Anders Rosen
WOMEX, Stockholm, October 1998
You should pronounce your name because I never pronounce your name right.
My name is Anders Ro-sen', its spelled like Ro'-sen.
You know the English pronunciation...does everyone here have to learn a lot of English, because they speak so well?
We learn it in school and we hear it each day in television. It's the Latin of our times, I suppose.
I haven't run into anyone who doesn't speak English.
It's the first language we have in our schools...after Swedish of course.
Now I ran into you because you were there near the nickelharpa person, and because you have a booth with a record label, but you also play fiddle...
Yes I do.
Do you want to say something about your record label...its not very big.
Yes, its not very big. It's the one I started in the 70s so it's the oldest of the folk music labels in Sweden, I have run it by myself all the time. In the beginning it was primarily myself playing all the time, but I've started now also to release other people.
You play mostly traditional fiddle?
Yes, I have tried it several ways. Basically I am a very traditional fiddler but I participated in many experiments too. Earlier I have played a lot with jazz musicians. Saxophone is my second instrument so I have a recording on the saxophone, for instance we made an LP with seven saxophone players, its released in the US...
Is that the Swedish Sax Septet?
It's a company in North Carolina called Music Of the World on their label...
Yeh, OK.
I came up with the idea, It came out first on my label. It was...I had a big romance affair with the saxophone but nowadays, I stick to the fiddle most of the time. I am in another experiment these days with a young hard rock players that play a kind of folk metal..realease a record later this fall.
And you had somebody else you said was a fiddler on your label who was an experimental...interesting fiddle player...
It goes both ways.
So when did you start playing fiddle then?
I was maybe 12 or 13 years old but I got tired of the fiddle so I had my father buy me a saxophone so that's my second...I have a background in saxophone as well. But I took up the fiddle again at the end of the 60s and participated in the big folk revival here in Sweden on the fiddle. I visited many of the old players born in the last century, last of them, way of playing, I tried to dig very deeply into the old playing styles in my district.
Do you play with any bands or just by yourself?
Both...on the saxophone it was of course bands, didnt play it alone, you have to play with someone if you play on the saxophone of course, but the fiddle you can play solo, it is a fine solo instrument.
Now I have played Scottish fiddle and Irish fiddle...I was talking to you about this before and trying to figure out what the difference would be, and you said you'd never played Celtic fiddle...
No, I never tried that.
Swedish songs...are they in a certain key usually?
Yes, in my district the most common key is the key of D, D minor or major, the second is A minor major, the third is G. Almost all the tunes go in those three keys, but of course there are exceptions and the reason I think is that there is a drone playing on the violin, we use strings very much as drones, and we retune fiddles after what keys we play in. For instance in D we have the bass string tuned in A instead of G. When we play in A also the D string is tuned to E.
So you have your 2 lower strings retuned? You'd have an A...now I'm confused!
In the A major key from the top its E-A-E-A.
Oh, I understand, I get it. So you say you use a drone a lot, do you use double stops?
Yes, we do, its not double stops in the sense of playing----, our tunes don't use many chords, its like bagpipe music.
You just use the drone...same extra note all the time.
Yes basically.
Convenient double stops.
You were talking about the bow, you use long...
Compared to Celtic music, its another kind of energy. We don't separate the notes as much as they do.
Okay. So you would slide more between notes.
Yes, perhaps but we don't use such a long bowings in Sweden either, and the reasons can be very specific, very syncopated and very irregular rhythms.
You play dance music a lot?
Yes.
What kind of dances are there?
Polska, it's the most common dance. Also the best tunes are polska melodies.
I see British artists trying to do a lot of polskas
Yes, it must be very hard to learn but not impossible. I have a play...excellent fiddle players. And I have also met very good dancers there...I've been there 2 times.
Now you've been giving workshops and touring and playing...
Yes.
In the big cities...
Yes and its very nice to play in the Bay Area for dances. There are so many people there who know how to dance Swedish polskas in good style.
Is your fiddle style in Sweden similar to that in Norway?
Yes, it is a big relationship with Norway. Where I come from, in Western Sweden, the style is much like that in Eastern Norway.
But Finland is different.
Yes it is quite another thing, There is a portion of Finland that is inhabited by Swedish spoken people and they also play polska melodies, in some parts of Sweden it is almost the same polska dances but they also have time staffs [?]---- that we don't have, and they use it together with minuet tunes for instance. Often the first dance is a minuet dance and then a polska dance, and an after dance to the minuet.
That's interesting.
That is interesting isn't it? There is a living minuet tradition.
What's the time signature on a polska.
Triple...
Triple.
It's a jig!
Three quarter notes
It's a jig, yeh, trying to think...
No, its not a triple time like in a jig, its more like a waltz, but dancing a polska is quite different than a waltz and most often is a bit slower than a waltz.
Where do you stress it?
Typically on the second beat. On the second beat, it plays an important role in the polska time.
To change the subject, do you see things happening in Swedish music now, do you think its becoming more popular.
Yes, its very exciting now with all the modern groups and its now a fast development now, it seems as if Swedish music is about to have a breakthrough internationally, some groups have a very good reputation in other countries.
Garmarna and Hoven Droven...the big noisy bands...
Its harder for traditional fiddle music to reach an audience, it's a pity I think, because I regard Sweden as one of the great fiddling countries in the world and our traditional fiddle music is great, really great.

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