Who Cares If I Play Swedish Music?
Nyckelharpa played the traditional Swedish way, with the strap over the neck Photo: Aaron Winton NB! Huom! The title of this post is a playful reference to the famous Milton Babbit essay "Who Cares if you Listen?" It is not meant in any way to be disrespectful of Sweden's national instrument the nyckelharpa, but to explore the versatility of this beautiful instrument and deconstruct social bias. Recently, I have been thinking about what it means to be a non-Swedish heritage nyckelharpa player and the history of the nyckelharpa and what the nyckelharpa has come to represent. I get the question a lot: Are you Swedish? I say no, I'm Puerto Rican (to laughter). [Edit: I recently found out I am about 1% Swedish]. Then why do you play Swedish nyckelharpa? And I always want to ask, well, are you Italian if you play violin? Why has the nyckelharpa come to represent Swedish ident