Musikk og Tradisjon

Siv Gøril Brandtzæg og Karin Strand (red.), "Skillingsvisene i Norge 1550–1950. Studier i et forsømt kulturarv"

Mathias Boström — 2022-12-14

Skillingtrycken tillhör ett av de mest spännande materialen som kan belysa äldre tiders musikliv. Dessa vanligtvis enkla och billiga vistryck band på olika sätt samman länder (såväl mellan som inom nationer), städer och landsbygd, olika sociala grupper och en skriftlig/visuell och muntlig/aural kultur. Dessutom var skillingtryck ett viktigt medium under en väldigt lång tid: från 1500-talet och in på 1900-talet. Skillingtryckens visor (andliga eller världsliga, av väldigt varierande slag) kunde vara internationella visor på vandring eller författade av kända diktare, likaväl som de kunde vara anonyma eller ha en väldigt lokal inriktning och räckvidd. En del visor, hela eller som fragment, har levt vidare in i vår tid, ibland med hjälp av nyare medieformat som fonogram, radio och Internet.

Bjørn Aksdal & Elisabeth Kværne: "Langeleiken – heile Noregs instrument"

Gunnar Ternhag — 2022-12-14

Folkmusikens traditionella instrument kan nästan ingen undgå. Också den som aldrig lyssnar på folkmusik, möter instrumenten vid nationella samlingar, i medier som nationella symboler, på frimärken och andra laddade sammanhang. Instrumenten är ofta mer synliga än hörbara – eller rättare sagt är det paradoxalt nog viktigare att de syns än att de hörs.

Annbjørg Lien: "RETUNE A toolbox for composing – based on Hardanger fiddle music from Setesdal"

Liz Doherty — 2022-12-14

For fiddle players the world over, Norway’s Annbjørg Lien needs no introduction. Since recording her first album as a teenager she has developed a stellar reputation for her work celebrating and championing the hardanger fiddle tradition. In particular, she is recognized for relentlessly breaking new ground and exploring the possibilities of Norwegian folk music through collaborations with other folk musicians as well as with others representing different genres and nationalities. From winning multiple awards at the Norwegian National Contest for Traditional Music, to working with Norway’s Bukkene Bruse, Ireland’s The Chieftains, America’s Bruce Molsky, and the international, supergroup, String Sisters, Lien’s musical journey has been one characterized by curiosity and courage. It should be no surprise then that this hungry learner would find herself drawn to the burgeoning opportunities for practice-based and practice-led research for folk musicians available within higher education institutions and wanting to pursue her voyage of discovery within the framework of a doctoral programme.

Dag Vårdal: "Samværsdansen i Christiania på 1800-tallet"

Anne Fiskvik — 2022-12-14

Dag Vårdal har laget et fyldig verk i tre deler om det offentlige danselivet i Christiania rundt 1800–1900. Det inneholder en stor mengde materiale som vil være til glede og nytte for alle som er opptatt av dans og dansekunst i et historisk perspektiv.

Konferanserapporter

Daniel Fredriksson — 2022-12-14

46th World Conference, International Council for Traditional Music

32nd Symposium of the Study Group on Ethnochoreology

XXXVII European Seminar in Ethnomusicology

Nordisk forum for folkemusikkforskning og -dokumentasjon

UFFD sitt forumtreff i Oslo mars 2022

Sammendrag av folkemusikk- og folkedanserelaterte masteroppgaver

Kjersti Marie Seiersten — 2022-12-14

Kjersti Marie Seiersten: Fra kildebruk til personlig tolkning. Masteroppgave i tradisjonskunst, Institutt for tradisjonskunst og folkemusikk, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, 2022.

Isa Holmgren: Takt, sväng och timing. Att tolka asymmetrisk pols med utgångspunkt i traditionerna från Västra Värmland, Finnskogen och Røros. Norges musikkhøgskole, 2022.

Birgit Haukås: En dialog mellom dans og spel – en kvalitativ studie av diskursen rundt kommunikasjonen mellom bygdedans og bygdedansspel. Masteroppgave i tradisjonskunst, Institutt for tradisjonskunst og folkemusikk, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, 2022.

Forord

Bjørn Aksdal — 2022-12-14

Denne utgaven av Musikk og tradisjon består av en samling med fem frie artikler fra folkemusikkforskningen i Norden. To av artiklene har et større geografisk og kulturelt perspektiv gjennom å ta for seg henholdsvis den svenskspråklige minoriteten i Estland og et mulig musikalsk fellesskap mellom norsk og irsk/skotsk vokal folkemusikk. Vokalmusikken er også temaet for en artikkel som ser nærmere på ulike varianter av en eldre folkemelodi, mens de norske instrumenttradisjonene er viet oppmerksomhet gjennom en artikkel om en sentral, men noe omstridt felemaker. Skriftet innholder også en viktig dansefaglig artikkel, som drøfter hvordan danseformer har spredt seg opp gjennom historien.

Petter Dass: «Du skal ikke slå i hjel» – En folkemelodi med livskraft gjennom flere århundrer

Ola Graff — 2022-12-14

In this article I will analyse the variants of the melody used for the song Petter Dass wrote around 1690 about the 5th commandment. There exist about 100 variants of this melody in different archives in Norway, but not in Sweden or Denmark. It is possible to follow the melody in oral tradition through the 19th and 18th centuries. We don’t know if the melody dates back to Petter Dass himself, but it is possible. In that case there are reasons to assume that the melody was well known already then, which means it must be even older. So the melody seems to be an old Norwegian melody used in oral tradition for hundreds of years.

Kveding av setesdalsstev og irsk/skotsk "sean-nós singing"

Ragnhild Furholt — 2022-12-14

The point of departure for this article has been personal experiences and feedback from Irish and Scottish researchers and traditional musicians that the Norwegian traditional singing, kveding, resembles sean-nós singing. I have met traditional musicians, singers and researchers in Ireland and Scotland who compare selected melodies from Setesdal, Norway to the “old style” of singing in these countries. The research questions have become: How do the informants respond to performances of a selection of setesdalstev, and how do they describe these experiences? What eventual similarities between kveding of stev from Setesdal and sean-nós singing are identified by the informants?

The research is based on empirical material consisting of videotaped interviews with Irish and Scottish researchers, traditional singers and musicians. Audio material from archives, commercial recordings, transcriptions and literature on the subject also form part of the material. The methodological approach has been a presentation of stev from Setesdal via live performance and sound recordings. Participant responses to stev melodies form the basis for a comparison and analysis of different stylistic traits. The respons refer to special traits of kveding of setesdalsstev which are also found in Irish and Scottish sean-nós song.

Felemakeren Anders Heldal

Bjørn Aksdal — 2022-12-14

Anders Heldal (1811–1897) has been regarded as the foremost fiddle maker in Western Norway in the 19th century. He had a large production of Hardanger fiddles and has been considered a continuator of the fiddles made by Isak Botnen (1669–1759). In addition, he repaired and rigged fiddles for many of the leading musicians and violinists of the time. In connection with repairs, he often assembled parts from various instruments, used parts from older instruments in his own fiddles or made new parts for older fiddles, without this being stated on the repair note. To try to describe what characterizes Heldal’s Hardanger fiddle production, I have reviewed and examined a larger selection of fiddles that were either signed by Heldal or were considered Heldal fiddles in connection with the Hardanger fiddle project in 1990s. I have measured and examined the size and shape of his fiddles, described important aspects of the construction of the fiddles, as well as identified and classified key decorative elements. On this basis, I have tried to find out and describe to which extent his fiddles continued the 18th century Hardanger fiddle types from Western Norway and especially Isak Botnen’s fiddles. Finally, I have discussed what place Anders Heldal deserves in the historical development of the Hardanger fiddle in the 19th century.

My conclusion is that Anders Heldal in several areas represents a clear continuation of the Hardanger fiddles made by Isak Botnen. Heldal’s fiddles are most similiar to Isak Botnen’s fiddles in the decor, especially when it comes to the fiddle head, the lines on the edges, the use of a center rose on the top, and the design of the fingerboard and string holder. If, on the other hand, we look at the size, shape and construction, the fiddles made by Johannes Bårdsen Tveit (1786–1847) have as much in common with Isak Botnen’s fiddles as Heldal’s instruments.

Estlandssvenskar på Sverigeturné med körsång och ett bondbröllop på Skansen

Sofia Joons Gylling — 2022-12-14

This article discusses the formation of Estonia-Swedish musical self-images during the interwar period. The question that is raised is what influence the relation between a cultural minority, Estonia-Swedes, and its historical land of origin, Sweden, had on the minority’s image-creation. The case-study analyses the first Sweden tour ever with an Estonia-Swedish music group. The tour consisted of performances both in churches and in the open-air-museum Skansen in Stockholm among a couple of other places. At Skansen, the choir performed the play Ett bondbröllop från Wormsö (A Farmers’ Wedding from Ormsö) that was written specially for the tour. The research material consists of archive material with the musical expressions used on stage, articles in newspapers about the performances and other texts related to the persons and organisations behind the arranging of the tour. Seen as a whole, the tour expresses two cultural belongings: the pan-Swedish and the Estonia-Swedish. Pan-Swedishness focuses on bounds with an imagined pan-Swedish community expressed by spritual and patriotic songs in standard Swedish. Estonia-Swedishness, on the other hand, is based on a revived repertoire of wedding songs and dances from the mid-19th century that expresses uniqueness using a well-known cultural mould – the farmers’ wedding.

Kva kan dansehistoria fortelja om røtene til bygdedansen?

Egil Bakka — 2022-12-14

This article discusses how dance forms have developed and spread through the ages and works in particular with the genre that we in Norway call regional dances. In contrast to much other research into dance history, it is the dances as movement patterns that I focus on, rather than their context. Therefore, I will also discuss methodological approaches suitable for such a focus. The conventional method is to study old sources in both writing and images and compare them with dance in the present, Film and video recordings of dance from the last hundred years or so can also be used to make hypotheses about connections. A less common approach, that I have used before, is to build on theories about diffusion processes and the spread of dance forms and dance elements (Bakka, Aksdal & Flem 1992, Bakka 2012). Finally, I present an approach that I believe is new in dance history, although Lisbet Torp did an ethnochoreological description of chain dances somewhat related (Torp 1990). It is the idea of the generative power of the simple basic elements that runs through many dances. By generative power or potential, I mean the property of an element to be able to “give birth” to new variants of itself. In the dances with which we work here, it is especially the couple turnings that provide the basis for the approach through the generative. I compare basic elements in dances that are similar to each other and try to show how it only takes a small change of one basic element for us to get the other. It is similar to what biologists call mutation. I imagine that a basic element that becomes popular and has generative power will develop new variants based on certain fundamental principles laid down in humans. I think it is processes of this kind that have created most of the variety, in the regional as well as in the round dances. We cannot know for sure when the development starts, or in what order the variants come into being, if we cannot date certain variants from other kinds of historical sources.