This article is part of the Nordic music series.

Music of Denmark

Music of the Faroe Islands

Music of Finland

Music of Greenland

Music of Iceland

Music of Norway

Saami music

Music of Sweden

Traditional Icelandic music is strongly religious in character. Hallgrímur Pétursson wrote numerous Protestant hymns in the 17th century. This music was further modernized in the 19th century, when Magnús Stephensen brough pipe organs, which were followed by harmoniums.

Icelandic folk music was collected by the work of Bjarni Þorsteinsson from 1906 to 1909. Many of these songs were accompanied by traditional instruments like the langspil and fiðla. Epic alliterative and rhyming ballads called rímur are another vital tradition of Icelandic music.

Samples

• Download recording a rimur from the Library of Congress' California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collection; performed by Sigurd Bardarson on April 29, 1940 in Carmel, California