October 8 - Bruremarsj frå Jämtland (Bridal March from Jämtland)

Today is a pretty special day - it's the day that Chris' sister Dawn will be married to her long-time partner Paula, and I am very excited for them. I met them pretty early in my relationship with Chris, during a family reunion I kinda crashed, and I have greatly enjoyed getting to know both of them. When Chris was being treated for cancer in February and March, I got to know Dawn a lot better, as she was there helping out quite a lot, and I don't know that I can put into words how much that meant to me - and how much I appreciate her as a person and family member. I have grown very fond of her, and I am thrilled that the now is able to marry Paula, and in celebration of that, I have taken a small slice of Scandinavian tradition to present as the song of the day.

The song I have picked is a very traditional Scandinavian tune - although it is in a very modern form. From what little I have been able to gather about bridal marches (or wedding marches), the musicians would play the happy couple all the way to the steps of the church (and in Norwegian tradition, that's where weddings indeed happened), but not further - partly because a lot of the old traditional music was composed for fiddles, including the Hardanger Fiddle, and they were, as "we all know," the devil's musical instrument and could not be invited into the church.

Now, I did say Scandinavian tune for a reason, as this originated in Jämtland, which used to be Norwegian territory until the Treaty of Brømsebro in 1645, when both Jämtland and neighbouring region Härjedalen were ceded to Sweden. This really is a region that highlights the interconnectedness of the Scandinavian countries, as it was ceded to Sweden by Denmark-Norway, which at that point were a union and would be until 1814, when Norway was liberated from Denmark only to enter a new union with Sweden. But Jämtland still is a region that is very close to Norway - Norwegians from the region of Trøndelag, which is where I grew up, frequently visit either to go shopping ar simply to spend vacation time at Östersund, the only city in Jämtland and home to the festival Storsjöyran.

The band Gåte falls neatly into a more recent Scandinavian tradition of modernizing traditional music that was started in Finland and Sweden by bands like Hedningarna and Hoven Droven. They are all from the Trondheim region, and their singer went to the same high school I did - only about 10 years later. They entered Norwegian music consciousness pretty quickly from their beginnings in 1999, shone very brightly, and then called it quits in 2005 (although they did reconvene in 2009-10). They released two studio albums, and Bruremarsj Frå Jämtland is from their first album, Jygri, from 2002. It is an instrumental - so there are no lyrics and the voice is simply being used as another instrument throughout, so lose yourself in the song.

But before I let you listen, I would like to remind you, once again, that this song is being played for a very special reason. I know that I sometimes start geeking out on all kinds of historical and musical information, and I get lost in it. Today, I will not do that. The bridal march is indeed played because of the wedding of Dawn and Paula. Congratulations to you both - and thank you for letting me be a part of it!

February 1 - Bendik og Årolilja

Migration can do strange things to people. I don't think very many who knew me back in Norway would consider me a nationalist - even in the most positive sense of the word. However, I've never been more Norwegian than when I moved to the United States. I have mentioned my interest in traditional music before - but until I moved to the US, that was much more a question about other tradition than Norwegian tradition. After I moved here in 1999, that started changing, and I developed a very big interest in Norwegian traditional music - and while Gåte was one of the bands I eventually started really connecting with, they were not where it all started.

The roots had been laid in the years in Studentradioen i Bergen, as they had two CDs that were called The Sweet Sunny North by David Lindley and Henry Kaiser, two virtuoso guitarists who had made a trip to Norway to record and play traditional music with Norwegian musicians. They had done a similar project prior to this that resulted in A World Out of Time, featuring recordings from Madagaskar. So I had listened to this music, as well as some Finnish traditional music (Hedningarna), and some Swedish hybrid of traditional music and metal (Hoven Droven). I was curious, and I had a gateway to traditional music, but I wasn't yet quite convinced.

And then I moved to the US - and I ended up feeling the need to really explore my own heritage a little bit more. Music was indeed a part of it, but other traditions became important to understand a little as well - mostly because people always would ask me about Norway and traditions. Some questions have really shown the ignorance of some of the people I have encountered - such as earnest questions about the prevalence of electricity and indoor plumbing as well as being asked if I knew what a library was (I am surprised Trondheim Folkebibliotek - the public library in my home town - still is open now that it isn't supported by my chronic late fees). Someone asked me if the Norwegian language really is English with a Norwegian accent... I could go on - but really, the more interesting questions revolve around culture and traditions surrounding holidays. And while people here may not know why American Christmas traditions are the way they are, they sure want to know why we do them differently (read: wrong) in Norway.

So, around the same time I moved to the United States, there was a new band that started developing in Norway. Their name was Gåte - the direct translation is riddle, but it could also be translated to mystery - and they played traditional music with a very modern sound and arrangement. The instrumentation was drum, bass, and guitar with keyboards and electronics, which is a very traditional rock setup, but they were also augmented by fiddle, which is heavily featured in Norwegian traditional music. Gunnhild Sundli, who was the singer, was only 14 when she joined the band and the little sister of Sveinung Sundli, who was the fiddle player. They released 2 studio albums before calling it quits in 2005. By then, Gunnhild Sundli was 20, which means that she was a teenager when all their studio albums were recorded, which is amazing both given the power of her voice and the style of music they were playing, which often takes many years to perfect.

I should also mention that during the last part of their tenure, their drummer was one Kenneth Kapstad, who now plays drums for Motorpsycho. I think that is more than a good enough reason to let Gåte be the start of a new week, this one featuring good Norwegian music that isn't Motorpsycho... Here is the song that opened my ears for Gåte: Bendik og Årolilja.