Polska Av Batsman Dack: A Song History
The polska known as "Polska efter Båtsman Däck" comes from Uppland, Sweden, and is named for the fiddler Johan Däck, who lived from 1848 to 1913.[1][2][3] An arranger's note on the tune places Däck at Valö, near Östhammar, and says he went around the world three times as a sailor.[2] At a 1907 gathering of spelmän at Vigelsbo, where players competed in old Uppland tunes, Däck took the fiddle class, though the judge declined to award a first prize and gave him second.[1]
Muirhead Bone, Stockholm, drypoint. Sailing ships in Stockholm harbour, shown for the seafaring fiddler the tune is named for; it has no connection to the tune.
The fiddler Albin Wallin, from a musical family in Valö parish, counted Däck, his teacher, as his most important influence, and learned Däck's polskas and waltzes by ear together with Däck's son Emil, a schoolmate.[1] Albin's sons Ceylon and Henry Wallin later recorded the LP Roslagslåtar, released in 1972, and the online tune collection of Folkets Hus Spillefolk credits that LP as the recording behind its notation of the polska.[1][3]
The tune now travels well beyond Uppland: the American Nyckelharpa Association includes it on a list meant to give American players a shared repertoire for playing together.[4] Mark Gilston's Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer, which DulcimerDownloads offers as an authorized, licensed download, names it among its contents as "Polska Av Batsman Dack."[5]
Sources
- Wallin-traditionen (nyckelharpa.net): "Albin Wallin".
- Runes Musik: "Polska efter ”Båtsman Däck”".
- Folkets Hus Spillefolk: "Polska e. Båtsman Däck".
- American Nyckelharpa Association: "American Nyckelharpa Allspel List".
- Mark Gilston: "Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer".
- Image: Muirhead Bone, Stockholm, drypoint. The Cleveland Museum of Art.