Nordic music includes a diverse array of popular, folk and classical styles found in a number of Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are generally taken to include Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark. The Nordic Council, an international organization, also includes the autonomous territories of Åland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands. Historically, the term Nordic was also applied to the northern part of European Russia and what is now the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Folk music

The many regions of the Nordic countries share certain traditions, many of which have diverged significantly. It is possible to group together the Baltic states (or, sometimes, only Estonia) with Finland and parts of northwest Russia as sharing cultural similarities, contrasted with Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Atlantic islands of Greenland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

Western Nordic countries

The dulcimer and fiddle are the two most characteristic instruments found throughout Scandinavia. Norway and Sweden, however, have a tradition of virtuosic solo fiddling, which is unknown in Denmark. Also in contrast, Danish traditional music has a more prominent guitar than the northern neighbors. Gammeldans are a kind of dance song played by harmonica and accordion, popular in both Sweden and Norway in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Circle dancing while singing ballads are a historic part of the folk traditions of all of northern Europe. Only the Faroe Islands have maintained this tradition to the present day, though it has been revived in some other areas. Iceland is home to many ancient musical practices no longer found elsewhere in the Nordic area, such as the use of parallel fifths and organum.

Greenland's Inuit population has their own musical traditions, which have been melded with elements of Nordic music, such as the kalattuut style of Danish polka.

There are a number of Swedes living in Finland, and vice versa. These communities have produced traditional musicians like the Swedish-Finn Scea Jansson and Gjallarhorn, and the Finnish-Swedish Norlatar and JP Nystroms .

Balto-Finnic music

Finland's cultural ties are primarily to the Balto-Finnic peoples of Russia and the Estonians (Cronshaw, 91). Runolaulu is a kind of song found throughout this area. Estonia and Finland both have national epics based on interconnected forms of runo-song, Kalevipoeg and Kalevala, respectively. "Estonian runo-song has the same basic form as the Finnish variety to which it is related: the line has eight beats, the melody rarely spans more than the first five notes of a diatonic scale and its short phrases tend to use descending patterns" (Cronshaw, 16).

The kantele is a type of instrument played throughout Finland, the Baltic states and northwest Russia. The board-zither or chord-zither is played in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; these are instruments that are more closely designed to German factory-made zithers and autoharps than the kantele. A bowed lyre (Swedish hiiu-kannel, Finnish jouhikko) was formerly played among Swedes living in Estonia, but usage declined until a recent revival.

In the 19th century, all the Baltic states saw an influx of foreign instruments and styles, resulting in fusions like the German-influenced zinge singing style of Latvia.

Sami, Roma and other minorities

Main articles: Sami music and Roma music

The Sami are found in Norway, Sweden, Finland and the northwest corner of Russia. The only traditional Sami instruments are drums and the flute, though modern bands use a variety of instrumentation. Joiks, unrhymed works without definite structure, are the most characteristic kind of song.

Finland's Roma (Gypsy) population helped to keep traditional Finnish music alive when ethnic Finns failed to do so, a role played by the Roma throughout much of Europe (Cronshaw, 99).

Popular music

The popular music of the Nordic countries exhibits great diversity. Finland and Sweden have possibly the largest music industries in the area, though Norway, Iceland and Denmark have all had domestic record industries for many years. Because the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were under Soviet control for much of the 20th century, when recording technology and popular music spread across the world, those three countries have a more tenuous connection with the popular industries of Finland, Sweden and the rest. However, since the fall of the Soviet Union, Western popular music in general has gained audiences in the Baltic states; this includes popular music from the other Nordic nations, as well as the United Kingdom, United States and elsewhere.

References

• Nettl, Bruno. Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents. 1965. Prentice-Hall. Eaglewood Cliffs, New Jersey.
• Broughton, Simon and Mark Ellingham with James McConnachie and Orla Duane (Ed.), World Music, Vol. 1: Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Rough Guides Ltd, Penguin Books. ISBN 1-85828-636-0