Music and Chain Dance
Traditional Faroese music was primarily vocal, and was not accompanied by musical instruments. Only in Tórshavn instruments like fiddles were present in the older days. When trade grew in the 20th century the Faroese started to use imported musical instruments. Much of the imported music and instruments remained popular only in the capital and largest city, Tórshavn. Rural peoples remained true to traditions of the chain dance and ballads. The chain dance is a dance, which only survived in the Faroe Islands, while in other European countries it was banned by the church, due to its pagan origin. The dance is danced traditionally in a circle, but when a lot of people take part in the dance they usually let it swing around in various wobbles within the circle.
The following description is by V. U. Hammershaimb, Færøsk Anthologi, 1891: The storyline of the ballad is attended by everybody with great interest, and if something especially pleasant or moving occurs, you can see it in the look and movement of the dancers – when the rage of the battle is described, the hands are clenched together, and when victory is in hand, they make cheering movements.
Such is the importance of the dance as a cultural element that the Faroese refer to it as Faroese dance. However, it shall be stated that the dance hasn’t the same popularity it once had. This especially applies to younger generations.
Read more about this topic: Culture Of The Faroe Islands
Famous quotes containing the words music and, music, chain and/or dance:
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Mind the music and the step,
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—Richard Shuckburg (1756–1818)
“But the dark changed to red, and torches shone,
And deafening music shook the leaves; a troop
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Or smote upon the string and to the sound
Sang of the beast that gave the fatal wound.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“We are all bound to the throne of the Supreme Being by a flexible chain which restrains without enslaving us. The most wonderful aspect of the universal scheme of things is the action of free beings under divine guidance.”
—Joseph De Maistre (1753–1821)
“We look at the dance to impart the sensation of living in an affirmation of life, to energize the spectator into keener awareness of the vigor, the mystery, the humor, the variety, and the wonder of life. This is the function of the American dance.”
—Martha Graham (1894–1991)