The Folk Music Centre

Opening hours

The Folk Music Centre in Siglufjordur is located in Madame House where the Rev. Bjarni Thorsteinsson lived from 1888 to 1898. The centre brings to life the world of Icelandic folk music. Visitors cansee video recordings of people of all ages chanting epic poetry (rímur), singing quint-songs (tvísöngur), reciting nursery rhymes, and playing folk instruments such as the langspil (similar to dulcimer) and the Icelandic violin (fiðla). Most of the recordings were made in the year of 2006, some are from the spring of 2007. Landmark Films did the recordings, but the musician and artistic director of the Folk Music Festival, Gunnsteinn Ólafsson, organized the takes and selected the material. Here you can see  a recording of mother and son, María Jónsdóttir and Jón Ólafsson from the farm Kirkjubær in Fljótshlíð, Þórð Tómasson from the farm Skógar, and Ásgeir Sigurðsson from the farm Ljótarstaðir in Skaftártunga, sing and chant. The recording is formatted for Quick Time and here you can down load a free version of that.

The centre also depicts the life of the Rev. Bjarni Thorsteinsson and how he collected the folk songs. Folk music concerts take place during Friday or Saturday evenings in July and August.

Bjarni Þorsteinsson (1861-1938)
Rev. Bjarni Þorsteinsson was Iceland´s foremost collector of folk music. He was also a talented musician and a composer of many pieces for solo voice and choir, of which many are frequently sung in Iceland. He started collecting folk songs about 1880 and after 25 years published the book Icelandic Folk Songs (Íslensk Þjóðlög) with the support of the Carlsberg Foundation in Denmark. The book has hundreds of folk songs, some Bjarni notated after listening to singers and chanters from various parts of the country, and others where sent to him from fellow collectors. On the 100 year anniversary of Bjarni's book, the Folk Music Center was officially opened, in July 2006. Bjarni worked in Siglufjordur his whole life. Apart from being the priest of the town he was an active politician and is by many considered the "father of Siglufjordur."