Sackpipslt efter Jont Lars Olsson

This is one of very few “real“ Swedish bagpipe tunes, i.e. tunes with a known connection to a bagpiper in the old tradition. There are only about twenty of those, and all of them were written down second hand. In other words, they were all played by someone else, on some other instrument, when first written down. Since most other instruments have a greater range and flexibility than bagpipes, many of these tunes had already then, when written down, transformed into something which is no longer playable on pipes. This tune is an exception, possibly because Jont Lars Olsson, after whom this tune was written down, sang (lilted) the tune. Jont Lars had this tune after the bagpiper Gucku Olof Olsson (b. 1828). Olof often played with his younger brother, Anders, who played the fiddle. Together they were known as “Guckupojkarna“ (the Gucku lads).