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Gordon Ekvall Tracie devoted four decades to the
study, teaching, enjoyment, and promulgation of Nordic folk music and dance. When he died in 1988, Gordon willed his music, dance and In March 1995 the Gordon Ekvall Tracie Music Library was established as a research archive of traditional Nordic music and dance, available to the public at Nordic Heritage Museum in Seattle. While much of Tracie's important field recordings have been catalogued and entered into detailed databases, the on-going process of cataloguing the extensive materials in the Tracie Library will continue for some time to come. Meanwhile, Library staff can access ANY materials in the Library for users' study, and, with few exceptions, copies of Library materials can be made for users' personal research or non-commercial use.
Overview of materials available in the Tracie Music Library The Gordon Ekvall Tracie Music Library
contains hundreds of audio and video recordings, plus written documentation of Scandinavian folk and traditional Most of these important reel recordings have been transferred to archival digital audio recordings and some material to archival compact disc as well; audiocassettes of the materials are available for Library users' listening. Many of these tapes have been catalogued for content in detail -- tune name(s), type, area of origin, performer(s), instrument(s), event, date, etc. -- while other tapes await detailed cataloguing. The Music Library also holds several hundred 33 rpm long-play records, 45's, and 78's, as well as audiocassettes, video recordings, and compact disc recordings. Additionally there are photo, exhibit board, and poster collections, music and dance notations, plus important texts and written materials. Like much of the commercially recorded music in the archives, many of the Library's books, monographs, periodicals, sheet music, and dance notes are now out of print and have become all the more valuable to researchers. Among the treasures in the printed materials are writings by Gordon Tracie himself, including his 1961 booklet The Folk Music of Sweden, commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation. Other examples of his written output are found in scattered contexts; the Library has assembled these pieces into easily accessible compilations. The Tracie Music Library also houses a special collection of materials about Skandia Folkdance Society -- founded by Tracie in 1949 -- which inspired much of the Nordic music and dance activity in the Pacific Northwest. Materials and records are also kept for Skandia Music Foundation, a sister organization of the Folkdance Society, founded by Tracie in 1970 as a repository and guardian for his substantial material legacy; today Skandia Music Foundation continues to fund maintenance and operation of the Gordon Tracie Music Library through an endowment to the Nordic Heritage Museum. Also found in the Tracie Library is special collection documentation of Nordiska Folkdancers, the original performing Scandia Folkdancers which in 1952 Tracie separated from the recreational Scandia and renamed Nordiska. Additionally, the Library compiles collections of materials and information about significant local Nordic folk music and dance personalities, such as Art Nation and the late Fiddlin' John Sears. With Gordon Tracie's collection as a valuable and extensive basis, the Tracie Music Library has continued to acquire materials by donation, purchase, and documentation recording, keeping the Library a growing and updated archive. One of the Library's particular missions is the continuing documentation of the Nordic folk music and dance scene in the Pacific Northwest. You are invited to contact or visit and use the valuable materials available at the Gordon Ekvall Tracie Music Library. For a complete list of Library services and fees click here (PDF) |
text collections 
music, dance, costumes, customs, folklore and folk arts, all collected by Tracie from the 1940s through the late 1980s. In addition
to commercial recordings from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, the collection includes more than 500 |
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E-mail Phone Write Visit updated 09/26/06 |
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