The purpose of this article is to challenge habitually used concepts in regard to tonality and timbre in unaccompanied traditional solo singing. The article explores ways of interpreting tonal and timbral structures in Aslak Brekke’s recording of Mælefjøllvisa, recorded in 1937, without presupposing any stipulated intonation pattern. The recording is analysed in the descriptive Multi-modal Model for intonation analysis (Jonzon, 2023), according to which the experienced tone place is completely disentangled from measured pitch. With an analytical focus on the phrase instead of the notes, the results suggest that Brekke’s production of tonal patterns is tightly connected to his breathing and muscle work, and to the pronunciation of the very words that form the song he is singing. The descriptive approach allowed for mapping how Brekke’s production of tonality seemingly emerged during his performance, in tonal structures which are not arbitrary, but best described as dynamic and tightly related to timbre. This present contribution does thereby, on a fundamental level, differ from the majority of earlier research into traditional singing, far beyond Scandinavia. The quote in the title can be translated into “where there once were green hills on which grass and flowers grew.” It illustrates what the present article argues, namely that there is a rich source of aesthetic inspiration in other approaches to vocal tonality than those which are common in today’s canonised understandings.
Intonation practices in Scandinavian traditional music are characterized by great variability and scholars have faced considerable difficulties outlining the composition and logic of tonal systems. The present study approaches this question by evoking the concept of tolerance, which implies a context-dependent flexibility in the intonation of notes and intervals. The analysis highlights the contextual and processual nature of pitch production and perception. The contextual dimensions comprise of 1) discursive conditions that frame and inform how tonal relations are conceptualized, 2) the specific musical context for a tonal event, which includes the sequential placement of a note in a melodic-rhythmic pattern and the musical features that coexist with pitch/intonation in the musical moment (timing, attack, dynamics, intensity, timbre), and 3) the idiomatic characteristics of the instrument being used and the associated sensorimotor logic behind the production of a note or a sequence of notes. The processual dimension concerns how intonational norms and frameworks or reference structures are shaped through the musical activity itself, including the corresponding unfolding of musical events. In line with this practice-oriented approach, the analysis also broadens the concept of intonation to include all elements of performance action that contribute to the sonic shaping of a tonal event.
In this article we are curious about what social dance can offer student teachers in physical education. What might form and enrich their educational journey so they can feel competent and empowered (Rustad, 2017) to teach dance? How can social dance enhance excitement and develop an appetite for teaching (Biesta, 2017), in order to move, flourish and exist as teachers? The study is placed in the generous categorization of practice-led research (Barret & Bolt, 2009), with educational experiences. Adopting a duoethnographic methodological approach (Norris & Sawyer, 2012) we investigate how social dance unfolds in the field of physical education. In addition to the teaching perspective, we base our data material on the students’ experiences with the social dance sessions, followed up in interviews of six students. We use thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to interpret the data material. We lean on Biesta’s (2014, 2017) educational theories, Bandura’s (1997) theory of ’self-efficacy’ and Bresler’s (2018, 2019) ideas on beginner’s mind and ways of knowing. We draw attention to the experiences of engaging, embodied and collective learning processes. Our findings support that participation in the social dance (here with a focus on linedance, reinlender, and bachata) was an enriching experience and contributed significantly to a wider perspective on physical education and embodied leadership, a sense of community and companionship in the dance space.
“He could not play the way I sang” is what Dansar Edvard Jonsson (1893-1976), Malung, Sweden, told the fieldworker Gertrud Sundvik when he performed together with a fiddler. The quote encapsulates a traditional singer’s take on the Scandinavian tradition of trying to demonstrate that the intonation patterns in what we today call traditional singing are hardly arbitrary. The purpose of this article is to illustrate the utility and implications of the Multi-modal Model, with a specific focus on melodic movements and pitch categories which “swap places”. This will be done through an analysis of the intonation in three recordings each of two songs with Dansar Edvard. The model is innovative in three ways; it implies a descriptive approach that does not presuppose any stipulated intonation pattern, the attention to intonation as something which emerges throughout a performance, and a focus on the phrase instead of the tones. The contribution is thus built on a thought structure which radically differs from those relying on abstract a priori tonal structures. This forms an attempt to look beyond norms derived from mathematical perfection.
This article describes how a traditional fiddle repertoire can be adapted and applied to the recorder flute. The starting point is practical, where a springleik material in Gudbrandsdalen has been transferred to the recorder, or “Sjøfløyte”, as the instrument is often referred to in the folk music genre. The article, which has a practical-pedagogical purpose, addresses specific issues related to the relationship between the technical side of the instruments and the musical framework set by tradition, but thus has relevance beyond the regional and organological delimitation that the starting point would indicate. With a sideways look at affordance theory, I show how the music in Gudbrandsdalen can largely be adapted to the flute and visa versa, while culturally based barriers can create resistance in such a process. I discuss how and with what credibility a repertoire can be transferred and designed for recorder flute and what factors play a role. The article argues that such transfer is both a continuation on the genre’s terms and a significant innovative element embedded in the process. Methodologically, the approach is practice-based, founded on many years of practical experience with transferring tunes, preferably from fiddle to flute.
There are many astonishingly beautiful and rare citterns exhibited in Norwegian Museums. The Norwegian cittern maker Amund Hansen (1734 – ca.1812) and his signature model, wich in the corpus design combines the shape of a bell and a pear, is the most famous of them all. The citterns by Hansen are made by the highest quality of craftsmanship and esthetical details. Even though Hansens popularity was highly acclaimed in his contemporary life, there are surprisingly few people in Norway that plays the cittern today. This article focuses on the creative approach where I try to revitalize the Amund Hansen cittern as a Norwegian folk music instrument. The first part focuses on how to make two new Hansen instruments, and the need for some stabilizing improvements. And the second part presents the process where I transform fiddle repertoire from Gudbrandsdalen over to the cittern. The imitation of the stroke patterns in the fiddle bow and other idiomatic technical elements, are important in the transformation process. You can hear the recordings at: DigitaltMuseum.no, cister/audiofiles.
Norsk folkemusikklags seminar 2014 hadde teknologi som tema. Siktemålet var å belyse teknologiens rolle i forskning på, formidling, tradering og utøving av norsk folkemusikk og - dans. Seminaret samlet ca. 25 deltakere. Åpningsforedraget ble holdt av professor Tellef Kvifte. Han ga en generell betraktning om forholdet mellom musikk og teknologi i vid forstand, der han bl.a. fokuserte på to av de sentrale teknologiene i vår folkemusikkhistorie, nemlig noteskrift og opptaksteknologi. Deretter ga Notto Thelle, daglig leder av Notam, Norsk senter for teknologi i musikk og kunst, et innblikk i hva sentret arbeider med. Thelle tok spesielt for seg et prosjekt som går ut på å gjøre Eivind Grovens renstemmingsautomat tilgjengelig digitalt.
This article focuses on the transcription of vocal folk music in Norway, and furthermore on how such transcriptions are used and interpreted. It could be stated that notation, as we know it today, is not fully feasible for use in folk music. Nevertheless, this is today the most common and widespread written notation method both for documentation, research and training in folk music. The article asks whether today’s notation is an adequate model for transcribing folk songs, and further what consequences it may have for the genre if the transcriptions do not render a sufficiently nuanced picture of the sounding material. The analyses are based on an empirical material taken from a review of eleven sheet music samples, with vocal transcriptions from the last forty years. In addition, they build on an overall study of the tradition for writing down folk music in general, and discussions related to this. The study shows that the vocal collections are largely characterized by simplified transcriptions, with few genre-specific features noted in the transcriptions. Through various findings, a need is outlined to develop the written language in order to better adapt the transcriptions to the expression of the genre. Through linguistic and sociological theories, the topic is discussed with a focus on different power perspectives.
This article addresses the new wealth of dance films made available through the internet. Clusters of approaches for the study of internet communities are often referred to as netnography. We aim to contribute an approach we call “netloristical” methodologies for dance. While netnography studies online communities, we propose netloristics, in parallel with folkloristics, as a term for studying their expressions, the netlore. Among other things, this article forefronts a need in dance research to work systematically with empirical material and to strive for transparency about how singular events bring us to generalisations. We combine this ambition with the old discussion of classifying the existences of dance genres and their practice into first or second existence – vival or revival. We propose a classification working with video documents that show concrete realisations of dances within dance events. This article presents an argument and strategy for developing dance research and its terminology further toward a precise empirical basis; to study not only communities but also their expressions. As the first step in this direction, we propose a series of what we call “modes of realisation”. The modes, or ways of realising dances are classified with the help of well-known distinctions. We also suggest ways to work diachronically, comparing the use of the different modes through time in order to elucidate changes and continuities.
This article focuses on the transcription of vocal folk music in Norway, and furthermore on how such transcriptions are used and interpreted. It could be stated that notation, as we know it today, is not fully feasible for use in folk music. Nevertheless, this is today the most common and widespread written notation method both for documentation, research and training in folk music. The article asks whether today’s notation is an adequate model for transcribing folk songs, and further what consequences it may have for the genre if the transcriptions do not render a sufficiently nuanced picture of the sounding material. The analyses are based on an empirical material taken from a review of eleven sheet music samples, with vocal transcriptions from the last forty years. In addition, they build on an overall study of the tradition for writing down folk music in general, and discussions related to this. The study shows that the vocal collections are largely characterized by simplified transcriptions, with few genre-specific features noted in the transcriptions. Through various findings, a need is outlined to develop the written language in order to better adapt the transcriptions to the expression of the genre. Through linguistic and sociological theories, the topic is discussed with a focus on different power perspectives.
Instruments made from animal horns have apparently been used as far back as the Stone Age, mainly as part of the shepherd’s necessary equipment. The animal horn was too short to be overblown. Therefore, people started to put two or three finger holes, probably at the end of the Bronze Age, so that it was possible to play simple melodies or signals. In popular terminology, the fingerhole horn was often called “prillarhorn” (fingering horn) or “bukkehorn” (buck horn), despite the fact that a good part of the horns was made from horns from cows or bulls. Very little research has been done on the Norwegian “bukkehorn” tradition, and not much has been published about the bukkehorn either. In 1973, Reidar Sevåg’s book Det gjallar og det læt was published, which was the first publication to deal with this subject in a serious and scientific way. Since there are several aspects of the horn that are not touched upon by Sevåg, and because his material was limited, I have examined a larger quantity of horns to complement the material and conclusions of Sevåg. I have also included the assessments of Atle Lien Jenssen in his master’s thesis on the clarinet (tongue) horn (2010). I have chosen to concentrate on the instrument itself, with the main emphasis on the description of different types, designs and distinctive features of the “bukkehorn”. In addition, I have looked more closely at the geographical distribution of the two main types of the instrument.
This article aims to identify and situate problems of dance and music terminology arising when we, as scholars in this field, write about a practice in another language than that spoken by the practitioners. This happens ever more often because English is rising to become a world language. In the first section of the article, a brief discussion of political argumentation regarding language hegemony outlines the context in which the problem arises, and the minimal room there is for any general language decolonisation. The second part of the article attempts to illustrate the problems arising from a linguistic perspective. Translation is about conveying the meaning of a word as it appears in each specific context. Then the one actual meaning suffices even if five more English words might be needed to give all the meanings. An academician investigating a phenomenon labelled by the word needs the whole range of meanings to understand how the word is situated in its language. The third, applied part discusses possible measures for achieving decolonisation, such as how one can navigate between a mother tongue and a hegemonic language. It asks if the many non-native users should have a say on the norms of academic English, discusses principles for borrowing terms between languages, and points to the need to analyse the different ranges of meanings carried by dance and music terms in any language. The article concludes with the argument that even modest measures such as these can bring more respect to languages. Language are tools for people to make sense of their surroundings and culture, just as is the research of traditional music and dance. By strengthening their esteem, we increase the stringency of our research and support them in a world mostly politically barren to language diversity.
Balladane er forteljingar på vers, alle dramatiske, anten romantiske, tragiske eller komiske. Tekstene er i seg sjølve ein stor skatt, i dag lett tilgjengelege i digital form: som transkriberte tekster i Det gamle balladearkivet frå 19971 og i utval med faglege innleiingar i Visearkivet, bokselskapet.no.2 Balladeprosjektet med Folkeviseautomaten3 byr mellom anna også på song av og opplysning om kvedarar. Kjeldeskriftene, sjølve handskriftene til fleire av dei store folkevisesamlarane på 1800-talet, er også digitaliserte, t.d. samlingane etter Sophus Bugge og Moltke Moe på nettsida til Norsk folkeminnesamling.4 Også musikkmanuskript i Nasjonalbiblioteket som oppskriftene av Ludvig Mathias Lindeman er tilgjengelege på nettsida til Nasjonalbiblioteket, bokhylla.no.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Are August Flannagan Furubotn: Slåttemusikkens undertekst, undersøkingar av språket kring slåttemusikken. Masteroppgåve i tradisjonskunst, Institutt for tradisjonskunst og folkemusikk, Universitetet i Søraust-Noreg, 2021. John Ole Morken: På tvers av taktslagene – Om en type buestrøk i rørospolsen som gikk av moten. Masteroppgave i tradisjonskunst, Institutt for tradisjonskunst og folkemusikk, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, 2021. Marianne Tovsrud Knutsen: Kor, kveding og improvisasjon; Arbeid med stiltrekk i norsk vokal folkemusikk med metodikk fra konseptet «The Intelligent Choir». Masteroppgave i tradisjonskunst, Institutt for tradisjonskunst og folkemusikk, Universitetet i Sørøst-Norge, 2021.
This book is an output from a conference held in Stockholm in April 2019 that brought together researchers, primarily ethnomusicologists, from various countries in the Nordic region and beyond that have worked on music and migration in different Nordic settings. The conference was specifically oriented toward revisiting and “taking stock” of previous research and updating it. The resulting book consists of nine chapters by researchers based in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Bosnia and Herzegovina, though the bulk of the chapters present the results of studies conducted in Sweden. Some chapters revisit older research from the 1980s and 1990s, while others report on research conducted more recently by a new generation of scholars working on the topic since around 2000. A few chapters are primarily oriented to theory, but most use ethnographic and/or archival material as a starting point for engaging with theoretical issues related to music and migration.
