The project centres around the unusual song source Samuel Hellen (1813–1892), who sang forty songs for the folk music collector Ludvig Mathias Lindeman. Hellen has been virtually unknown until now, despite being one of Lindeman’s largest sources.

Singer and writer Ann-Turi Ford is the woman behind the project. Her book, Samuels sang, is a biography about Hellen’s life and songs that also places the songs into a larger cultural context. The book gives facsimiles of Lindeman’s transcriptions, as well as lyrics, which were a bit tricky to find. Lindeman’s main interest was the melodies, and he wrote down only one text verse for each song.

In addition to the book, Ann-Turi has re-interpreted and recorded all the forty songs, and collected them on the CDs Samuels sanger I–III. Many musicians are involved, and there is some musical diversity among the songs. For example, you can hear the organ, brass quintet, electronica and a folk-rock band accompanying the songs. I play a variety of instruments myself, for instance violins, the viola, rebec, lyre, kankle, zither, jew’s harp and melodeon.

In this video (with English sub-titles) Ann-Turi Ford tells a bit about Samuel Hellen and her project:

A bit more about Samuel Hellen: He was born on Nøtterøy (Vestfold) and lived as a vagabond during his first thirty years. After a troubled life with some criminal activity, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1843, and served in the slavery at Akershus Fortress. At the slavery he came into contact with the ideas of N.F.S. Grundtvig. Hellen made a complete change in his life, and was pardoned in 1852. As a free man and blacksmith in Christiania (which was the name of Oslo at that time), he met another follower of Grundtvig: Ludvig Mathias Lindeman, the organist and folk music collector. Lindeman wrote down the forty tunes in 1968 and 1869.

Hellen’s material consists of both religious and vernacular songs. Many of the melodies are unusual and some of them are not known from other sources. There are strong indications that Hellen relied on textual sources, and that he might have owned popular song books of the time, such as the Danish Kjempeviseboka. Another interesting point is that Hellen does not represent the typical image of a local performer representing a local tradition, since he picked up tunes several places.

Both the book and the CDs are published by Grappa Musikkforlag, and can be ordered directly from the publisher in physical format. In addition, the forty tunes are available on streaming services.

The post Samuel Hellen’s songs: Comprehensive music project finished appeared first on Musark.

In addition, Aksenty published the sound tracks from the video. They consist of improvisations with different instruments, like the jew’s harps, lyre, gusli, hardingfele and rebec. Download here: Aksenty.ru/novgorod2019.zip (seven tracks with a total length of 10:46).

Thank you Aksenty for a professional and top produced video!

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At this interesting and inspiring conference, music researchers and other contribute with ideas about music and democracy from various perspectives, for example linked to power structures in music streaming services. Keynote speakers include David Hesmondhalgh (University of Leeds) and Deborah Wong (University of California).

Here is the abstract of my own paper:

Political activism and the green musical wave in Norway

The 1972 referendum on Norwegian membership in the European Community created an enormous political engagement. Notably the “No-side” used music for spreading their message and mobilizing people. The appropriate political music had a green, environmental-friendly appeal, associated with the arguments against membership in EEC, which was seen as a capitalistic project that would threaten Norwegian nature and fishery resources. The green wave was connected to broader countercultural movements in the 1960s and 1970s, such as anti-war campaigns, folk revivals, feminist and left-wing ideas, in which various forms of music always was a central means for social and political activism.

The green political activists had a notable interest in local culture, and amateur-driven musical activities were cherished. Singer-songwriters and folk-musicians were as a rule considered to be more political relevant and authentic than rock musicians, since rock and other popular genres were considered to be expressions formed and manipulated by the commercial music industry. However, which music forms were considered to be most appropriate became increasingly debated in the green political movement.

In this paper, based on interviews and written sources, I will introduce some voices from the green political music scene of the 1970-ies, and ask how music became a tool for political activism among environmentalists. Was this music movement really a democratic grassroots movement, driven by engaged people in local communities? Finally, I will ask whether there is such a thing as “green music” or music associated with the ecological political movement today. Are green politicians and and activists concerned at all about music as a tool in their political work?

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