1996 Annual Stämma
Seattle, Washington
18 nyckelharpa players, 7 fiddle players, and 2 guitar players came to the ANA's second annual Nyckelharpa Stämma. We had a grand time, meeting old friends and meeting players from as far away as Tennessee(!) and New Jersey(!) and of course the west-coasters from SoCal and Oregon and British Columbia.
The three tall guys in the back row are Väsen (left to right, Olov Johansson, Roger Tallroth, and Mikael Marin). It's quite a thing to have a band where the shortest member is 6 foot 4 inches!
Olov taught the advanced group, one session before lunch and one after lunch.
Bart had the beginning group both sessions.
Mikael taught two sessions to the fiddlers (sorry, no photo).
Of course, the guitar players got two sessions with Roger (also no photo).
After the lunch (provided courtesy of ANA members Lucky and Lani Eames) Väsen gave a short concert/lecture in which they showed and explained how they put together their arrangements of a tune. They went over one tune in detail, pointing out to us what they did during each part to build or lessen the intensity. It was fascinating.
Then they picked a tune (Martin i Jorden) they had never played before as a group, and played through it to show what one could do with it. After we broke back into groups, each section learned that tune and accompaniment parts. For the final half-hour of the last session, we all gathered together and played it, putting in the funky chords and all. It was great.