Music of Norway
Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pilgrims from all over Europe coming to visit St Olav's grave in Trondheim.
In the later part of the 19th century, Norway experienced economic growth leading to greater industrialization and urbanization. More music was made in the cities, and opera performances and symphony concerts were considered to be of high standards. In this era both prominent composers (like Edvard Grieg and Johan Svendsen) and performers combined the European traditions with Norwegian tones.
The import of music and musicians for dance and entertainment grew, and this continued in the 20th century, even more so when gramophone records and radio became common. In the last half of the 20th century, Norway, like many other countries in the world, underwent a roots revival that saw indigenous music being revived.
Before 1840, there were limited written sources of folk music in Norway. Originally these historical attainments were believed to have a distinct Christian influence. As research continued, there were also mythical and fairy tale connections to the folk music. Overall the purpose of folk music was for entertainment and dancing.
Norwegian folk music may be divided into two categories: instrumental and vocal. As a rule instrumental folk music is dance music (slåtter). Norwegian folk dances are social dances and usually performed by couples, although there are a number of solo dances as well, such as the halling. Norway has very little of the ceremonial dance characteristic of other cultures. Dance melodies may be broken down into two types: two-beat and three-beat dances. The former are called halling, gangar or rull, whereas the latter are springar or springleik.
Traditional dances are normally referred to as bygdedans (village or regional dance). These dances, sometimes called "courting dances" were often connected to the important events of rural (farming) life: weddings, funerals and cyclical feasts like Christmas.
Folk music in Norway falls in another 2 main categories based in the ethnic populations from which they spring: North Germanic and Sami.
Traditional Sami music is centered around a particular vocal style called joik. Originally, joik referred to only one of several Sami singing styles, but in English the word is often used to refer to all types of traditional Sami singing. Its sound is comparable to the traditional chanting of some First Nations/Native Americans cultures.
Traditional North Germanic Norwegian vocal music includes (kvad), ballads and short, often improvised songs (stev), among the most common types of traditional music. Work songs, hymns, tralling vocals (nonsense syllables) and broadside ballads (skillingsviser) have also been popular.
Norway shares some Nordic dance music tradition with its neighbouring countries of Sweden and Denmark, where the most typical instrument is the fiddle. In Norway, the Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele), the most distinctive instrument in Norwegian folk music, looks and plays like a standard violin. It is only to be found primarily in the western and central part of the country. The Hardanger fiddle dates back to around 1700 and however differs from the ordinary fiddle in many respects. The most important of these is that it has sympathetic strings and a less curved bridge and fingerboard. Thus, the performer plays on two strings most of the time, creating a typical bourdon style. The Hardanger fiddle tradition is rich and powerful. By traditional, orally conveyed instruction was one of the most important aspects of a Hardanger fiddle player's accomplishment.
Epic folk songs are the most important form of vocal folk music in Norway. Although there are many types of epic folk songs, the most intriguing are the medieval ballads. They were first transcribed in the 1800s, but the ballad tradition has been handed down from the Middle Ages. The lyrics of these songs also revolve around this period of history, recounting tales of the lives of nobles, and of knights and maidens. A number of the ballads describe historical events, and they are often dramatic and tragic.
In the second half of the 19th century, some fiddlers, especially those from Voss and Telemark, significantly Lars Fykerud (who eventually moved to Stoughton, Wisconsin in the United States and then returned to Telemark late in life), began introducing more expressive ways of playing, turning the traditional slått music to concert music for the urban classes.
At the same time, new dances and tunes were imported from Europe, including the fandango, reinlender, waltz, polka and mazurka. These forms are now known as runddans (round dances) or gammeldans (old dances).
Perhaps the most popular and controversial of modern Hardanger fiddle artists is Annbjørg Lien, who released her first album, Annbjørg in 1989. The album featured Helge Førde and Frode Fjellheim and was both praised for its innovative fusion work and expressive style, and criticized for its watering-down of traditional sounds and a lack of regional tradition.
Other Norwegian traditional instruments include:
As of today, there is an eclectic use of both folk music and its traditional instruments. Interest in folk music is growing, and there are a number of promising young performers. They are not only drawn to instrumental music, however. Many young people are now learning to sing in the traditional style. During the past few decades (since the folk-rock trend), folk musicians have shown a greater interest in experimentation. A new generation has emerged which, while showing respect for the old traditions, is also willing to think along new lines. A number of well-known folk music artists in Norway have made excellent recordings using new instruments and new arrangements. In recent years artists like Gåte and Odd Nordstoga have made folk music more accessible to younger crowds. Gåte fused folk music with metal and became very popular. Lumsk is another band mixing Norwegian traditional folk music with metal. The most famous Sami singer is undoubtedly Mari Boine, who sings a type of minimalist folk-rock with joik roots. Karl Seglem is a Norwegian musician and composer who plays saxophone and bukkehorn. Sofia Jannok is also a popular Sami contemporary artist.
There are also some important institutions, for example the National Association of Folk Musicians. It is an organization founded in 1923 for folk music artists and folk dancers and it is primarily a union for local and regional folk music associations, but it is also open to individual members. As of 1990, the national association had 6,000 members from approx. 125 different local organizations. The National Association of Folk Musicians publishes Spelemannsbladet, a folk music journal that comes out 12 times a year. It also arranges the annual Landskappleiken (National Contest for Traditional Music), which is the most important event of its kind in Norway.
Folk music has a distinct part of Norwegian history, and most historical collection was done by L.M Lindeman. A large part of the collections are maintained and preserved in the National Folk Music Collection and at the National Library.
Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) uses and includes recordings of folk music from the archive of NRK, which contains over 50,000 recordings from 1934 until today, in addition to other recordings in the radio channels and the specialized radio channel NRK Folkemusikk.
Norwegian choir tradition[edit]
The oldest material evidence of choral music in Norway belongs to the 12th century, and as in all European choral singing, it was cultivated in monasteries and then in education centres, initially for religious purposes. Both the Catholic era and later the Lutheran reform of choral singing was important. However, the beginnings of a Norwegian tradition of choral singing itself took place during the 19th century.
On the one hand the cession of Norway from Denmark to Sweden arose a strong nationalist cultural motivation. On the other hand, the ideas Hans Georg Nägeli (1773–1836, Swiss) and Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758–1832, Germany) had given to choral singing reputed to be a particularly effective means of decimation of culture. This tradition is the joint work of composers, conductors, singing teachers and choral music publications. Lars Roverud, Friedrich August Reissiger, Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, Halfdan Kjerulf, Johan Conradi, and Johan Diederich Behrens are just some of the names that formed this Norwegian tradition before Edvard Grieg. They took more than one role in this complex socio-cultural development, each having a special merit.
The main contribution of Ludvig Mathias Lindeman was his collection of folk music and hymnody compilations, as well as the organization of a school for organists in 1883, which later became the Conservatory of Oslo. Kjerulf, Behrens and Conradi were the three directors of choirs and organizers of choral societies, but there was no doubt that Kjerulf stood out as composer, leaving more than 170 choral pieces, mostly for male quartet. Behrens and Conradi rather had a social role by organizing festivals such as the Craftmen Choir and the Businessmen Choir, as well as the Norwegian Students' Choir in Oslo and gradually in other regions. Behrens has a special reputation for having published compilations of Norwegian composers; there are over 500 songs in his volumes of "Collections of Part Songs for Male Voices".
The most influential era of these musicians was during the second half of the 19th century, a time when the popularity of choral singing spread throughout Norway, especially male singing for four voices. Proof of this is the legacy chorale singing left in the U.S., especially since the founding of St. Olaf College Choir by F. Melius Christiansen in 1912; there were said to be 3000 in attendance at mass services.
The choral tradition has since been used to strengthen the Norwegian identity. Conradi, Kjerulf and Reissiger wrote choral music with lyrics from Norwegian writers such as Ibsen or Bjørnson, who in turn wrote with the intention that their texts could be easily added to music. The 19th century was a time of intense collaboration between writers and composers, to use the existing popularity of musical societies and especially the male quartets were particularly popular from the 1840s.
A second generation of conductors and composers continued this tradition until the beginning of the 20th century (Andreas Olaus Grøndahl in Oslo, and in Bergen Ingolf Schjøtt). The popularity of choral societies and choral festivals led to the first competitions starting in the 1850s. In 1878 the Choral Society held its first student events outside Scandinavia bringing Norwegian music and texts to Paris, this being a way to export and show Norwegian culture.
The nationalist motivation is exposed in the music of Grieg. Despite the tradition that remained during the transition to the 20th century, Norwegian choral music eventually changed, especially after WW1 when romantic ideals were abandoned. A new generation of composers arose including Egge, Nysted, and Sommerfeldt. These composers are still influenced by Grieg and found inspiration in not only national elements but also more recent musical trends.
Finally, more recent eras of economic prosperity in Norway has brought a second boom of choral music in the capital and beyond. Volda for example, a town of only 6000 people in western Norway, has about 20 active choirs.[5]
World music[edit]
World music, a genre featuring influences from at least two cultural traditions, has become a small but lively musical genre in Norway. In Norway there are some musicians and bands whose music is categorized as world music. For example, the Irish-Norwegian Secret Garden, which won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1995, plays new age music. In addition, the well-reviewed Ras Nas mixes African music and reggae music with poetry. Vindrosa's music is traditional Norwegian folk songs with ethnic spices, and Annbjørg Lien blends traditional Norwegian music with jazz and rock. Several world music festivals are held in Norway each year. The Oslo World Music Festival was started by Concerts Norway (Rikskonsertene) in 1994, and the festival has introduced a multifaceted repertoire from Africa, Asia and Latin America ever since. The Riddu Riđđu festival was founded by the Sami associations in 1991 at first as a festival for Sami music and culture, but since then the festival has expanded to also concern international indigenous peoples. The association Samspill International Music Network (SIMN) is an organization for both musicians and dancers, and it promotes the position of world music in Norway. The organization coordinates information services, concert cooperation and seminars, and one of its main goals is to develop music and dance in Norway.[6]
Jazz in Norway
Folk music in Norway
Norwegian Folk Music Collection
Music festivals in Norway
Music museums in Norway
Institutes and Agencies for music in Norway