So you've started playing in a student orchestra or dancing in a student ballet? Congratulations! You are now part of an old, widespread and uniquely Nordic student tradition.
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| Medals are natural conversation pieces. |
This text was written in 1988 by Katarina Bäcklund Stålenheim, who was the general of STORK (the student orchestra festival) that year. The editorial staff of Nationalencyclopedin asked her to write the article about student orchestras, which begets the question as to why such a prestigious publication would want to write about such a thing. The answer is that back then, a knowledge of studentious subculture was part of general knowledge in a way which is hard to imagine nowadays. Things students did were regarded as part of swedish cultural life, something that goes back to the early 19th century. In the 80's, student orchestra music was considered suitable entertainment at the Nobel Prize banquet!
Describing the student orchestra in a single paragraph is hard, but Bäcklund Stålenheim does a good job of it. Let's use her text to explore the world of student orchestras from an outside perspective.
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| Student orchestra music is a mixture of music new and old, performed in a humorous way. That's the reason many of us listen to Melodikrysset every saturday morning. Sometimes, at live broadcasts, there will be an oppurtunity to meet Anders Eldeman (the host) himself. Occasionally he plays student orchestra music in his program! |
There are, as already mentioned, student orchestras in other countries. In Finland and Norway you will find a diverce flora of orchestras, often formed the same way and at the same time as the Swedish ones. Furthermore there are two in Germany and one in Estonia. The student orchestra culture has always been strongest in Sweden.
It's hard to make any complete list of student orchestras. Should you include the extinct ones? Should you list the ballets with their orchestras or separately? For a reasonably complete list, look here.
The music
All orchestras made up of students aren't student orchestras and all student orchestras don't consist of only students. Quite a few people remain in the orchestra after graduation simply because they have so much fun.
Wind corps or big band? In a wider perspective the student orchestra phenomenon is part of the Swedish brass band tradition with its roots in the mid 19th century. When the actual student orchestra subculture was born in the 1950's, wind music still had a very strong position in Swedish society. Playing in a wind corps was a popular hobby. At the same time, public music schools started opening up all over the country. Traditional jazz (also known as dixieland) was popular music among high school and college students and it was therefore common that they played wind instruments. These are the reasons that so many student orchestras were born between 1950 and 1965. That period is known as the first wave of student orchestras. Many of these orchestras were formed in Gothenburg and Stockholm who were relatively new students towns, eager to create their own student traditions instead of just copying the ancient Uppsala and Lund. The idea of having a student orchestra to represent your union, nation, section or whole town spread like wildfire over Sweden, Finland and Norway. Many students from near and afar visited the big student carnevals in Lund (Lundakarnevalen) and Stockholm (Quarnevalen) where the student orchestras performed, and that is how the idea was spread.
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| The banjo is the soul of the student orchestra. It is a heritage from and a reminder of the student orchestra subculture's origins within the traditional jazz movement of the 1950's. Banjo players in all student orchestras have their own subculture within the subculture, with their own traditions and even their own musical constellations. |
Initially, the repertoire consisted of everything that could be found cheap or for free. That included marches (acquired from closed down army bands as Sweden was demilitarizing), traditional jazz (many of the musicians knew the songs by heart) and hits from the 1930's and 40's (sold dirt cheap as they were considered otherwise unsellable). At an early stage, parodies of classical pieces came into the picture, since it is in the studentious spirit to travestize classical culture in general. Not much later, contemporary popular music was added to the mix. Most songs are played with some degree of parody. The old 40's hits are usually played as traditional jazz, for example.
From the mid 1960's and throughout most of the 70's, the radical student movement grew and established a firm foothold at Swedish universities. Their leaders viewed all things studentious as reactionary and despicable. The expansion of the student orchestra subculture ground to a halt, as having your own student orchestra was no longer the hot new thing among student organizations. At the end of the 70's, the tide turned and the 80's saw an enormous renaissance in studentious activities, which lastes way into the 90's. The time between (approximately) 1978 and 1995 is known as the second wave of student orchestras.
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| One way of making any music studentious is to perform tricks to it. Tricks are almost always either cheap or extremely convoluted. |
In the 1970's, big band jazz made a big comeback after beeing branded as dorky at the end of the 40's. Student orchestras formed in the 70's and 80's often became pure big bands with a repertoire of only big band standards. Nothing in particular was done with the arrangements and they often sounded dull and bad. The traditional student orchestras didn't want to let the big bands into the subculture (especially the festivals). Eventually, they had to due to a compromise. The arguments were (stupidly) boiled down to "a real student orchestra doesn't use electric bass". But just as nowadays, tuba players didn't exactly grow on trees, so many traditionalists used electric bass for practical reasons. That opened the door for the big bands, but the musical and cultural differences remain even today. There is quite a distinct dichotomy between traditional (real) student orchestras and big bands.
The uniforms, medals and patches
The uniforms were introduced in 1954. The first uniforms were dolman and tail-coat, and many older orchestras still use them today.
The dolman is a waist-length jacket buttoned up with fancy chords. It was often used as stage clothes by the promenade- and restaurant orchestras of the 19th century, who were usually brass bands. They were often made up of military musicians who needed the extra work. They ususally played marching music which was very popular in the second half of the 19th century. The dolman wasn't their regular uniform, but it looked good on stage. Studentious arts have always looked to the 19th century for inspiration, and the dolman fits that theme perfectly.
Tail-coat is the traditional academic formal attire in the nordic countries. At the beginning of the 20th century it was also common as the official outfit of student organizations - both humourosly and seriously. Therefore, several early student orchestras took the tail-coat as their uniform. As stated above, it is in the studentious spirit to look to the 19th century, and the tail-coat also fits in perfectly.
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| Blåshjuden (formed in Gothenburg in 1952) were the first orchestra to don a uniform. They premiered their dolman on November 6, 1954. Allianceorchestret (also from Gothenburg, formed in 1948) appeared in tail-coat for the first time exactly two weeks later. Many others followed suit. |
It wasn't long before newer student orchestras took on cheaper and simpler uniforms, but the tradition remains rooted in studentiousness and a tip-of-the-hat to military music.
Wear your uniform with pride. Its the strongest symbol you have. Not only does it unite you with your own orchestra, but with all other student musicians across the nordic countries, as well as older and coming generations. You will most likely keep the uniform your whole life. It is to be worn at all gigs and parties with your orchestra, but also other orchestras'. An audience in uniform will make any student orchestra happy*. Going to another orchestra's concert in civilian clothing is in extremely poor taste and has actually been used as an insult.
*A hoodie or t-shirt from your orchestra does not count as uniform!
When the student boiler suit was established as a tradition at the Royal Technical College in Stockholm in 1973 the custom of trading patches soon followed. It probably made its way into the student orchestra subculture in Linköping, where the students adopted the boiler suit very early. From there it has spread all over the country.
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| How to trade patches: 1) Buy a bunch of patches from your own orchestra and keep the in the pockets of your uniform. 2) When you meet someone from an orchestra whose patch you don't have, ask if they want to trade. 3) If they say yes, they get one of yours and you get one of theirs. 4) Sew it onto your uniform. 5) Keep this up for 10 years and you will have a complete collection. |
Almost every orchestra and ballet has at least one patch - gotta catch 'em all! A safe bet is ACO from Stuttgart who make new patches every year.
Students have loved medals for a very long time. So long, in fact, that
it's more or less impossible to trace the origins of the tradition. One
plausible explanation is that they originated as parodies of the state
ordens that became common in the early 19th century. Humorous medals are
known as early as 1834.
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| The more medals, the merrier. |
There is much evidence to suggest that the student orchestras' custom of making medals for festivals and larger concerts stems from Lundakarnevalen, were they started selling carneval medals at the very latest in the 1950's.
Your best chance of getting (buying) a medal is at SOF, STORK, Lundakarnevalen, BRUNK, QORK, G-SOF and at orchestras' and ballets' anniversary concerts. These peculiar words will be explained later.
Speaking of uniforms we may also take the opportunitie to mention someting about student orchestra names. They can be sorted into two categories:
1) Witty puns refering to both music terminology and the orchestra's home town or allegiance. Examples include: "Kruthornen", "Kårsdraget", "Isterbandet", "Snösvänget", "Blåslaget", "Tupplurarna" och "Hornboskapen".
2) Complex and far fetched references to the orchestra's allegiance or origins, such as "Alte Kamereren", "Mercblecket", "Osquar Mutter", "Allianceorchestret", "Humpsvakar" and "Wijkmanska Blecket".
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| Snösvänget belong to the student union at Umeå University. Umeå is in northern Sweden where it snows a lot. "Svänget" approximately means "the groove". "Snösvängen" (with an n) is a slang word for the snow removal business. That's the reason the orchestra's theme is taken from the Swedish Road Administration. Orange and green also happens to be the colors of the Umeå student union. It hardly gets more studentious than that. |
The ballet
As you have realized by now this has nothing to do with classical or even contemporary ballet, but rather the history of the Swedish language. The correct English term is chorus line, but just as in the case of student orchestra, we have to introduce a new expression into the English language. Ballet was introduced to Sweden by king Gustaf III in 1773. Since then, all kinds of dance shows were called "ballet", regardless of style. This lasted up until about 1970, when the word fell out of use. The type of dance student ballets perform has its artistic roots in 19th century revues, but there have been many other influences.
The first ballet to dance with a student orchestra - Paletten from the Royal Technical College, Stockholm - was formed in 1958, but the phenomenon is considerably older. Vague sources mention ballet as early as the 1920's, when the dance was performed by female first year students, who had gotten it as an assignment. The 1920's also saw the birth of the tradition with the female students arranging the Lucia gasque. The entertainment usually consisted of some kind of humouristic dance show, called ballet, of course. In the 1930's, student revues became popular, and dance numbers with ballet were always included.
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| The ballets usually wear different stage outfits for each dance number, but sometimes they dance in uniform. |
The student revues made a comeback in the 1950's. They often included ballets who danced the can-can. But there are many more examples of can-can in a student context. During a wet afterparty at the first Quarnevalen in 1953 the female students danced the can-can on the tables. Sources from Uppsala mention nation ballets who danced the can-can in the 1950's. Sometimes it was also an assigment for first years. We can conclude that in the 50's, there was a general and widespread idea that female students were expected to entertain with dance.
The student ballet phenomenon has grown from that idea, as the origins of the earliest ballets are rather similar but there is nothing to indicate that they have inspired each other, or even had any contact. They simply formed when someone had the idea that dance was needen at some party or show, and then kept dancing together.
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| The ballet often wears a different uniform from the orchestras, but with an inverted color scheme. Blåsyran (from Linköping) wear a blue jacket with yellow pants. LiTHe Blås (their orchestra) wera a yellow jacket with blue pants. A ballet can also wear the same uniform as the orchestra - or an entirely different one. |
The earliest ballets (Paletten - the Royal Technical College, Stockholm; Napoleonetterna - Stockholm University, Chalmersbaletten - Chalmers Technical College, Gothenburg; Patriciabaletten - Gothenburg University; Letta Gardet - V-Dala Nation, Uppsala) were very likely the inspiration for later ballets. Initially, the gender segregation was strong - female students in the ballet, male in the orchestra. There are still ballets who take only female members, whereas the last orchestra abandoned the male-only policy in 2004. But the gender coding was not only about exclusion - some ballets formed during the 60's had the explicit purpose of bringing more female students into the student life.
There are also male-only ballets. They are often based around the humour of men in tutus or tights, but the dancing isn't necessarily bad.
The gender segregation started to dissolve in the 1970's. Palletten was one of the first, if not the first to accept male members. Orchestras started taking female members as early as 1959.
Many more ballets came into being starting in the 70's. The student orchestra festivals had started, and everyone wanted to join the party. How to get in if you couldn't play an instrument? Join the ballet, of course! If the orchestra at your university didn't have a ballet you simply had to form one. This, together with a big surge in dance interest during the 80's, triggered a ballet wave that lasted into the 90's.
Hornboskapen
Hornboskapen from Södermanland-Nerikes (Snerikes) nation in Uppsala is generally regarded as the first student orchestra. They count 1843 as their year of origin. The truth is that the nation bought two mouthpeices for french horn that year. But a number of biographies about student life in Uppsala in the 1840's mention "a band of brass virtuosi" within the nation, and the nation's records list several repairs and purchases of brass instruments. Similar brass bands are known from other nations during the 19th century, but Hornboskapen (the name first appeared in 1895) is the only one that has survived to this day. But this is hardly an unbroken tradition. The orchestra tradition stabilized when the nation hired gun sergeant Albert Gille to lead the music at the nation in 1905, but Hornboskapen mainly rehearsed and performed around Valborg up until the 1950's. In the 50's, they took inspiration from the Gothenburg and Stockholm orchestras when it came to repertoire and uniforms.
The Student Orchestra Festival
The student orchestra festival is called SOF when it takes place in Linköping on odd-numbered years and STORK when its in Uppsala on even-numbered years. The festival is the high point of every student orchestra musician's year. The first SOF took place in Linköping in 1973, and was one of the driving forces behind the surge in interest in studentious activities during the seventies. The first STORK was in Uppsala in 1977. In the 80's, the festival grew to an enormous size and eventually became the largest student event in the Nordic countries.
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| Every festival sells merch. The most important pieces (that everyone buy) are medals, patches and t-shirts, but there can also be stuff like pins, bottle openers and sunhats. |
The student orchestra festival is the big forum for contact between student orchestras. All the orchestras in Sweden, several from Finland, Germany and possibly Norway and Estonia gather and play for three or four days. This is where the student orchestra subculture is the most vivid. Everyone lets loose completely and anything can happen. Don't get surprised if you're suddenly exposed to a reading of russian pornographic folk tales, meet people who want to sell you a homemade nude calendar or get dragged into a caravan and forced to drink watered down coffee and punsch* straight from the bottle while overage student orchestra musicians tell you their tallest tales.
*A type of liquor popular in the Nordic countries, closely associated with studentiousness. It is served with dessert at student banquets, or along with the traditional thursday peasoup. In the student orchestra subculture, which parodizes everything, it can be served straight from the bottle or in beer glasses.
It's here that you get memories and friends for life. Nothing beats experiencing your first festival, where you get a true feeling of how big this world really is. Quite a few people keep coming back year after year upon graduating and leaving the orchestra. Sometimes they bring their children - in little uniforms.
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| If you visit ten student orchestra festivals in a row you will receive one of the subculture's finest awards: the ten year medal, also known as "The Ten" (Tian). Actually, you'll get two - one silver-gilded to put on your uniform, and one of pure silver to wear with formal attire. They both look the same. |
The student orchestra festival encountered several problems during the 00's. In 2004 there was no STORK, for example. Instead, Riks-SMASK planne for a replacement festival, SORK, aboard a cruise ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. That fell through and the festival was instead held in the student union building Kårallen in Linköping. That festival was small but very cosy. People are still talking about "the scent of sweat and lasagna".
Each festival is planned by a festival committé. Being a part of this committé is the coolest and most fun thing you can do in this subculture. Take the chance during your time as a student!
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| If you're really dedicated and go to 25 festivals (not necessarily in a row) you'll get an even fancier medal. This one also comes in two versions. Now we're really talking above and beyond the call of duty. |
Riks-SMASK
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| The character you see on the festival merch is kalled Tutputte and has been the mascot of the festival since 1975. He has also become the mascot of Riks-SMASK. Actually there is two of them. The Uppsala version wears a student cap, the Linköping version does not. |
The student orchestra festival came into being thanks to Riks-SMASK - Riksförbundet Sveriges Musicerande Akademikers Samarbetande Kårorkestrar och Baletter (The National Organization of Sweden's Musical Academics' Cooperating Union Orchestras and Ballets). SMASK - Stockholms Musicerande Akademikers Samarbetande Kårorkestrar (Stockholm's Musical Academics' Cooperating Union Orchestras) was formed in Stockholm in 1964, initially as a sponsorship initiative by the brewery PRIPPS. As the 60's progressed, SMASK started launching common projects by its own initiative and became more of an actual organization.
In 1970, SMASK had to protect the orchestras' interest against Lundakarnevalen, who wanted to limit the number of orchestras at the carneval. This caused the SMASK orchestras to boycott the carneval, form a proper organization with a proper board and work for common, bigger goals.
This lead to the formation of a national organization in 1972 (Riks-SMASK). Orchestras from other towns soon followed SMASKs example and formed their own local branches of Riks-SMASK. At the founding meeting in 1972, this was written:
Riks-SMASK will stand as responsible for the following definition of student musik: "A humouristic, respectless form of music, usually performed in an academic context, where the full joy of music and not necessarily the musical equilibrism comes first", and as far as possible spread the cheerful message slightly obscured by these big words.
One of Riks-SMASK's main goals was having a student orchestra festival, along the lines of Lundakarnevalen and Quarnevalen but only for orchestras, not having to bother with contests, limitations of how many could partake, cranky committies and so on. Riks-SMASK wanted to hold the festival in a central location, with equal travelling distance for all orchestras. After measuring on a map it was concluded that Gränna was the perfect spot geographically. However, it was a town without any students and no students organizations to help locally. Instead, the student union att Linköpings Technical College were approached. They jumped at the opportunity, as they were a young university, eager to create their own student traditions. The first SOF took place in Linköping in may 1973 and was a major success. A new Swedish studentious tradition had been born.
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| Here is yet one of our finest medals. You get it if you have sat on the board of Riks-SMASK. |
The Riks-SMASK board has eight members. The president, the treasurer, the webmaster and five secretary generals - one for each region. Three of the regions have their own regional organization. They are as follows:
Stockholm. Here we have SMASK - Stockholms Musicerande Akademikers Samarbetande Kårorkestrar. What eventually became SMASK was started in 1964. Every year, SMASK appoints the SMASKiest person of the year and arranges QORK (look below).
Gothenburg. Here we have GASK - Göteborgs Musicerande Akademikers Samarbetande Kårorkestrar. Arranges G-SOF (look below).
Uppsala. Here we have OK. OK - OrkesterKonventet (The Orchestra Convent) was formed in 1987 to Replace UMASK that didn't work very well. OK is a sub-convent of KuratorsKonventet, an organization for cooperation between the student nations. OK arranges BRUNK (look below).
Region Southern Sweden. Initially it was called LuMASK (Lunds Musicerande Akademikers Samarbetande Kårorkestrar), later Region Lund, but when student orchestras appeared at other universities in southern Sweden, the region was expanded to include them and the name was changed.
Region the Rest of Sweden. Represents all orchestras who are not part of any of the larger regions.
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| The board of Riks-SMASK for the academic year 2017/2018. Each region elects its own secretary general while the chairman, treasurer and webmaster are elected by the congress held at every SOF and STORK. |
The congress held every year at the festival is the highest deliberative assembly of Riks-SMASK. Each member orchestra can send two representatives and has two votes - one for the orchestra and one for the ballet.
The Norwegian orchestras have a national organization of their own NASH - Norsk Academisk Schlaag et Hoornunion (Norwegian Academic Drum- and Hornunion) - arranges the festival SMASH (Societé Musicale Academique de Schlag et Horn) every semester. SMASH is smaller than SOF and STORK and is held in a different Norwegian university town each time. The first SMASH was held in Trondheim in 1965. NASH was formed in 2016 to help organize SMASH and to help the orchestras keep in touch.
Finland has two official languages - Finnish and Swedish - and the Swedish-speaking orchestras (Axelbandet and Humpsvakar) have observer status in Riks-SMASK. Apart from that there is no national organization for Finland. All student orchestras in Finland, regardless of language, have their own festival. It's called PUHALLUS and is held biannually in different university towns.
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| The best way to explore the world of student orchestras is by bus. |
Many student orchestras have som type of show every year. Gather a bunch of people from your orchestra and go to as many as you can - its one of the must fun things you can do. The leader of your orchestra will have recieved an invitation in advance. There are also a few recurring opportunities to meet other orchestras:
BRUNK - short for Brunkation, an upsalian bogus latin word for a party where the Uppsala orchestras gather and play for each other. There are often guests from Stockholm as well. The first BRUNK was at V-Dala nation in 1960.
QORK - Same thing as BRUNK but in Stockholm. Started in 1986. QORK means Qul Och Roligt på Kåren (Fun and joyous at the union).
G-SOF - Same as BRUNK but in Gothenburg. Short for Gothenburg Student Orchestra Festival. The first one was in 1969.
Lundakarnevalen - enormous student carneval organized by the students in Lund. Held every four years. Many student orchestras go there and play. The first one took place in 1849. The next one will be in 2022.
Quarnevalen - student carneval in Stockholm every three years. Arranged by the Student Union (THS) at the Royal Technical College (KTH). The next one will probably be in 2023.
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| Most orchestras have some sort of cosy headquarters. If you visit them you might be invited to see it. They might even have cleaned up a bit in the last year or so. |
On top of all this, there is a plethora of things that unite the world of student orchestras. Here are some of the most important:
Tiger Rag - the national anthem of the student orchestra subculture. An uptempo jazz classic from 1917. As the tradition goes, ALL the musicians open SOF and STORK by playing Tiger Rag together. Learn it by heart!
Can-can - the ballet equivalent of Tiger Rag.
Inga blommor växer på en sjömans grav - the anthem of the banjo players. Usually called "Inga Blommor" or "Sjömansgraven". It has been passed down from banjo player to banjo player since 1994.
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| Once upon a time, there was an organization called BanjoMusikens Dags Vänner (Friends of the Banjo Music Day) or BMDV. BMDV was composed of banjo players from all student orchestras and even had their own board. At the turn of the century their archive of harmonies was still available online. Efforts to resurrect BMDV have been met with little success, but Banjo Music Day is still occasionally celebrated in Stockholm. Inga blommor växer på en sjömans grav is the anthem of banjo players throughout Sweden. |
Jam - student musicians love to jam on old traditional jazz standards. It's a way to build bridges between orchestras and hold our subculture together. Anyone can join in, just grab your instrument. If you need some help, SMASK has published a fantasic jam book with 150 classic jam songs. The custom of jamming is yet another heritage from the revival jazz moment of the 1950's.
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| SMASK have published a top class jam book, filled to the brim with traditional jazz classics. Contact Promenaorquestern if you want to buy it. |
A spontaneous jam will quite often take the form of kackjam (shitty jam). Kackjam can appear if the jammers have never played the instrument before or if the instrument has been recently invented. Kackjam can be in as many keys as there are partitioners.
Marmeladorkestern (the Marmalade Orchestra) - a jam club arranged by Wijkmanska Blecket in the summer. Everyone can join and no experience is required. Can be found at Uplands nation in Uppsala.
Sommarorkestern (the Summer Orchestra) - arranged by SMASK in Stockholm in the summer. Plays full arrangements, not jam.
If you want a somewhat detailed encyclopedia of the student orchestra world, take a look at Smaskipedia (in Swedish).
And last of all:
We're thrilled that you've started playing or dancing with us! It's thanks to all the new members we old ones can keep having so much fun. Because of you we can relive everything over and over again. And your student orchestra adventure has only just begun...
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| Festivals and anniversary shows are fun indeed. But it's at regular crap gigs like this, with a small setting on a trailer in blazing sun, or at some running competition with the rain pouring down, that you really bond with you orchestra. Here you really show your true colors. Savour those moments. |
Literature:
Angenete, Johan; Olsson, Mia; Rystedt, Niklas; Svensson, Katarina; Red. 1998. Balliografi - Chalmersbaletten 35 - Allianceorchestret 50. ISBN 91-630-6663-7
Asplund, Johan. 1997. Kårsdragets Historia. En översikt av Stockholms Universitets Studentorkester, Blåscorpset Kårsdraget, ur ett historiskt perspektiv. B- uppsats. Historiska institutionen, Stockholms Universitet.
http://www.karsdraget.se/home/mer_om
http://www.diva-portal.se/smash/get/diva2:527764/FULLTEXT02.pdf
Nordberg, Olle, Red. 1993. Skapelsens krona - Hornboskapen 1843-1993. Uppsala.
Riks-SMASK
SMASH
Åkvist, Anders, red. 2002. KHMMC Blåshjuden af Götheborg 1952 - 2002.
