The Bagpipe Society

Swedish Bagpipes: Next steps

If this edition of Chanter has inspired you to take up the säckpipa, listen to more Nordic music or explore the traditions of piping in Sweden, where do you go from here.

Without a doubt the first port of call is Olle Gälmo’s wonderful website. http://olle.gallmo.se/ Dive in - but be warned, it may be some time before you surface again. And there’s a severe danger that before you fully recover, you’ll be ordering a set of Swedish pipes.

The next step is some music: Erik Ask Upmark has produced “Swedish Tunes for bagpipes in G” available from the Bagpipe Society (contact Ian Clabburn) or http://www.spielleute.de/ He has also produced Nordic Tunes, 34 tunes arranged for small pipes, available from the Lowland & Border Pipers Society http://lbps.net/lbps/index.php Vicki Swan has produced a book of 24 Swedish “style” tunes for Border bagpipes http://www.swan-dyer.co.uk/ A good online source is http://www.folkwiki.se/Meta/Start It’s in Swedish only, but has over 2000 tunes as midi, ABC and pdf. Listings are under Låtar (tunes), and you can browse through Låttyper (types), Tonarter (keys) or Geografiskt ursprung (geographic origin).

CDs can be obtained from http://www.nordictradition.com/ or CD Roots. http://www.cdroots.com/ This is a fabulous website, based in the US and the service is excellent. There is a “region” search and they have a wealth of Nordic (and many other) CDs in stock.

That’s it! So, “Tuta lungt”* as they (well, some) say in Sweden.

*”toot easy”