Nordic music: Culture and Travel Context

The Nordic countries have a living heritage of folk music, well-known classical composers such as Edvard Grieg and Jean Sibelius, and a modern scene of pop, rock and electronic music.

The Nordic countries host many smaller and larger music festivals of all kinds, some of which have gained international recognition, attracting international stars on a regular basis.

Folk music and folk dance have a long history in the Nordic countries and in some regions, especially in Norway and the Faroe Islands, it is still practised as authentic as ever as part of local cultural traditions. In Denmark, folk music and folk dance has not survived as a continuous popular tradition from older times. Here, it is mostly practised by organised enthusiasts trying to revive or rediscover these traditions, bringing them to people's general attention and keeping them alive.

Nordic folk music is associated with the spelman, an instrumentalist who usually plays the fiddle; sometimes the accordion, the bagpipes or the nyckelharpa. The styles, accompanying garments and occasions of folk music vary somewhat from country to country and from region to region. The Sami people who live in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia have their own musical tradition, known for the iconic singing style, the joik. Kulning is a herding call typical to northern Scandinavia, for calling in livestock from mountain pastures and scaring predators.

Sweden and Denmark has had classical musicians at their Royal courts. The classical music of Norway and Finland were important for the rise of their national identities of the 19th century, and has since then celebrated their 20th century struggle for independence.

There are also traditions with singer-songwriters, with the 18th century Carl Michael Bellman's songs still well-known and performed in solo-with-guitar, choir or sing-along settings. Big 19th–20th century names in the genre include Dag Andersson, Evert Taube and Cornelis Vreeswijk. The Nordic "chanson" is visa, often performed in this style or as sing-along, common in many kinds of gatherings.

The Nordic countries have large and thriving pop music scenes. Some Nordic singers and bands who have achieved chart-topping success internationally include Aqua (Denmark), Toy-Box (Denmark), Michael Learns to Rock (Denmark), ABBA (Sweden), Roxette (Sweden), A-HA (Norway), M2M (Norway), Björk (Iceland) and Sigur Rós (Iceland). Due to the high level of English proficiency and small local markets in the Nordic countries, Nordic bands and singers often release songs in English instead of their native languages, though pop music in the native languages is still possible to find. Music festivals are most diverse and range from pop, rock and jazz to electronica, psych, metal and hip hop.

Denmark has a lively and broad musical culture. Even though most of the folk dance and folk music traditions haven't been kept alive in the popular culture, singing has continued to be strongly rooted in Denmark through the centuries. After the reformation in 1536, a large number of psalms were composed in Danish by notable poets like Brorson, Kingo, Grundtvig and Ingemann and they are still very popular in churches and some even on non-religious occasions. In the later half of the 1800s, during a soaring wave of Danish nationalism, a lot of new songs were composed and added to the already large body of Danish songs. Singing became an important part of the Højskole tradition, and ordinary schools as well, and in 1894, the first collection of Danish songs was issued in Højskolesangbogen. This particular songbook has seen many subsequent editions and is the most popular songbook in the country to this day. Outside the cultural institutions, there is a strong tradition for performers and troubadours composing and singing in Danish, with iconic performers from modern times like John Mogensen, Trille, Kim Larsen, C V Jørgensen, Anne Linnet, Michael Falch, Povl Dissing, Johnny Madsen and Niels Hausgaard. The Danish language has a small audience, but singing in Danish have seen something of a revival in the new millennium, as represented by popular artists Medina, Suspekt, Carl Emil (Ulige Numre), Sys Bjerre, Nephew and Peter Sommer.

In the classical genre, Denmark had many Romantic composers, of which Nils Gade, Carl Nielsen and Hans Christian Lumbye are perhaps the most notable. More recent and experimental composers includes Vagn Holmboe, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Anders Nordentoft and Per Nørgård. The contemporary scene for classical music is both broad and very active with many notable and prolific composers and solo-artists. Opera has been enjoyed in Denmark since the early 1700s, when the royal family introduced this art form, inspired by Italy. Early composers of Danish operas includes J. A. P. Schulz and Kuntzen from the 1780s and several notable operas were produced in the 1800s onwards, including the still popular Elverhøj (Elves' Hill) from 1828 by Kuhlau. More recent and active composers includes John Frandsen, Poul Ruders and Bent Lorentzen who have also worked internationally with both operas and orchestral compositions. Opera can be experienced regularly in Copenhagen, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense and Esbjerg.

Today, Denmark hosts many music festivals of all musical genres, and is especially known for the popular annual Roskilde festival and Copenhagen Jazzfestival. Well-known and active international artists and bands from Denmark includes Mø, Oh Land, Lukas Graham, Mew and Volbeat to mention just a few from the pop and rock scene. In pop music, Denmark is particularly known for the genre of bubblegum dance, with bands such as Aqua and Toy-Box achieving international success in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

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Text adapted from Nordic music by Wikivoyage contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0. Paragraphs have been selected and abridged, and formatting adjusted. This adapted text is shared under the same licence. Contributor history.