristetaki aggarhendis,» sa dei gamle. D.v.s. han tok dei vrangaste triolvik med like villt flog både fram og attende.

The writer Knut Hermundstad, in the same journal adds this quote which he had from Gamle Henrik Før on Leira.

Slikt spel hadde han Jørn aldri høyrt. «Ner du spela, ska du leta bøgin bufsa, men slepp ikkji strengjo!» skulde mannen ha sagt. Men denne kunsti kunde vel Jørn før.

English translation (include in closed captions)

There was a reputation about a finn* named Hjorte-Jo, who lived with a witch of a woman in a worn down cabin on the mountain-side in Borgund [...] Jørn had been on Lærdalsmarknaden, and on the road home, as a young dedicated fiddler, he wanted to learn the witchcraft that Hjorte-Jo had. [...] That night, Jørn learned the arts that made him a master fiddler. He learned tunes, and to magically break the strings of his competitors, and many other arts. After that time he got the weird tunings that gave him a mystical sound - 21 in all, and after that time he had the trollish technique with the bow that no one - not even Myllaren - could replicate. «Jørn played the ristetak backwards,» the elder people said.

The writer Knut Hermundstad, in the same journal adds this quote which he had from Gamle Henrik Før on Leira.

Jørn had never heard this kind of fiddling «When you’re playing, you should let the bow sprint, but don’t let go of the strings!», [Hjorte-Jo] reportedly said. But supposedly Jørn knew this art before.

("finn" may mean Romani, or Forest Finn) BUT I HAVE TO FIND A SOURCE BUT i think it's mentioned in "Susen av Garlistuten"

The rhythm

Dubbeltòki i harding-spele hev Myllaren vidka ut. Samljodande spel var ukjent til kalle, fyri honom. Spelemennane fyrr spela eingjengt og einljoda; han tok til med tviljodi, og daa visst med kvævetonane. “I spili sitt tok ’n paa fleire strengjir mæ ei gaang. De va’ sòleis ’n fekk nòko kvævetonar som ìnkji are fær” (Olav Leirlid).

I takti kom au Myllaren med noko nytt. Han er skaparen av den springar-takti dei no hev i Telemarki, og som nettupp hev gjevi springaren de rette springar-lage. Utan-um Telemarki og Hardang, der dei hev Myllar-takt i spele, hev springaren meir svip av polsdansen. DIfor kallar dei au springaren pols sume stadir (Sunnmør, Trøndelag, Gundbrandsdalen). So var springar-takti i Telemarki au fyrr, fyri 1830. Den tribytte takti vart daa trampa med eit tungt og eit langt (punktera) slag, i di at dei tvo seinste slògi liksom var samandregne til halvt-anna, og etter dette kom 1⁄8 upphald (pause); denne takti var daa aalmenn i Numedal, Hallingdal og vidare aust-yvi. Ettersom taktslògi lydde daa, kunde ein mest kalle de: lett, tung, daa dei samandregne slògi lydde som eit langt. Myllar-takti er: tung, tung (eller: mindre tung), lett.

Alt paa Voss vert takti annarleis, um lag so: tung lett, tung (eller: mindre tung) i forslage og danselage.

Per Åsmund Omholt writes that Krødsherad had short 3, like Sigdal and possibly the rest of Ringerike, but changed to Hallingdal groove

Markets

The yearly markets (also known in Norwegian as Martnan (northern East dialects) or Marken (southern dialects), were important meeting places for folk musicians, and are in most sources described as places where the music evolved the most. The most significant markets are listed here;

• Branes (in Drammen) - from the first Tuesday until Friday in February, from 1739.
• Grundset (in Elverum) - in March from ca. 1580.
• Kongsberg - Started a week from Candlemas, i.e. February 9. 4 days in February and September, from 1633.
• Kristiania (today Oslo)
• Lærdalsøyri - Started 8 days from Michaelmas Day, i.e. October 7-11. Legally from 1876, but in practice much older.
• Romsdal (in Devoll in Rauma, later moved to Veblungsnes from 1820) - October 6-14, from 1533.
• Røldal - originally 8 days from the first Tuesday after Saint John's Eve, but was moved after royal resolution to the third Tuesday after Saint John's Eve in 1756.
• Røros - 4 days from the second last Tuesday in February, legally from 1854, but in practice much older.
• Vikøyri - around Michaelmas
• Hardinghelgi (in Åmyri in Rauland) - lasted 3 days, began 14 after Saint John's Eve, i.e. 7-9 July.

Looking at the facts that there was a significant market in Røldal, and on the other side of Røldalsvatnet in Botnen lived Isak and Nils Botnen - it's not unlikely to assume that the spread of the Hardanger fiddle and its music was so closely knit to this market and the other markets around the country. Also weird, is that by following the river from Røldalsvatnet south we arrive at Suldal, which is where the arguably most archaic tradition has survived.

The oldest dated Hardanger fiddle is Jaastadfela, which dates from 1651, but its history may have begun with contact with the British isles. Other fiddles with resonance strings in the British Isles were made from the beginning of the latter half of the 1500s, which many believe is inspired by Sarangi. The first documented mention of Sarangi is believed to be from 1052, and is first reported to be brought to Europe in 1500s. Bjørn Aksdal also makes a point about the timber trade between the British isles and Western Norway in this period, and that the core of the Western Norwegian timber trade was in Hardanger.

Literature

• Bjørndal, Arne; Alver, Brynjulf (1985). - og fela ho lét : norsk spelemannstradisjon. Universitetsforlaget.
• Halbakken, Sverre (1997). Så surr nå, kjæring! Musikk- og dansetradisjoner i Sør-Østerdal og Våler. Blåmann. p. 172.