About the Euro Sessions
Welcome to the web site for the Oxford Euro Sessions. The pandemic hit the folk music scene pretty hard, and while we all did our best to keep things going online and through outdoor sessions (weather permitting), getting in-person sessions at pubs re-started is still a work in progress. Before lockdown, we had both a French/Breton session and a Scandi Session. As a way of starting things up again, we decided to combine the two, while people were getting used to the idea of in-person sessions again, and also because of the limited availability of venues. Here is how things are shaping up:
- We have an afternoon general Euro session, meeting 4:30 PM until roughly 7:30 PM at the White House Pub, Abingdon Road, the fourth Sunday of every month, starting 27 Feb. The first session will meet downstairs, but if it gets big, we might move to the upstairs room. What is Euro? This mostly depends on who shows up to play, but it certainly includes everything in the French folk tradition, plus all of the Nordic countries (Finland. Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark) as well as the genre sometimes known as Balfolk (Andy Cutting, Blowzabella, Naragonia). As a bit of a stretch, I'd like to include Scotland, Orkneys and Shetland, in part because of their strong affinities with Nordic music, but mainly because there aren't any regular sessions in Oxford where such music is played. For that matter, I guess Russia is really Euro, too, even though they aren't in the EU. But let's let this afternoon session be more or less a free-for-all, and see what develops. Maybe we'll get some drop-ins from the Galician session.
- In addition we have an evening session planned for the third Wednesday of every month, at The Plough, Wolvercote, starting 8:30 PM. This session is dedicated more specifically to the tunes of the Scandi Session and the French/Breton session. The Scandi session includes quite a lot of Finnish Music, which is Nordic but not really Scandi (Finland is not Scandinavian, and Finnish is not even Indo-European, though Swedish is a minority second language in Finland). The leader of the session is Ed Pritchard. If you have questions, or would like to be added to the Scandi/French Session mailing list, please contact him at edwinpritchard@waitrose.com. Ed's mailing list will also be used to push out information about the afternoon Euro session.
There are occasionally some last minute changes of venue or day, so check FolkInOxford for the latest information. For both sessions, the typical instruments that appear are fiddles, nyckelharpa's, hurdigurdies (viole a roue, used a lot in Occitan music), various kinds of squeezebox (concertina, diatonic, piano chromatic, button chromatic), sometimes the smaller French bagpipes, guitar, session harp, and once or twice a harmonium, but really anything acoustic is welcome. Feel free to drop in any time if you wish to join in on either session, or even just to listen in.
Right now, I only have tunes for the Scandi Session listed below, but eventually I'll be filling in French/Breton and additional Euro tunes. This will never be a comprehensive list of everything we play, and new tunes are often spontaneously introduced at the sessions, but if you learn some of the tunes in the Tunebook you will be guaranteed to be able to play along. If you have suggestions for additional tunes to add in any category, please email me here . Meanwhile, you'll find a lot of good tunes that will fit into the sessions at the Oxford SlowSession site. Also, check out some of the tunes on my Youtube Channel. .
Good places to find lead sheets for folk tunes of all types are abcnotation, FolkWiki (mainly Nordic), Folk Tune Finder, and The Session (mainly celtic, but a mix of nordic stuff in there, too. I am always eager for suggestions for tunes to include in the tunebook. Please send suggestions to me here . Links to abcnotation files and information about preferred keys are appreciated, but pdfs, jpegs, or even just tune names or links to Youtube performances are all useful.
Scotland Tunebook
Watch this space
Shetland Tunebook
- Spootiskerry
- Da (Lerwick) Lounge Bar
- Da Auld Noost
- Da Day Dawn
- Da Slockit Light
Watch this space
French and Balfolk Tunebook
- Flatworld
- In a Continental Mood
- Robin's Waltz
- Vals Mal Aimable
- Horizonto
- La Sansonette
- La Guissinette
- La Boite de Frissons
- Samen Op de Traktor (Naragonia)
Watch this space
Nordic Tunebook
Swedish and Norwegian tunes
- Axel Axelsson's Pols (or same tune, simpler repeat notation here)
- Bi-Olle
- Polska efter Byss-Kalle Check out the jazz version by Jan Lundgren!
- Byggnan (Another one by Byss-Kalle)
- Eklundapolska
- Polska från Hälleforsnäs (Am)
- Polska från Hälleforsnäs (Dm)
- Polska efter Jan-Erik Taklax
- Troskari Erik's Polska
- Stensele Polska
- Schottisch från Idre I
- Schottisch från Idre II
- Schottisch från Haverö
- Horgalåten Hambo
- Finn-Gustavs Vals
- Midsommarvalssen
- Vals från Pajala
- Livet i Finnskogarna(vals) This tune is the basis of the bluegrass tune "Mockingbird Hill." Finnskogarna ("The Finnish Woods") are in Norway.
- Josefins Dopvals A lovely waltz by Roger Tallroth, composed for his daughter's christening. This has been recorded by Väsen, among others.
- Gånglåt från Äpplebo
- Hia Hia Svärmor
- På Kolbotten
- Vallpigan
- Flodens Död
- Tolfta Polketten (a kind of polka)
- Imeland och Grimeland
- Hagsätra Brudmarsch
- Lilla Långdansen från Bingsjö
Finnish tunes
- Akuvalssi
- Konstan Paremppi Valssi From Konsta Jylhä, who also wrote Akuvalssi. The title means "Konsta's better waltz," but we don't know what is best (parasta) waltz is.
- Emma (valssi)
- Aarne Tarvaisen Masurkka
- Someron Masurkka
- Säkkijärven Polkka
- Ellin Polkka Performed by the incomparable Kalaniemi here, or by Viola Turpeinen (queen of Finn-American accordion) here.
- Lapin Jenkka (Jenkka is very similar to Schottis)
- Severi Suhosen Jenkka Severi Suho is one of the characters played by Finnish actor/accordionist Esa Pakarinen in various Reino Helismaa lumberjack movies. The lyrics (loosely translated) imply "the girls are out to get you." Watching the ladies of the Helsingin Kaksirivisnaiset play this sort of gives you the picture.
- Finnish Tango
- Satumaa "Fairyland" -- Finland's favorite tango.
- Täysikuu (Under Fullmånen). This is an old classic, composed by Toivo Kärkki wih words by Reino Helismaa. There's a 50's era cover of it by Olavi Virtta here, and a more recent version by Maria Kalaniemi and Tango Orkesteri Unto here . A version also appears on Kalaniemi's Swedish album, Vilda Rosor.
- Boeve's Psalm -- This was composed by Lars Hollmer, but I have categorized it as Finnish because it has been widely performed with Maria Kalaniemi's group, Accordion Tribe. It's a haunting melody; something very like it appears in the first funeral scene in the great accordion movie Schultze Gets the Blues; the bass line is unmistakable, but the melody line isn't quite the same and it doesn't get a mention in the music credits. This solo version by Guy Kucevsek is a good way to get a feel for the piece. The left hand can be played on the bass and contrabass rows of a standard stradella box, but takes some getting used to; I'll try to annotate some chords at some point as an alternate approach. This is really written as an accordion piece, but I think it could work well with fiddles too (version with cello here). The sheet music I posted is in a rather oddball key (F#M), and I'm working on a version transposed to G-major. It's a pretty simple melody, so you may be able to transpose to G "by ear" easily enough. I think G would be a lot easier for the fiddlers. There's an accordion tutorial on this tune in G here, which has some great tips on how to handle the left hand part (the hard part for accordionists). It's in German, but not hard to follow from the video and the sound of the music -- though it helps to know the names of the chords in German.
10 o'clock sheet music
When 10 o'clock rolls around at the Scandi Session, Ed hands out sheet music for a new tune, which we learn by sight-reading or just listening to the others until we get the hang of it. A lot of these have nice harmony lines, so please do feel free to give them a go. Some of our 10 o'clock tunes are archived here. At some point, if they become popular enough, they'll be promoted to the main tunebook.
- Grind-Hans Jässpödspolska: Version with chords here, Ed's 10PM version with harmony here. "Jässpöd" is Dalarna dialect for "Gästabud." The great English melodeon master Andy Cutting did a cover of this as CEG . Played on fiddles here, or with fiddle and accordion here .
- Hambo Six-O, a.k.a. "Yodeling Polska," composed by Ed Pritchard for his 60th birthday
- Polska Efter Jonas Hansson
- Julpolska efter Matts Wallman
- Schottis efter Johan Karlsson
- En Liten Vals till Sara
- Sommarvalsen
- Visvals
- Handlarens Vals
- Første Brudstycke
- Frisell's Ganglåt
