Ostindiens Velkomst: A Song History
"Ostindiens Velkomst," which players in the English-speaking world sometimes call "Welcome to the East India," is a Danish sønderhoning: a dance tune belonging to Sønderho, a village on the island of Fanø.[1][2] The sønderhoning is a couple dance built on the old three-step pols, a dance family whose relatives include the Swedish polska and the Norwegian springar.[3] One peculiarity sets it apart: the melodies are generally in two beats to the bar, while the dancers' steps fall in threes.[4] The sources consulted here say nothing about how this particular tune came by its name, nor when it was made.[1][2][3]
Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Sailing Vessels at Wilders Plads, Copenhagen, pen and black ink with brush and brown and gray wash, 1830. Danish merchant sailing ships at a Copenhagen quay, shown for the seafaring world of Sønderho; it has no connection to the tune.
Sønderho was a seafaring town: once Fanø bought its freedom from the Danish Crown in 1741, islanders could build their own ships and carry freight across the world, and sailors brought silks home from the East for their wives and sweethearts.[3] The village's dance music, which Sønderho's heritage foundation now traces in large part to Dutch, German, Scandinavian and British models, was handed down through five or six generations of the Sonnichsen and later the Brinch families of fiddlers, and until around 1900 it was played for dancing in private homes known as dance rooms.[3] More than a hundred sønderhoning melodies are known, and about eighty are still in use for the dances that run late into the night at Sønderho's balls.[3]
The Danish group Folkets Hus Spillefolk includes the tune in its online sheet-music collection and notes a recording on the Fanø album Jæ' Sweevers – egnsmusik fra Fanø.[1] The tune has also travelled beyond Denmark: one online tune archive gives a version in G whose sheet music was learned from David Kaynor, though the video performances it links play it in D,[2] and Laurie Hart recorded it as "Welcome to the East India" on Fiddlespel: Dance Music of Scandinavia.[5] Dulcimer players will find it in Mark Gilston's Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer, a self-published 64-page book whose download also includes each song as a separate PDF.[6]
Sources
- Folkets Hus Spillefolk: "Ostindiens velkomst" (nodesamling).
- natunelist.net: "Welcome to the East India (Ostindiens velkomst)".
- Levende kultur (Royal Danish Library): "Den levende musik-, danse- og dragttradition i Sønderho på Fanø".
- FolkedansDanmark: "Sønderhoning".
- AllMusic: "Fiddlespel: Dance Music of Scandinavia".
- Mark Gilston: "Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer".
- Image: Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg, Sailing Vessels at Wilders Plads, Copenhagen, pen and black ink with brush and brown and gray wash, 1830. The Metropolitan Museum of Art.