MUSICAL ISLANDS

When the Faroese composer Sunleif Rasmussen accepted the Nordic Council’s big music award in 2002, he wrote that the sound of water was among the first things he remembered. He would follow the water with closed eyes, until it rushed over a cliff and disappeared in the surf of the sea, and he would lie and listen until he himself was an island among an infinite sea of sounds.

This later became the first Faroese symphony, Oceanic Days. It was a big day when the symphony was performed for the first time in the Nordic House, and it was as if a gust of the country’s history swept through the hall along with the music. It was, after all, only a few generations since musical instruments were hardly known in the Faroes. It was only the old Faroese singing and dancing, stories and tales, and the traditional chain dance, where the voice and the rhythm of the feet alone was heard.

When Faroese trade was freed, a new world opened, and along with the trade a new time’s music swept over the islands. The first great teacher was a baker’s assistant from Bornholm, and baker Hansen is a main character in William Heinesen’s famous novel Lost Musicians. He teaches the bellringer’s sons to play, so they in the end lose themselves in the art. William Heinesen was himself the baker’s student, and somewhere he tells of his teacher that he was so musical that he could play on all instruments in existence, in addition to a good deal of them that weren’t yet invented.

Now most of them are invented, and in daily usage. They can be heard both in the Nordic House and in garages and basements all over the islands. This is attributed first of all to the large sea of sound that has poured over the entire globe for years. In the next place, it is the development of music schools and the organized education.

Now young musicians sit together with the more experienced in the Faroese symphony orchestra and play classical music literature, and a few days later they may be standing on stage in a rock band and blasting up an improvisation of an old Faroese folk tune.

But the voice is still the main instrument and the fondness of singing is large, whether it is expressed at festive occasions or in the 2030 choirs that hold concerts and annual festivals. There is a straight line from this big song tradition to today’s many names, among others the young singer Eivør Pálsdóttir. She can lift up the old songs and give them a brand new meaning, and she can create new songs that flow in tune with today’s society. The singer and lyric writer Teitur Lassen has also become a well known name and has toured in the USA and Europe. The group Ennek plays a deep and intense world music, but the group Týr is tougher, often starting out with an old Faroese song and bringing it to full speed.

There are many fiery souls, and our time’s baker Hansen comes from a windswept part of west Jutland in Denmark. Kristian Blak has for more than 25 years been a teacher and inspirer for countless youth in all music genres from folk music, jazz and rock, to modern musical scores. He is a festival arranger, in addition to being the soul of the music publishing firm Tutl, that has over 400 publications to date. Follow him into one of the deep grottos along the coastline and experience one of nature’s large concert halls. Maybe the music is a part of Journey to the Centre of the Earth from his own Concerto Grotto.