About the music collections

The first step to form the Scania Music Collections was initiated by Culture in Scania, an association between former Malmö and Kristianstad County including the City of Malmö. The reason for this was the need for an inventory of Scanian folk music. A council consisting of ethnologists, musicologists and folk musicians was formed and in 1981 the actual collection work began. The responsibility for the collections was handed over to theFolk Life Archives in 1991 with the aim of collecting, taking care of and making available local music.

The Scania Music Collections consists of sheet music, song books, music recordings, interviews and so forth. The collections are largely related to the region of Scania, but there are also materials with links to other regions in south Sweden, such as Blekinge and Halland. The emphasis is on traditional folk music, dance music and ballads, but also more modern music is represented. A substantial number of the collections is digitized and are available electronically.

In the same manner as theFolklife Archivesother activities the Scania Music Collections are trying to relate to current research. In the beginning the work pointed as mainly older folk tradition, but nowadays the task of documenting should by applicable throughout the whole multicultural province of Scania.

Outgoing activities are an important part of the Scania Music Collection’s task. The collections are available both for researchers, students and for the general public.