Sweden’s broken Jew’s harp tradition
Gustav Svalberg (1861-1947).
By Klas Wikström af Edholm
Translated by Lucy Moffatt
In Sweden – as in Norway and other parts of Europe – the older Jew’s harp tradition suffered a dramatic decline in the first half of the 20th century; in Sweden’s case, it eventually died out altogether. Jew’s harp forging in Sweden probably continued into the early part of the 20th century, but soon ceased entirely, and there is no living tradition of the practice in Sweden today. Generally speaking, Sweden’s Jew’s harp playing tradition is very poorly documented: We know almost nothing about the players of earlier eras. However, I would like to introduce some of the players who were active at the time when the continuity was interrupted.
The only known Jew’s harp recording from the older period of the Swedish tradition dates back to 1920, when Gustav Svalberg (1861-1947) of Eskilstuna in Södermaland was recorded on the phonograph by ethnographer Yngve Laurell. Laurell was a traditional musician himself, and had learned by ear from local fiddlers in his hometown, the village of Rångedala in Västergötland. He had learned how to record music on the phonograph from the ethnomusicologist Erich von Hornbostel in Berlin. And when he returned home after conducting ethnographic fieldwork in the Australian archipelago, he chose to record Swedish traditional musicians on his own initiative and at his own expense. Laurell mainly recorded fiddlers who were visiting Stockholm, preferably when they were invited to play at Skansen open-air museum. Laurell took part in the Riksspelmansstämman – the annual gathering of master traditional musicians – at Skansen in 1920 and took the opportunity to record the participants. In the case of Gustav Svalberg, he recorded Vingåkersvalsen and two polskas from Västmanland, which are available on a CD called Musica Sveciæ. Äldre svenska spelmän (Caprice Records CAP21604, 1999). The master is held at Svenskt visarkiv (Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research), registered as no. SVA BB 4337).
Gustav Svalberg was born on 12 April 1861 in the parish of Berg, Västmanland. He was a machinist at the metalworks and had been employed at 27 different works before settling in Eskilstuna, where he felt at home and began working at the local metalworks. He was known to contemporaries as a strong and ‘cheerful’ man. Svalberg was a much-admired local Jew’s harp virtuoso and was invited to play at Skansen over several seasons. He was invited to spend a few weeks playing there after the 1920 Riksspelmansstämman as well as the following year. He would perform for three or four hours a day at either Bollnässtugan or Älvrosgården, wearing the traditional costume of Vingåker (Åhlén 1971:117).
As reported in the Nordic Museum catalogue for 1920, Fataburen: ‘The trump or Jew’s harp, an instrument not previously heard at Skansen, was played by metalworker Gustav Svalberg of Eskilstuna, 29/8-12/9, and attracted the well-deserved interest of the audience.’ (Keyland 1922:25; Bohman 1979:51, 53.) There is also a photograph of Svalberg playing the Jew’s harp in traditional Vingåker costume, which was probably taken at Skansen. He appears to be playing a narrow, round-framed Jew’s harp. The lamella looks relatively broad. The entire instrument is fairly large, roughly 8–10 cm long. It is probably hand-made, since the model greatly resembles other Jew’s harps that have been preserved in the ethnographic collections of Swedish museums. But we have no information about who forged Gustav Svalberg’s Jew’s harp or whether he himself was a skilled blacksmith.
Gustav Svalberg plays the Jew’s harp, ca 1920, unknown photographer. Photo from Åhlén 1971.
In 1922, Svalberg also competed in a spelmansstämma in Malmköping, Södemanland. Shortly afterwards, in 1925, the local traditional musicians’ association, Södermanlands Spelmansförbund, was founded. Svalberg probably helped spark some interest in the Jew’s harp within the association, because ahead of a traditional music competition that was held in Julita, Söndermanland in 1927, Jew’s harp players were among the performers invited to take part. Unfortunately, we do not know whether any of the 30-40 players who signed up for the competition played the Jew’s harp. Gustav Svalberg is the last known Jew’s harp player in Sweden’s older tradition. When his generation died, the living tradition died with them.
But interest in playing the Jew’s harp didn’t remain dead and buried for very long. Musician Hugo-Pelle Pettersson (1892-1967) was born into a musical family and gradually became interested in local traditional music, and Södermanland’s cultural history in general. Like Gustav Svalberg, he lived in Eskilstuna – indeed we can’t rule out the possibility that he may have had contact with or learnt to play from Svalberg, who was also active in Södermanlands Spelmansförbund. What we do know is that he began to play the Jew’s harp late in life, which makes it more likely that his interest in the instrument sprang from his curiosity about local history – albeit inspired by Svalberg. Hugo-Pelle’s main instruments were fiddle and guitar, but a 1957 newspaper article also referred to his Jew’s harp playing (Kinander 1957).
A photograph that accompanied the article shows Hugo-Pelle playing a Jew’s harp that is very much like the one Gustav Svalberg is playing in the photograph above. The two instruments are also tuned in almost the same key: Svalberg is playing in F# and Hugo-Pelle in F. It is possible that both instruments were produced locally, perhaps by the same blacksmith, although the quality of the two instruments is different.
Hugo-Pelle Pettersson plays the Jew’s harp, 1957, unknown photographer. Note the similarity between the instruments of Hugo-Pelle Petterson and Gustav Svalberg. Photo from Kinander 1957.
The archives of Södermanlands Spelmansförbunds document five recordings made in around 1960 in which Hugo-Pelle plays three different tunes on the Jew’s harp (ssf_insp_357; ssf_insp_360; ssf_insp_363). It is clear from these recordings that the quality of the instrument Hugo-Pelle is playing is rather poor. His playing technique is also very different from that of Gustav Svalberg. Hugo-Pelle doesn’t use the opening/closing technique at all in any of the recordings: the skill appears to have died out in Sweden by that time. In a march played by Hugo-Pelle, for example, it is clear that he uses the blowing technique and only plays the open notes in the scale. He himself says in an interview that he was inspired (and taught?) to play by Gustav Svalberg – possibly in the traditional way, or more likely by using earlier recordings.
The tunes Hugo-Pelle plays in the recordings include ‘Vingåkersvalsen,’ which he probably learnt from Svalberg. To a certain extent, he imitates the characteristic sharp ‘Y sound’ (the pronunciation here would be [yː] in the international phonetic alphabet) in his mouth that Svalberg uses in his recordings, but essentially, Hugo- Pelle’s technique is totally different. Because he doesn’t use the opening/closing technique, he also has to modify the melody to adapt it to his blowing technique. The fact that he interprets the melody played by Svalberg pretty freely is another sign that he didn’t learn directly from Svalberg, but from some rather scratchy recordings from the 1920s, and tried to work out the technique for himself. This is an example of how the broken tradition expressed itself in the music: Hugo-Pelle’s starting point is an (older) timbral ideal passed down by Gustav Svalberg, but he modifies the music and plays it himself with a far more elaborate technique. Gustav Svalberg and Hugo-Pelle Petterson were both active (at the same time) in the same local traditional music association, they shared the same local repertoire and apparently used the same type of instrument, yet their playing techniques are different.
One last example shows how interest in the Jew’s harp lived on even after the older playing tradition was broken. Herman Heintze of Jordholmen, Scania, grew interested in the Jew’s harp relatively soon after the tradition died out. In a 1951 interview with Olof Forsén and Quitt Homgren of the Svenskt visarkiv, he speaks about the Jew’s harp’s continental history and about his own thoughts on the instrument (Svenskt visarkiv no. SVA BB 5326). He also gives examples of his own musical experiments with the instrument, but without drawing any notable lines to the older playing tradition. There was no living tradition when Heintz began to play and he has never heard any Jew’s harp music that he could learn from. In other words, interest in playing the Jew’s harp lives on in Sweden, but the tradition must, so to speak, constantly be ‘reinvented’. Heintze acquired his first Jew’s harp from a friend when he was ‘in the second year of school.’
These three examples combined show different points of interruption in the playing tradition. At one level, the breach is evident: a tradition-bearer dies. At the same time, however, the performance of traditional music on the Jew’s harp overlaps this breach in continuity, even though the older playing technique has been lost. The example of Hugo-Pelle shows that the playing technique can be learned in part through listening, allowing the tradition to almost survive the interruption at one level. However, the older playing tradition can still be said to have died out, even though the practice of playing Jew’s harp in Sweden remained continuous throughout the 20th century. In the 1960s, Sweden saw a new wave of interest in the Jew’s harp, but even before this upturn, the country is said to have been a major importer of Jew’s harps from Molln in Austria (Otruba 1986:93). This suggests that Jew’s harps remained available in Sweden even after the older forging tradition and (the related) playing tradition had died out.
The recordings of Gustav Svalberg:
And the march played by Hugo-Pelle Pettersson (from 1:53)
References
Bohman, Stefan. 1979. Folkmusiken på Skansen. Fataburen. Nordiska museets och Skansens årsbok. Stockholm: Nordiska Museet, 35–68. Keyland, Nils. Allmogemusik. Fataburen 1920.
Kinander, Harald (Aldo). 1957. Eskilstuna-spelman virtuos på mungiga. Folket 1957-10-26.
Otruba, Gustav. 1986. Die Maultrommeln und ihre Erzeugung zu Molln. Von der Zunft zur Werkgenossenschaft. Oberösterreichische Heimatsblätter 40:1, 59–94.
Åhlén, Carl-Gunnar. 1971. Hummel och mungiga. Två unika folkmusikdokument på fonograf. Svensk tidskrift för musikforskning 53, 115–117.
Jew’s harp from Västmanland. Gift to the Nordiska museet in Stockholm 1894. Photograph by the author.