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Tim Rued's Swedish Connection

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Tim Rued's Swedish Connection

This Site is brand new, and still under construction. In fact, I am still learning html as I build it. Feel free to browse, but more will be added next time you look!

Tim in Sweden 1976

Swedish Music

Swedish folkmusic is a wonderfully rich and expressive art form that I have learned to love. My travels in Sweden have taken me from the far South to the relatively far North, and I have met fiddlers and picked up tunes and styles in every area. I have always taken pleasure in being able to play a tune, when I meet a Swede, from his or her home area.

Of course, certain styles are my favorites, and I have become especially caught up in those.

  • Gästrikland:

    • A place I had never heard of before I went to Sweden had the music that I would most take to heart. It was the duo of Stig Sjödin and Barbro Pettersson who introduced me to the music of Hammarbergs-Hans, Spel-Stina, and Per Persson Menlös. I believe I can play every tune I ever heard Stig play. When I met him, he explained that little Gästrikland is surrounded by the musical giant provinces of Uppland, Hälsingland, and Dalarna; so it is little wonder that the best attributes of all three provinces came together there.

  • Uppland:

    • My first few visits to Uppland were just with the fiddle. I attended my first spelmansstämma (fiddlers' festival) in the town of Östervåla, in Uppland. I played with everybody, and had a great time. It was only later that I realized that I had been rubbing elbows with some of the most influential musicians of 20th century Sweden: Eric Sahlström, Viksta-Lasse, and Ceylon Wallin, to name just a few.

    My real introduction to nyckelharpa music was there in 1974, and after learning to play harpa and visiting Uppland a few more times, I came to identify with the fiddlers there. Eric Sahlström, in my opinion, was the finest musician I ever met - and I strive to have an element of his spirit in all my playing.

    Zorn medal award 1977

    It was in Uppland that I received the Zornmärket: a medal awarded to fiddlers faithfully carrying on the Swedish fiddle music traditions. At the time, I was the only non-Scandinavian ever to receive the medal; there has been only one since, Tom Paley, a great American musician living now in England.

  • Hälsingland:

    • The musical styles of Hälsingland and Gästrikland go so well together, that it would seem impossible to play the one without also embracing the other. Although I don't play as much with the "rullstråke" (rolling stroke) typical of From-Olle and Eric Öst tunes; I do enjoy playing all kinds of Hälsingland tunes. Some of the most expressive music I play comes from this province. Wonderful musicians created the traditions found here.

  • Jämtland:

    • My first trip to Sweden did not take me to Jämtland, but I was introduced to its music nonetheless. Pelle Persson, my mentor in Jämtland tunes, was originally from Hammardal, but was then living in Karlskoga, in Värmland. He and his partner, Ann-Marie Eriksson, played beautifully together, inspiring me to learn to play his tunes. The style I learned from Jämtland at first seemed melancholy, but after I visited the province on my latter trips, I realized that the music was just a reflection of the grand landscape to be found there.

  • Värmland:

    • After Gästrikland and Uppland, the province I spent most time in was Värmland. I played with several fiddlers in Karlskoga, where I stayed most often, but also in a few other places. In Ransäter I got my greatest help in this musical dialect at first, but also from a few fiddlers from Klarälvsdalen, Fryksdalen, and Eda. I wish that more dancers around here danced the lively polskas from Värmland, because they are so much fun to play for dancing.

Swedish Language

I learned basic Swedish in a short course at UCLA in the fall of 1973. It was only nine weeks long, but it gave me a foundation I was able to use when I travelled to Sweden the following Spring. As I went from place to place, meeting all kinds of people who spoke little or no English, I gradually became fluent, and familiar with many different regional dialects.

Over the years I have continued to use my Swedish in reading, writing, and speech.

Now I help people in several ways with Swedish:

TEACHING

I developed my own Swedish language course based somewhat on the original course I took when I first learned. It was a good, quick course, centered around a fictitious American college student studying in Sweden. My course is based on a fictitious American traveller in Sweden, meeting people involved in the old culture, rather than touristy things. In the course, the beginner is exposed right away to the countryside, the music and dancing, the folklore, and even the traditional foods of rural Sweden.

I last taught this course many years ago, when I still lived in Santa Rosa, but I have used elements of it in the many language workshops which I have conducted here and there over the years.

TRANSLATING

I do a lot of translating of Swedish into English, and a bit the other way around. Among things I have translated are magazine articles about Swedish folkmusic and dance for Americans to read. I am currently involved in a project to translate "Svenska Låtar" - a series of 24 books on Swedish fiddling - into English.

I have often found myself translating old letters and other documents for Americans researching their ancestors in Sweden. My familiarity with old Swedish and genealogy helps get the accurate meaning in these cases.

Swedish Culture

FOLKLORE

COOKING

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