Bach på svenska

Bach in Swedish with Lisa Rydberg, baroque violin, Gunnar Idenstam, harmonium organ
Gazell Records GAFCD 1092
Released in 2007

With our classical training as a base and with feet firmly in the Swedish folk music tradition, we invite Father Bach to dance his own dance side by side with the Swedish "polska". There is much common ground - melody lines, harmony sequences, accentuations, ornamentations and rhythmic inclinations - that together gives the groove to which both styles aspire.

During the Baroque period the clear distinction between "classical" music and "folk" music, to which we are accustomed today, did not exist. There was a living tradition of dances that were sometimes written down, sometimes passed on orally. During the 18th Century, a part of Swedish church organists work was to play dance music with local folk musicians at weddings and other celebrations. It's undeniably a tantalizing thought that these musicians, often of foreign heritage, who could play notated music, maybe, just maybe, sometimes taught a Swedish folk musician a minuet, a bourrée or a courante from their homeland. Maybe even something from the hands of Johann Sebastian... How would a Swedish fiddler have played Bach?

We both found a personal connection between Bach and folk music on our own.

Lisa discovered that a fast movement in triple time from one of the violin partitas works very well to dance to the Swedish polska; by changing the focus to be on the dance, the music was suddenly approaching the traditional Bingsjö polska. This experience was, in its turn, a reminder that folk music throughout the ages - all the way to the middle of the last century - was played on gut strings, something that is close to forgotten today.

Gunnar likes to point out the fact that Bach liked to play and arrange his music for different instrument combinations. This makes it feel absolutely natural for us to perform pieces originally written for harpsichord, or even for choir and orchestra, on fiddle and harmonium, which, although it didn't exist in Bach's time, is considered the most traditional Swedish folk music keyboard.

We have also, out of pure desire, taken such great liberties that we've changed the basic character in certain movements by Bach and turned a few minuets into "polser," kinds of tunes with "early twos" that exist in western Sweden. This feels natural to us as well since we're not claiming, foremost, to be true to the time, but have chosen to - from our feeling for the music - create a meeting where the thought can play freely.

Bach and the Swedish folk musicians… what if they really did meet?
We wish you much pleasure!

Lisa Rydberg & Gunnar Idenstam

Listen to:

Bourrée from Partita in E BWV 1006

Badiniére from Orchestra Suite BWV 1067

Menuet from French Suite BWV 819

The CD Bach på svenska (Bach in Swedish) can be ordered
on www.gazell.net

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