Edvard Grieg collected different Norwegian folk songs and arranged them for piano in his Opus 66 '19 Norske folkeviser'. The very same folksongs are the base for a new release with Unni Lvlid, Anne Hytta and Ingfrid Breie Nyhus. These three experienced Norwegian musicians are curious about who the women behind the folksongs were, and how, by looking at new arrangements and expressions, these traditional folksongs can be explored and viewed in new ways. The range from everyday day life to the boundless range of human emotion is the thread that has been with them throughout the creative process. The bearers of the traditional folksongs lived the songs through work, everyday life and parties, but they were not named except for Gjendine Slalien - thats why we know nothing or very little about them today.
Traditional folk music lives through generations, and travels from person to person it is a collective process of creation. At the same time, each song is formed by individual needs and ability it is a legacy of listening and performing. Conservation, personal touch, active singing and playing, social sharing and transmission are decisive factors. The women who sang cattle-calls, ballads and lullabies were equally important bearers of tradition as were the instrumentalists, yet their names remain forgotten and unpreserved.
The three friends Edvard Grieg, Frants Beyer and Julius Rntgen spent their vacations in the Norwegian countryside, picking up songs that they brought back home to use in their music. They learned songs from women who worked in the trekking cabins in the Jotunheimen mountains and other places they visited during the summer. It is difficult to trace the identity of these women. The composers saw it as both a joy and their duty to transcribe the songs and share them with new audiences. Had these songs not been transcribed, they might have been forgotten, or at the very least become inaccessible to us. However, it presents something of a challenge to capture a living tradition on manuscript paper. There will always be something we don't know about a song; its many variations and spontaneous elements won't make it as far as the manuscript paper. The music is simplified.
The trio Lovlid/Hytta/Nyhus has shaped the folk songs into their musical language, seeking out common ground in a variety of sonic spaces and musical surroundings. Their approach to the material has been personal and directly linked to the many poignant life events in the lyrics. The material consists of sketches for improvisation sounds, expression and form based on their associations and ideas which has made every version of this release unlike the other.
"Grieg formed these songs in his own style, and we Unni Lovlid, Anne Hyttaand Ingfrid Breie Nyhus have done something similar. It is the tradition-bearers who are our common reference and most important source of inspiration. Our wish is to bring to the fore the women who sang these songs or rather, the idea of who they might have been, the strengths they possessed".
