Steklat Fran Sarna: A Song History
In Swedish usage a steklåt, literally a "roast tune," was the tune played at a wedding as the roast was carried in, a custom the Swedish Academy's dictionary marks as belonging to the past.[1] This one is named for Särna, a village on Lake Särnasjön in Älvdalen municipality, Dalarna, about 50 kilometres from the Norwegian border.[2] The district was originally Norwegian; farmers from Älvdalen occupied it in 1644, and the border treaty of 1751 made it formally Swedish.[2]
Anders Zorn, The Bride's Maid, etching, 1905. Anders Zorn's 1905 etching The Bride's Maid, shown for the wedding custom behind the steklåt; it has no connection to the tune.
One modern notation of the tune traces it to Karl-Erik Forsslund's Med Dalälven från källorna till havet, where it is number 28 in the Idre–Särna book.[3] That book, titled for the Storån (Idre–Särna), opens the series, and it and the two that follow it, on Älvdalen and on Orsa Finnmark and Ore, came out from Åhlén & Åkerlund in Stockholm in 1919–1920 with illustrations and music notation.[4] Mark Gilston, billed on the listing as a national champion, arranged it for mountain dulcimer in Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer, a 64-page collection he publishes himself as a change of pace from American old-time repertoire.[5]
Sources
- Svenska Akademiens ordbok: "stek-låt".
- Store norske leksikon: "Särna".
- Stefan Lindén: "Steklåt från Särna".
- Musik- och teaterbiblioteket: "Med Dalälven från källorna till havet D. 1 Öster Dalälven, Bok 1-3".
- Mark Gilston: "Scandinavian Tunes For Dulcimer".
- Image: Anders Zorn, The Bride's Maid, etching, 1905. The Cleveland Museum of Art.