THE TWIN CITIES NYCKELHARPALAG
The Twin Cities Nyckelharpalag has been around in one form or another since 1998, when a then unnamed group of beginners started to hold practices in a garage. It’s hardly surprising that a nyckelharpa group got started here. Minnesota is known for its Scandinavians, and even though they’re not as demographically predominant as many believe, they are well established.
The Twin Cities metro area has many Nordic music and dance groups, and plenty of ethnic venues. There is the American Swedish Institute, with its ASI Spelmanslag, specializing in tunes from Dalarna, Sweden; the Twin Cities Hardingfelelag, focusing on the Norwegian hardangar fiddle; a Finnish band (Finn Hall), complete with tangos; a Danish band; and a variety of other individuals and groups spanning the Scandinavian spectrum. All the groups hold regular dances, and there are numerous festivals and gatherings, peaking in June with a deluge of Midsummer events. For anyone wanting to get involved in Nordic music or dancing, there are plenty of opportunities.
But what about the nyckelharpa? There were, in fact, harpa players here and there in the Nordic mix as far back as the 1970s, and the instrument was not unknown. Leif Alpsjö and Cajsa Ekstav had been in town spreading the word, and the ANA had held a stämma in Minneapolis featuring Anders Mattsson. The founders of the ASI Spelmanslag had harpas, although they no longer played them. One harpa player who was active ended up moving to Sweden, leaving a three-quarters size harp behind. Another, having no group to play with, stuck mainly with her fiddle. Still another, Becky Weis Nord, an accomplished instrumentalist, was that most rare creature, an experienced nyckelharpa teacher, and toward the end of the 1990s more students were showing up. Among them were two wild and crazy Scandinavian dancers who took up the nyckelharpa on a mutual bet, joined and encouraged by still another dancer who shifted from fiddle to harpa. The garage practices got underway and a "group" was beginning to form. Previously inactive harpa players now had somewhere to go. Loaner harpas were made available for potential new students—Becky had a couple, and two of the early players, when they upgraded their instruments, kept their original harpas for beginners. The stage was set.
The Scandinavian dance community was the breeding ground for the nyckelharpa epidemic which followed. Here was a group of people who met often, who knew each other well, and who got wind of the new nyckelharpa activity. New players were recruited through such classic maneuvers as the old "would you like to give this a try? Here, let me help you" ploy. The fact that there was a teacher on site and loaner instruments available made such appeals difficult to resist. Practices moved from the garage to a suburban church. An early milestone was playing at a dance after Becky Weis’s wedding, where the group was joined by some players up from Chicago. A sadder occasion was playing Kärleksvalsen at one of our member’s funeral. A bit later a more formal performance opportunity came along. A Norwegian group had heard about the lag, and wondered if we would play a short set at a dinner. We certainly weren’t ready for public performance. We debated for maybe a minute, then went for it. We survived. These early performances were hardly polished, but they attracted attention and recruits. And so the Twin Cities Nyckelharpalag grew, spreading along lines of established connections.
Currently we have 16 officially active members: 14 nyckelharpa players, one of whom also plays accordion, and two fiddle players. Our instruments come from a variety of makers, with Sören Åker in the lead—we have no less than 6 of his harpas amongst us. Other makers include Lars Hallengren, Esbjörn Hogmark, Tage Larson, Hasse Gille, Åke Ahlstrand, and Olle Plahn.
A couple of years ago we sponsored a local nyckelharpa building workshop featuring Sören Åker, who we brought to Minneapolis. As a result, one of our active members and one affiliate member have instruments they built themselves (there were eight students in the workshop altogether, seven from Minnesota and one from Seattle). Aside from the oddness of our hobbies, we are a not altogether unrepresentative Upper Midwestern group. Many of our members have some sort of Scandinavian ancestry, often mixed, but there are Italian, Irish, English, German, and other lines represented as well. Our ages range from the 30s to the 60s; we’re short of youngsters, but there are a couple of teenagers who have shown some interest. We are one of the larger nyckelharpa lags outside Sweden. It’ll never get us on American Idol, but it’s something.
One thing which has helped sustain our enthusiasm over the years has been a series of visits by Swedish harpa players who have conducted workshops, taught lessons, and generally reinvigorated the group at regular intervals. They have been wonderfully friendly and helpful, and have deepened our appreciation of Swedish musical traditions. The earliest visitor who worked with us as a lag was Olaf Johansson. He (with Väsen) appeared at a Nordic Roots Festival in Minneapolis, and the lag booked him for a workshop; he reappeared at a later festival and was happy to give another workshop. Cajsa Ekstav, of Trollrike Spelmän, has visited twice, and Peter "Puma" Hedlund has been over three times. Esbjörn and Sture Hogmark, Leif Alpsjö, and four members of the Nyckelharpa Orchestra have also spent time in the Twin Cities and worked with us, as did Sören Åker with a harpa building workshop. Sometimes the lag has piggybacked on operations like the Nordic Roots Festival, the Nisswa Stämma, or the American Swedish Institute, which brought the Hogmarks over for an Uppland Festival. In other cases we have sponsored visitors on our own, dipping into our treasury and raising money through dances and workshops to help them with expenses. This is an ongoing program for us, and we try to arrange at least one visit a year. We have also done some visiting ourselves—nine of our members have spent time in Sweden studying the harpa, five of them at the Eric Sahlström Institute.
Another important factor for us is that at some point we reached critical mass. We have had enough players to sustain regular biweekly practices at members’ houses. There are almost always enough players available to allow us to accept gigs. We can attract visiting Swedes to keep us on our toes. Amongst us we have enough knowledge and tools to do much of the day-to-day maintenance and repair harpas require—something quite reassuring for new players considering taking the plunge. But of course a sizeable membership means that we have had to work on the problem of organization. In the early days we had officers with assigned roles—a Music Director, an Artistic Director, a Secretary, and a Treasurer. This worked well for the young lag, letting us make use of the experience of more seasoned players. Later, as the group gained confidence and experience, we moved to a more open approach. On the one hand, we became more structured in a formal sense, incorporating as a non-profit group with a President, Treasurer, Secretary, and an elected Board. But the officers and Board see themselves as facilitators and follower-uppers rather than as leaders, and we have adopted the philosophy of "collaborative leadership." Anyone in the lag can volunteer as an "event leader" for a gig, taking responsibility for making arrangements, putting together a tune list, and the rest. Policy issues are discussed by the board, but significant decisions are made by the full membership. This looser approach seems to suit us. We have had our inevitable differences of opinion, but have managed to sail on without running aground.
We have ended up doing a lot of performing. We could have stayed with just practicing and jamming, but there was a strong feeling that we should perform. Beyond being fun, it would help recruit new members and also help fulfill our educational mission. We have small printed cards which we can hand out at gigs giving a quick description of the nyckelharpa and its history. There are always takers. Our secretary is the primary contact for people with potential gigs, but any member can bring a proposed job to the lag. A head count is taken, either on a practice night or via email, and if enough people are interested we take it on. We usually charge a fee, but give free performances where appropriate. Most of our jobs are in the Twin Cities metro area, but we have gone 250 northwest to Moorhead for the Hjemkomst festival and 275 miles north to Ely for a Scandinavian dance. On a number of occasions we have played informally at arts fairs at Stockholm, Wisconsin. Another Wisconsin destination has been the Scandinavian dance weekends at Folklore Village in Dodgeville, WI, which many of us have attended several times as individuals. A kind of cosmic convergence occurred in October 2000 when around a dozen harpa players from the Twin Cities and Chicago showed up for the same weekend and threw together a set of tunes for the Saturday night dance. And our Chicago connection was furthered last year when a contingent of the lag went down to play at the wedding of two of the Chicago gang. June is of course the big month for gigs, with the biggest event being the Nisswa Stämma, which is always held the second weekend in June. The big winter event is the annual Scandinavian Ball held in late January, when the local Nordic dance groups rent a large hall for a long evening of dancing. Local bands play dance sets, a light meal and beverages are provided, and there is a Grand March at the beginning and an allspel at the end. It’s a very full evening. And in the last year the nyckelharpalag has instituted a new performance evening just for ourselves—a "friends and family" concert (we do NOT call it a recital) with members performing solo or with accompaniment. Attendance is by invitation only, with no charge. This is a nice opportunity to try out new tunes and new arrangements before a friendly audience, and generally to let loose and have fun.
Regular performances have had a big impact on the lag. Gigs provide occasions for sociability, they motivate us, and they bring money into our treasury, but they also shape us. They can change practices from relaxed sessions into focused affairs, and they encourage continual learning of new tunes. This can be a problem for the less experienced players, who are not yet up to speed on the current performance tunes. We have had to consider the question of whether we should (a) aim at delivering high quality performances, focusing on experienced players who continually improve their skills, and possibly closing out less active players and beginners; or (b) continuing as an organization open to all interested players, regardless of skill and experience, letting each of the members find their appropriate role. We never seriously considered the first option; we have always been an open group, and we want to be a resource for anyone interested in the nyckelharpa. But there is no denying that it is more challenging for a new player to join the group now than when we were all beginners together.
As for tunes, we focus on the Uppland tradition, and started out with classics like Kärleksvalsen, Karolinermarschen, the Lövstabruk polketts, and polskas like Polska efter Båtsman Däck, Tierpspolskan, and Vendelspolskan, striving for that ever elusive bondpolska beat. Members are free to suggest new tunes, and we have a particularly active Ceylon Wallin lobbyist. Many of our tunes, however, have been given to us by visiting Swedes in lessons and workshops, or have been brought back by members returning from Sweden, and we have played a fair number of newer tunes, including several by Peter Hedlund. We have worked on keeping our active tune list manageable, but for the most part have abandoned a formalized system.
We try to balance the needs of experienced players, who want to keep learning new tunes, and beginning players, who can feel overwhelmed. Our current approach to encourage beginners is to hold on to a set of "foundation tunes" – good representative examples of the basic tune types – that we play at the start of most rehearsals, and which beginners can focus on. Beginners are welcome to join performances whenever they feel ready, and we include tunes they know. For tunes they haven’t learned yet, they can simply not play (or can air bow, if they are more theatrically inclined). For experienced players there is the option of "small group" tunes. These are tunes chosen by a few people to work up on their own and play as a small ensemble during gigs. This adds variety to performances, and lets individual players go beyond the currently active lag tunes.
We would love to meet with wandering nyckelharpa players visiting the area. Bring your harpas and we can do some jamming. Email our secretary Wes Peterson at twincities@nyckelharpa.org, or call (952) 947-9542, to check on our activities.
Our practices are normally held on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, starting at 7:00. The location rotates among members’ houses in no fixed pattern. And we would recommend a couple of regional events coming up later this year. The Nisswa Stämma is always great fun, featuring just about all the active Scandinavian musicians in the area (including us) plus visitors from Norden. Hope to see you there!
Nelson Whyatt
