MED DENNA VISDOM BÖRJAR VI DENNA LÅT. Om mellansnackets diskursiva konstruktion av den svenska folkmusikgenren

Sammanfattning: ”With this knowledge we begin this tune” – Stage talk as the discursive construction of Swedish folk music. Stage talk – i.e. the musicians’ talk on stage during concerts – is a given in an array of musical genres, although how the musicians talk and which roles the stage talk fill differ between genres. The aim of this thesis is to explore and discuss how the Swedish folk music genre is constructed through stage talk, based on the ideas, evaluations and power relations which are articulated about the music, its tradition and its practitioners. Stage talk is regarded as part of the discursive practices which constitute the musical genre and its actors, and as expressions of occurring conceptions and ideologies in the genre. The talk itself is seen as a performance event, and as such more so a performance of identity – of musical persona and gender – than a performance of text. Through discourse analysis, the thesis studies transcriptions of stage talk from 25 concerts with professional folk musicians, performed between the years 1970 and 2023. The performer creates an interpretative frame for the music, the concerts and its participants through stage talk. The background of the performed music, such as the performer’s relationship to older traditions, tradition bearers and places is a frequent topic of stage talk, and through it tradition, history and authenticity are established as highly important factors in the genre. Authenticity can however also refer to the personal authenticity and (musical) voice of the performer, and the musician is expected to combine both traditional knowledge and personal expression, such as emotional interpretations and contexts using affective narratives, throughout the entire concert event. Both traditional and emotional types of origin form ways of legitimizing the performer as musical authority, but do so in different ways – one employed by musicians of all genders, often regarding instrumental dance tunes, and one more often employed by female musicians, mainly regarding vocal music with text. Humor and light-heartedness is a recurring aspect of the stage talks, and even though the performer is established as musical authority, humor is often used as a disarming disclaimer to this role, its power relations and expectations.