Riksspelman

[8] A number of musicians were invited to play; the 65 who heeded the call were all awarded a silver badge designed and financed by the painter Anders Zorn.

Later, in 1933, Svenska Ungdomsringen för bygdekultur (The Swedish Youth Ring for Village Culture) created a system by which folk musicians could play music before a jury of experts.

[8] Various awards for the participants of these Trials would be handed out at an annual "National Folk Musicians' Gathering," a name taken from that original event in 1910.

Generally, the Jury is made up of folk musicians with a great deal of experience and knowledge, most of whom are also riksspelmän.

As of 2016, the current jury members are: Jan Burman, Verf-Lena Egardt, Christina Frohm, Wille Grindsäter, Pers Nils Johansson, Krister Malm, Cajsa Ekstav, Peter Pedersen, and Tony Wrethling.

The Trials are closed to the public, but are recorded by Svenskt Visarkiv (The Centre for Swedish Folk Music and Jazz Research) for posterity.

The adjudicators judge participants on four criteria: rhythm, technique, intonation, and "qualities as a folk musician" (egenskaper som spelman).

Notable exceptions include Marie Stensby (1975), Åsa Jinder (1979), and Jeanette Eriksson (2002), all of whom became riksspelmän at age sixteen.

[14] Musicians who apply for a time slot before the Jury are simply rejected if they list an instrument that the adjudicators regard as non-traditional.

[14] Instruments that have been accepted in the past include: fiddle, chromatic nyckelharpa, silverbasharpa, kontrabasharpa, clarinet, durspel, harmonica, kulning, spilåpipa, härjedalspipa, träskofiol, travers, hummel, näverlapp, cow horn, näverlur, and Swedish bagpipes.

Currently, four non-Swedes hold the title: Kristian Daugaard Madsen (Denmark, 1982), Oline Bakkom-Härdelin (Norway, 1996), Emma Reid (England, 2006),[17] and David Kaminsky (United States, 2007).

[18] The controversy associated with the system generally relates to the question of which instruments are regarded as traditional, and thus approved for judgment by the Jury.

The best-known case in which such a movement succeeded resulted in the Jury's allowance of the diatonic button accordion (durspel) for the first time in 1979.

Currently (as of 2008), a similar movement is pushing for the acceptance of trall, or vocable singing, as a traditional instrument.

[19] Another controversy regards the word "spelman" (literally "play-man") itself, given the growing number of female "spelmän" and riksspelmän in Sweden.