First Choice for
a quick Tune Search

Various genres
Folk / Trad Radios

 
Countries, Regions:
Music France
Music Belgium
& The Netherlands

Music Brittany
Music Scotland
Music Northumberland
Music England
Music Ireland
Music USA
Music Canada
Music Austria & Germany
Music Northern Europe
Music Italy


Instruments
Bagpipes

Accordion
Hurdy Gurdy
Concertina

Dances:
Dances Brittany 
Dances France

Events
Bal Folk
Miscelaneous


Music Player

Songs & Ballads Link List


Andreas'
trad music and dance link list


On this website I mainly collected weblinks containing information on traditional tunes,  dances and instruments of Western European origin. The site is for musicians, sessioneers and enthusiasts of Western European and North American trad / folk music.

established in 2003
last modified in August 2024 







First choice for
a quick tune search

abcnotation.com
Chris Walshaw's abc tune search / tune finder gives you access to thousands of
folk & traditional tunes from across
the web - use the search form or browse the tunes or visit the collections they are drawn from.


The Session


Swedish, nordic:
Folk Wiki



Danish, nordic:
Spillefolk


Musiques traditionnelles en liberté
tune search


Link Tab
Search Engine of the Accademia del Mantice



Wikitrad
French traditional song and dance wiki
Wikitrad on facebook
Wikitrad Songs on Soundcloud






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Folk / Trad Radios

Toutes les couleurs du trad (France)
Radio stream from Paris, France
European folk music from yesterday and today
Toutes les couleurs du trad on Facebook


Radio TradCan (Belgium)
a project run by the non-profit organization
Le Canard Folk



Various Genres

 
Toutes les couleurs du trad
Radio stream from Paris, France
European folk music from yesterday and today
Toutes les couleurs du trad on Facebook


John Chamber's abc Tune Finder

John Chamber's Online Music Books


List of historical tunebooks
some of which are available on the internet

by EFDSS Folkopedia
Digitized and abc music from England, Northamerica and Celtic Countries and regions



Folk Tune Finder
the folk & traditional music search engine


Richard Robinson's Tunebook


Link Tab
Search Engine of the Accademia del Mantice



Nigel Gatherer's Tunes Collection


Folk Dancing Etiquette
by the Int. Folk Dancers of Ottawa


Taylor's Traditional Tunebook
maintained by Lesley Nelson 

Chris Peterson's Traditional Music  

Tune collections on the Internet
by  Mickey Koth



The Traditional Tune Archive
The Semantic Index of North American, British
and Irish traditional instrumental music
with annotation, formerly known as
The Fiddler's Companion




Simon Wascher's online Trad-Archiv


English and French Folk Music
an online manuscript by Matt Coatsworth


Sheffield university's ceilidh society tune pages


Early Music online
Early Music Online has digitised over 320 volumes of 16th-century anthologies of printed music, from holdings at the British Library.


abcnotation.com
Chris Walshaw's abc tune search / tune finder gives you access to thousands of
folk & traditional tunes from across
the web - use the search form or browse the tunes or visit the collections they are drawn from.



The Lesession pages
Steve Mansfield's abc music notation tutorial,
tune collections in abc
, and more ...



Ross Anderson's music page


Jack Campin's homepage




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Countries, Regions


 

Music France: 


Toutes les couleurs du trad
Radio stream from Paris, France
European folk music from yesterday and today
Toutes les couleurs du trad on Facebook

Link to stream
Website


BalLibre
links with copyright-free balfolk-music ordered by dances & bands. Here music can be freely shared - You are welcome to submit a link to your music!



Base inter-régionale patrimoine oral
France



Portail du patrimoine oral
France


Groupe La Cascade:
collection of links to trad music
repertoire websites

a tresure trove for French trad music repertoire



Les Maîtres sonneurs
historical novel by George Sand,
published in July 1853
as an audio book on archive.org
in French



Musical Library of the
Association d'Ètude, de Promotion et
d'Enseignement des Musiques Traditionnelles
des Pays de France (A.E.P.E.M.)
in French


Mémoire du folk en Nord Pas de Calais (F)
Blog in French



Patrimoine oral du Massif Central
Online database for searching the archives
for French trad music
in French

Trad France
Traditional Music from France
maintained by Sylvain Piron


Travak tunebook
Dutch bal folk group from Venlo

AgendaTrad
Vector of information on Trad/Folk music and dance

Musique Centre France


Musique d'Auvergne
23 original remanufactured recordings interpreted by singers and musicians who originated from the French regions Cantal, Aveyron, Corrèze, Lozère and Puy-de-Dôme

Musiques traditionnelles en liberté


A.M.T.A: Parcours sonores

La Compagnie du Rigodon


Montreal Session Tunebook
French bal folk , as well as scottish
and irish tunes


infrasons: Balades sonores
Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes' sound heritage


La Biaça
For more than twenty years, the Institut d'études occitanes du limousin has been conducting and compiling surveys to safeguard the Occitan memory in Limousin.
Today, this collection includes several hundred archives: audio recordings, videos, films, writings, photographs and more.




Partitions Folk
by Pascal Peyremorte




Disque-O avec Travaque - Les anciens
compilation of French trad music from 78 rpm
recordings on youtube. The movie as seen during
the 'Disque-O avec Travaque' at the Folkwoods
festival in Eindhoven, The Netherlands,
aug. 14th 2011.  by Nikolaj Marks




Wikitrad
French traditional song and dance wiki
Wikitrad on facebook
Wikitrad Songs on Soundcloud




La Bourrée
about 100 dance and song tunes collected in
Joseph Canteloube's book "La Bourrée"
published in 1929

- abc-transcription by Steve Mansfield

pdf-file with index created from the
  abc-tunebook by Chuck Boody
- scanned pages of the whole book on
  Gary Chapin's Accordeonaire website

- Collections of Canteloube on apem.com
  (in French)





Arpalhands - Répertoire

Association Arpalhands - traditional music and dances in Occitania
Arpalhands on Facebook




Des montagnes d'Auvergne au Bal Musette

on youtube, in French



Répertoire d'airs traditionnels
"les Épinettes des Vosges"
maintained by Christophe Toussaint



pdf-book, research:
Le violon populaire en Massif Central
Les violoneux et leur musique

The traditional fiddle from Massif Central (France)- The fiddlers and their music
hosted at CMRT en Limousin  in French



violoneux.fr
The site offers worthwhile background information
on fiddlers of different French regions
in the nineteenth and twentieth century.
in French






Music Belgium / The Netherlands:



Oude en Nieuwe Hollantse Boerenlieties
en Contredansen

This collection of 996 melodies, published between 1700 and 1716, has now been compiled by Simon Platinga in the form of pdf and abc files,   website in Dutch


Oude en nieuwe Hollantse Boeren lietjes en Contredansen (1700)
digitized collection in the Royal Dutch Library


Hollantse boeren lieties en contredansen
(1701-1714)
Background information and sources:
Lusthof-der Muziek-Blog, in Dutch




Lusthof der Muziek
webblog in Dutch
De Lusthof der Muziek - or the Garden of Musical Delights - delves into 750 years of musical tradition in the Low Countries:
Flanders and the Netherlands. Music sources that were inaccessible, sometimes for hundreds of years, are becoming available again due to the merits of the internet.




Musiques traditionnelles de Wallonie
by le Canard Folk, partitions



Le Troubadour Wallon
transcripted music manuscripts of old dance music of Wallonia (Belgium)



Projet Melchior
Resources for traditional music in Wallonia
Ressources pour les musiques de tradition en Wallonie



 

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Music Brittany /  Bretagne:

 

Partitions de musiques de Bretagne
by Breizh Partitions,
celtic music

Collected Tunes by Bernard Loffet (+)

Airs de Bretagne, Irlande, d'Écosse
maintained by Pascal Rose


 

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Music Scotland:


hms.scot
This database includes over 200 printed sources of Scottish fiddle music from before 1850.


Glen Collection of printed music
National Library of Scotland

Nigel Gatherer's Tunes Collection

Scottish Midi Music
Provided by Tom Lorimer

Books from the music collection at the National Library of Scotland
Hosted at the Internet Archive


The Highland Music Trust Collections
free pdf downloads




Music Shetland Islands


Haand me doon da fiddle
1979, compiled by Tom Anderson & Pam Swing;
found on the discussions forum of the 'The Session' website

as abc files in Chris Walshaw's abcnotation.com


Nigel Gatherer's Shetland Collection



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Music Northumberland


FARNE
Folk Archive Resource Northeast
Northumberland etc., UK

Henry Atkinson Manuscript
article on the Village Music Project website
H.A. manuscript transcribed into abc
for the Village Music Project


Northumbrian music can also be found on
Ross Anderson's music page

The Traditional Music of  Northumbria and the British Isles
tunes in mp3 and wma






Music England


List of historical tunebooks
some of which are available on the internet

by EFDSS Folkopedia
Digitized and abc music from England, Northamerica and Celtic Countries and regions

 

The Village Music Project
Manuscripts List
Researching England's traditional music,
dance and song


Chris Partington's Links Page




English traditional dance music
by Andrew Wigglesworth
recordings, Internet Archive


Several editions of John Playford's 'Dancing Master' hosted at the Petrucci Music Library

Background information on the 'Dancing Master' on Wikipedia


The Playford Collection
revised by John Chambers

'The Dancing Master'
edition 1651, on archive.org


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Music Ireland


The Irish Traditional Music Archive
English, Gaelic

Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann


Digital Tradition Folk Music Database
Songs, text, midi , abc, Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab

The Traditional Music Database - TUNEdb
Maintained by Richard Moon 
midi, abc

O'Neill's Music of Ireland




Music Northern Europe


Nordic Folktunes Collection of Stefan Lindén



Södermanlands Spelmansförbunds samlingar
hosted at Södermanlands Spelmansförbund
in Swedish


Spillefolk
Denmark

Folk Wiki
Sweden


spelman.de



Music Archive from Finland:
Den Digitala Utgåvan av Finlands
Svenska Folkdiktning





Music Archive from Sweden:
Folkmusikkommissionens notsamling
och Musikmuseets spelmansböcker

about 45,000 pages of tunes and songs;
in English and Swedish
Svenskt visarkiv's Web Catalogues



Radio Sweden's Recording Journeys



Collection
Svenska Låtar
- on Swedish Wikipedia
- on folkwiki.se



Collection Gotlandstoner
Sheet music from Gotland, Sweden
by August Fredin

pdf download

"Gotlandstoner" was originally published in small booklets between 1909 and 1932.  In order to make the music accessible to new generations of musicians and sessioneers and thus to support the folk life in Gotland, the Roxy Culture Club initiative worked for the re-release of "Gotlandstoner"




JC's Scandinavian Folk Dance Music



Norsk Folkemusikksamling - Norwegian Collection of Folk Music on facebook

related links:
Hardanger Fiddle Association of America


Sheet Music Collection for the Hardanger Fiddle
from the Norwegian National Library
Check out the collection in the Internet library


Feleverkene - Hardanger Fiddle Website
provided by the Norwegian National Library



Books:
Folkmusikboken - Books about Folk Music
hosted at svensk visarkiv
read online - in Swedish



Bluerose Scandinavian Folk Music
Karen Myers' collection of tunes


Music from The Notebook of Rasmus Storm:
Denmark (1760s)
- Digitised copy of the tune book in the
  Royal Danish Library
- Andy Hornby's website (14 tunes, pdf, abc)

- Use the term "Rasmus Storm" in the
  search fields of these websites:

  Spillefolk (14 tunes)
  abcnotation (83 tunes)
 
on soundcloud (8 tunes, audio)




Dansk Folkmindesamling in the Royal Danish Library:
Digitised copies of Danish dance music
manuscripts(handwritten)



Treatise about the difference between Danish and
and Swedish playing style in fiddling music
by Hans-Arne Hausted , danish
Om forskellen på dansk og svensk spillestil i
spillemandsmusik

 




Music Italy

Il camino della Musica (Italy)
Collections on Youtube


Archivio Sonoro


Dove comincia l'Appennino
Video musicali

You Tube channel of
Dove comincia l'Appennino


Le vecchie danze italiane
by Gaspare Ungarelli, 1894
on archive.org


Italian Trad Music
youtube compilation



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Music USA



The Max Hunter Folk Song Collection
trad. American Songs


Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier:
The Henry Reed Collection

American Folk Life Center / Library of Congress
 


The John and Ruby Lomax 1939
Southern States recording trip Collection
American Folk Life Center / Library of Congress


California Gold - 
Northern California Folkmusic from the Thirties
American Folk Life Center / Library of Congress 



Special Collections & Archives
of the Berea College, KY, USA



The Lomax Kentucky recordings





Briggs' 1855 Banjo Instructor
In 1855 this was the first instruction booklet
for playing what came to be called the Minstrel style banjo. Hosted on the Internet Archive


Timothy Twiss plays music from the
Briggs' Banjo Instructor of 1855 on
the fretless Minstrel banjo:
video playlist on youtube



Briggs tunes played by the
Carolina Chocolate Drops
Briggs Corn Shucking Jig &
Camptown Hornpipe

De Gal Wid De Blue Dress On





Music Canada


Le violon de Jos
a lively and dynamic multimedia encyclopedia project on the Quebec's fiddling tradition.

The uniqueness of Le violon de Jos lies in the idea of combining intangible heritage, digital development and open source emergence


Cranford Publications


Bowing Down Home
Prince Edward Island Fiddling Tradition



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Music Austria & Germany: 



Deutsch-Folk Initiative
German-Folk Initiative
The DeutschFolk-Initiative is a growing network for all those who are enthusiastic about traditional or traditionally inspired music from the regions of Germany. It deals with this material in a forward-looking and cosmopolitan way, be it folk songs, dances or self-penned music with traditional borrowings. Their interests are neither nationalistic nor purely commercial.



Tanzmusik Archiv
Dance Music Archive
This page deals with everything that is related in many different aspects to historical dance music sources in German-speaking countries - as a digital copy, original in the library, copy or facsimile.
Community-forum, videos, digitized music, manuscripts  in German


Trad Tanz Musik
Youtube channel
Traditional dance music of the German-speaking world - collection of tunes from manuscripts from the 17th to the 20th century.

At the end of a video the melody is played in a slow version in order to facilitate learning.
You also get the source to each tune and, if available, a source of supply.
in German





The Dahlhoff Dance Music Collection
10 volumes (Band) or 1400 pages of 18th century dance music collected by Johann Dietrich Dahlhoff of Dinker, Westphalia, Germany.
The music was rediscovered by Simon Wascher. He and other German musicians made digitizing possible.
The collection is hosted at the Berlin State Library.  Website in German



The Dahlhoff Dance Music Collection
Internet Archive


Dahlhoff music
In 1764 Dietrich Dahlhoff, who worked as a sexton and organist, started to write down the dance music that was collected by his family.
Now, nearly 250 years later this music was played by a session in the churchyard  of the village of Dinker, Westphalia, Germany, the former working place of Dietrich Dahlhoff.

youtube


Dahlhoff music in modern notation
Transcriptions of the Dahlhoff manuscripts into modern music notation by Richmud Rollenbeck(+). See downloads in pdf and music-xml format at the end of the webpage.
bd = Band = volume, in German
The transcription is published under a
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licene.


Dahlhoff music in ABC notation
by Simon Wascher, in German



4th Dahlhoff-Meeting in August 2018
in Dinker, Westphalia, Germany

Youtube Video






The Folksong and Tune Archive
of Westphalia-Lippe

hosted by the Folk-Cultural Commission of the Regional Association of Westphalia Lippe; tunes from the region and folksongs, partially in the old Low-German Westphalian language. More than 16,000 data-sets of field-recordings, sheet music and notes; in German
Volkslied- und Tonarchiv der
Region Westfalen-Lippe
von der Volkskundlichen Kommission des Landschaftsverbandes Westfalen-Lippe; Musik und Volkslieder, teilweise in der alten
niederdeutschen, westfaelischen Sprache.
Mehr als 16.000 Datensaetze mit Feldaufnahmen, Notenbblaettern und Aufzeichnungen.





Volkstänze aus Deutschland und Europa
by Thomas Walker, pdf



The Karl Gottlob Wiegand Manuscript 1854
pdf  - in German

The Wiegand Music In Modern Notation
Transcriptions of the Karl Gottlob Wiegand manuscript (1854) into modern music notation by Richmud Rollenbeck(+).
The transcription is published under a
CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 licene.
in German







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Instruments

Various Instruments:


The instruments of celtic music

Association Rivatges
Association that promotes the Languedoc oboe and music and dance in the Mediterranean area    
in French


Pipes-cornemuse-Dudelsack-
doedelzak-zampogna-gaita: 


Thorsten's Sackpfeiffen Seiten


The Lowland and Border Pipers' Society


Bagpipe Society
Promoting the bagpipe revival
since 1986 (UK)

 

- Northumbrian Smallpipe:

Northumbrian Smallpipes

Northumbrian Pipers' Society


 

- Spanish and Portuguese Bagpipes, 
  Gaita:

 
Associação Gaita de Foles
Portuguese Bagpipe Society




- French Bagpipes

Le site "Musette"
Website of the Group "Avalanche Compagnie"

Le Pipasso, la cornemuse picarde



- Swedish Bagpipes

Olle Gällmo's Website




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Accordion: 
 
Accumulated Accordion Annotations


De Harmonicahoek
By Eduard Bekker
Dutch website on all matters concerning the  accordion

 

 

Concertina:

 
KonzertinaNetz
Everything about the concertina 
by Klaus Wenger, in German



 


Hurdy gurdy - vielle - Drehleier -draailier - ghironda:


La Maison du Luthier  Musée à Jenzat

 






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Dances


Dancilla Wiki


Tanzbeschreibungen von Regina Krohne
Folkstanz in Berlin.de
Dance descriptions by Regina Krohne, German




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Dances Brittany / Bretagne:

 
The On Bouge! Breton Crib Sheet
by Webfeet


 


 

Dances France:


AccroFolk.net
Music and dances, folk and trad.
in French



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Events


Agenda Trad
Traditional Music Calendar for France



Folk Festival Marsinne, Belgium

2nd weekend in September


Bals et Roses
Florenville, Belgium



Dafodil
Diest, Belgium



Festival de Cornemuses in Cassel, France (59)


Lautenbach, Alsace, France:
Rencontre de Lutherie - Dancerie Met Müsik
on Pentecost weekend


Comboros
Saint-Gervais d'Auvergne, France(63)


Fête de l’Accordéon

Luzy, France(58)


Gran Bal Trad
Vialfrè, near Turin, Northern Italy



Gennetines, France
Le Grand Bal de l'Europe
July 26 - August 9, 2024


Festival de Cornouaille
Quimper, Bretagne, France


Sommerbordunale
small festival in Schaephysen,
near Krefeld, Western Germany


KlangRausch
Hoesseringen, Germany
June 14 - 16, 2024


Winneweh, Germany


The Piper's Gathering
North America's most comprehensive
alternative bagpipe event (USA)


Nordic Fiddles And Feet
Scandinavian music and dance
Moultonborough,
New Hampshire, USA




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Bal Folk Links


Bal Folk in Belgium:


boombal


Bals folk en Nord-Pas-de-Calais
et Belgique occidentale

published by Chti-Folkeux

Rif Zans l'Fiesse
Promotion of traditional music and dance
in the Liège region, Alleur near Liège

Folk in Limburg


Le Canard Folk - Agenda






Bal Folk in The Netherlands


balfolk.nl 



 

 

Bal Folk in Germany:

 

Bal Folk in Köln
Bal Folk in Cologne

Bal Folk in Bonn

Bal Folk eV. München
Bal Folk in Munich

Bal Folk and other Folk Dance events in Berlin


Stuttgarter balhaus e.V.:
Live Events in Germany and Europe
and neighbouring countries
see "Regiolinks"




Bal Folk in France:

Agenda Trad
Traditional Music Calendar for France

Bals folk en Nord-Pas-de-Calais
et Belgique occidentale

published by Chti-Folkeux


L'agenda d'AccroFolk
bal folk in Alsace and neighbouring regions



Bal Folk / French Dance in UK

 
Traditional French music and dancing
in Cambridge


Pied à Terre - European Dance in Norwich


Ockbrook French Music & Dance Session


French and Breton traditional music and dance in 
Leeds, West Yorkshire, Les Panards Dansants



French Dance and sessions in UK


Dansez-Francais
Brighton
 


Lancaster Eurodance
Lancaster Eurodance is a friendly music and dance group, specialising in the folk dances of Europe;
web site contains as well a tunebook, dance videos and an interesting link list, Lancaster, UK

 

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Various Links

Musée de la musique
CIMP Centre Internacional de Música Popular

Céret, France

Muziekcentrum Dranouter
Belgium


Stichting Volksmuziek Nederland
Traditional / Folk Music in the Netherlands

Stichting Draailier en Doedelzak
Dutch association round the hurdy gurdy and the bagpipe

bordun.de
German trad music association, with diary

Tradivarium
Sessions, Bals Folk and concerts in Austria,
maintained by Stephan Steiner, Vienna, in German

Musical Traditions

Folkclub Frankfurt - 
Link List for Folk im the
German-speaking Countries

in German

Smithonian - 
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Folk Session in Wageningen, NL
by Rolf Adriaan Groeneveld


AccroFolk.net
important Folk-website from
the Alsace and Belfort region
in France, in French


archive.org
online archive, find free sheet music,
audios and videos




Wikipedia articles:
Music of France
French folk music
Italian folk music
Folk music of Italy
Traditional Nordic dance music
Nordic folk music

Swedish folk music
Danish traditional music

Finland - folk music
Folk music / Traditional music



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Audio und Video Plug-Ins,
Programs


VLC Media Player
SM Player

Audacity,
Cross-Platform Sound Editor, open source
Myriad Melody Assistant
MuseScore
Mandolin Tab online abc converter



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see also:
Andreas' Songs & Ballads Links




Crosslinks:

Memoire du folk en Nord Pas-de-Calais (F)
Konzertina-Netz (D)
Foldies (D)
Groupe La Cascade (F)

Lancaster Eurodance (GB)


 

Contact:  Andreas Heising 
          Cologne, Germany


last modified:   August 2024
      
 

   
 
 

Any copyrighted material on this page is used in "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s).

 


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




 

diato
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

pipes