Music of the Faroe Islands

Faroese music is primarily vocal, accompanied by the fiddle (which arrived in the 17th century) and European dances like the minuet and polka. During the twentieth century choirs have played an important role in the musical history of the Faroes, and some of the best known current choirs are Tarira, Havnarkórið, Tórshavnar Manskór, Ljómur, Fuglafjarðar Gentukór, and the choirs situated in Copenhagen: Húsakórið and Mpiri.

Much of the imported music and instruments remained popular only in the capital and largest city, Tórshavn. Rural peoples remained true to traditions of chain dance and ballads. The three types of dance ballads are kvæði, tættir and vísir. Many of these dance forms were revived after World War 2, when a number of dance societies were formed. The ballads were largely compiled in Corpus Carminum Færoensium, which collected over 44,000 stanzas.

Other songs include skjaldur, fantastic fairy tales sung by adults for children, and pitch-sliding, microtonal hymns called kingosálmar. In her magnum opus about Faroese folk singing, Marianne Clausen comprehensively described the various genres, and presented about 3,300 music transcriptions of folk singing melodies.

Modern Faroese musicians who have have fused native traditions with music from Scotland, Bulgaria and the Sami people of northern Scandinavia:

Other well known Faroese musicians include:

Well known Faroese bands include (in alphabetical order)

There are also some quite famous Faroese classical composers. Sunleif Rasmussen is until now the only Faroese ever to have written a symphony. Other composers are Kristian Blak, Edvard N. Debess, Janus Rasmussen, Tróndur Bogason, Kári Bæk, Palli Hansen, Knút Olsen and Pauli í Sandágerði.

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