Liz Green "Sisters of Mercy"

One of the tracks on MoJo CD Leonard Cohen Covered Audio on soundcloud.com ... very striking accompaniment on keyboard.

Audio here: Sisters Of Mercy (Liz Green)

Posted by Peter Wrench in a review of Cohen's CD Old Ideas on the No Depression website:

For me, the best Cohen cover ever is still REM's storming take on 'First We Take Manhattan', and there's nothing quite in that league here. But honorable mentions in particular for Liz Green's intelligent rethinking of 'Sisters Of Mercy' to a piano accompaniment; Bill Callahan's questing stab at 'So Long Marianne'; and Diagrams' transformed - and lovely - 'Famous Blue Raincoat' And I was particularly taken by the Miserable Rich's version of 'The Stranger Song', after thinking I was going to hate it when it started. ...

Wrench's bottom line: "So, well worth a listen. Think of it as a CD for £4.50 with a free magazine and you'll even persuade yourself you're getting a bargain."

Liz Green playing keyboard ... accompanying herself on "French Singer." Cuts off abruptly, but there's another clip with the whole song (but terrible lighting and shot from behind so you can't see her). Sort of an ostinato accompaniment.

New Salem: Aeolian (minor) and Mixolydian dulcimer modes - "On Jordan's Stormy Banks," Idumea, "Shady Grove" and "Going to Boston"

Prominent among the preachers on the platform was Rev. John M. Berry. He would give out the hymn, read it, line it, and, in a strong voice, lead the singing himself, the people joining in one after another. "On Jordan's stormy banks I stand" and "How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in His excellent word" were favorites. ... After this he announced the text and began to preach. He did not time his sermons, neither did the people turn uneasy glances toward their camps.
-- Alice Keach Bone, Rock Creek Church: A Retrospect of One Hundred Years (1922).

Do you think tunes in a minor key are sad and major tunes are happy?

If so, think again.

Here's a group of Sacred Harp singers earlier this month in Waco, Texas, belting out a minor-key version of a folk hymn that was sung at Rock Creek campground in frontier days:



Do these people sound sad?

They may be rushing the tempo a little, but Sacred Harp singers tend to do that. The main thing is they're singing the song -- variously known as "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" or "The Promised Land" -- as it was sung in the 1800s, as we can be fairly certainly it was sung at Rock Creek, and they're singing it in a minor key.

Saturday at New Salem we're going to learn "The Promised Land" in the Aeolian, or minor, mode, as it was printed in 1835 in a shape-note tunebook called The Southern Harmony. The words are by an English cleric of the 1700s named Samuel Stinnett, and the melody is by Matilda Durham, a singing school teacher from South Carolina. It was by far one of the most popular shape-note melodies of the early 19th century.

"On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand" is one of four tunes we'll learn. Two others will be in the Aeolian, and one will be Mixolydian. We'll also review "Old Joe Clark," another Mixolydian tune that most mountain dulcimer players already know (although perhaps without realizing it's a modal tune). But first we'll have to look at the modes. There are four that are commonly used:

• Ionian. The most common mode, corresponding to a major scale. Almost everything from "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" to a Beethoven symphony is played in a major key descended from the Ionian mode.
  
  
• Aeolian. Musicians call it the natural minor, at least as long as they're taking music theory in school. "Greensleves" and the Irish song "Shule Aroon" are Aeolian.
  
  
• Mixolydian. A lot of the grand old southern Appalachian fiddle tunes are Mixolydian, and it's a staple in traditional Irish music as well. It's related to the African American blues scale as well, although musicologists differ on exactly how and why.
  
  
• Dorian. Sometimes called the "mountain minor." It's common to Irish music, in songs like "Pride of the Springfield Road," and a lot of high lonesome Appalachian songs. Also some very lovely ballads.

There's a lot written about the modes, and a lot of it is frankly confusing. Some of it, I think, is just flat wrong.

But basically, they're just different scales we play on a dulcimer. How simple can that be?

The best explanation I've seen for dulcimer players was in the late Jean Schilling's Old-Time Fiddle Tunes for the Appalachian Dulcimer (1973). She played with old-time string bands in East Tennessee, and she respected the spirit of the music. She also was willing to let the mountain dulcimer be a dulcimer:

In many ways, the dulcimer's limitations are actually its strengths. Nothing captures the haunting and plaintive quality of the older pentatonic ballads and archaic-sounding fiddle tunes better than an instrument bound to the simple modal scales. Too, the continual droning -- the incessant hum or wail behind a fragile melodic line -- affords the dulcimer a temperament very unlke more sophisticated chromatic instruments.

Here's how she explained the modes on a dulcimer:

Though I used a number of different tunings right from my start as a dulcimer player, it took years for me to figure out what was meant by the various tuning modes and the strange Greek words used to describe them. I simply referred to a favorite song used in each tuning, such as: "Oh, yes! That's the 'Old Joe Clark' tuning. What a revelation to find that each mode and its associated Greek name simply tells what fret the scale for that mode begins on! For example, the Mixolydian mode begins its scale -- or 'DO' note -- at either the open note (the zero fret) or the seventh fret, and can be in any key you choose within the limitations of the strings on your dulcimer. The Ionian mode, another major key ... tuning, begins its scale at the third fret. Two minor modes are the Aeolian, beginning at the first fret, and the Dorian starting at the fourth fret.

How about the strings other than the melody strings in each of the modes of tuning? They are chosen so as to provide a harmonious sound with a full strum across the fingerboard at each fret in the scale.

I would rather just say the the Mixolydian scale starts with its keynote on the open fret -- since its keynote is called sol in the shape-note traditions I sing in -- but otherwise, Schilling had it nailed. The modes are scales that begin on a certain fret, and the tunings are designed to sound good with them. They're related, but they aren't the same thing.

The tunings we'll use Saturday, DAC and DAD, are also designed to let us play everything in D. Since the Appalachian dulcimer is diatonic -- which means its frets play a particular scale, without extra sharps and flats, just like the white keys of a piano -- we retune the dulcimer so D sounds at the right place on the fretboard for each of the modes. It works like this:

• Since the Mixolydian scale starts on the open melody string, we tune it to D. That gives us a D Mixolydian scale from the open D string to the octave at the seventh fret. The drone strings remain at low D and A.
  
  
• Since the Aeolian scale starts on the first fret, we tune the melody string to C. That gives us a minor scale from the first to eighth frets.
  
  
• The Ionian scale starts on the third fret, so we tune the melody string to A. D is on the third fret, and the scale is from the third to the 10th frets.
  
  
• The Dorian scale starts on the fourth fret, so we tune the melody string down to G. That gives us a Dorian scale starting on D at the fourth fret and going up to the octave at the 11th fret.

Here are some YouTube clips of the songs we'll learn -- or review -- Saturday morning:

D Aeolian (tune DAC)

"Idumea" or "Am I Born to Die?" Another shape-note hymn --- If you saw the movie Cold Mountain, it was the haunting melody used as background music for the scenes depicting the Battle of the Crater. It's sung by an ethnomusicologist and former punk rocker named Tim Ericksen and traditional Sacred Harp singer Cassie Franklin of North Alabama:

Tim Eriksen - Am I born to die ? [Idumea]. From a CD of songs from Cold Mountain.

"Shady Grove" is an old fiddle tune in Jean Ritchie's Dulcimer Book, and it's kind of a signature tune of hers. I found two clips on YouTube, one from a folk festival at the Pine Mountain Settlement School and one from an old TV show hosted by Pete Seeger:

Jean Ritchie at Appalachian Family Folk Week 2007. Hindman, Ky. June 14, 2007.



Rainbow Quest: Jean Ritchie - Shady Grove. From Pete Seeger's TV show during the 1960s.



Jean Ritchie also has a lovely version of "Barbry Ellen" in her book, and it's available on line at http://youtu.be/9l3VePGR-QA.

D Mixolydian (tune DAD)

"Going to Boston" is a fine old A mixolydian fiddle tune that also got cleaned up as a play party tune. Or maybe it was a play party tune that crossed over to the world of oldtime string bands. According to Andrew Kuntz' Fiddlers Companion (click here and scroll down), it was collected in the 1910s in Kentucky and Indiana, so it was clearly in the oral tradition in the lower Midwest. Anyway, Jean Ritchie popularized it in folk music circles. We transpose it to "D for dulcimer." but it's still Mixolydian because its scale starts on the open melody string.

Mark Gilston, of Austin, Texas, has two instructional videos of the tune, which he learned from Jean Ritchie's book. Quite a bit of good advice on how to use a noter, etc., plus some ideas on chording that I wouldn't bother with but you may want to check out for your own playing. I'm not familiar with Gilston, but the "Going to Boston" videos do look pretty good. He also has a website at http://markgilston.com/.

Dulcimer Lessons with Mark Gilston - Going to Boston Part 1. There's also a Part 2. Each is about 10 minutes, and they'll take you through not only the song but points of technique. Gilston also has a very cool Kokopelli jamming with him.

"Old Joe Clark" is also in Jean Ritchie's book, but here's another version in case you want to hear to set the melody in your head before you play it. It's not exactly the same, but close enough.

old joe clark on banjo(clawhammer). Posted by longbowbanjoAL, from Alabama.

Video from Munnharpe and Langeleik Festival in Fagernes, 2012

Anders Erik Roine 3 (langeleik) Munnharpe festival, Fagernrs 2010



Anders Erik Roine on Munnharpe and langeleik festival, Fagernrs, Norway 2010.
Андерш Эрик Роине на фестивале мунхарпы и лангелейка, г. Фанернес, Норвегия 2010.


#3 Erik Roine, Hallgrim Berg and Brotagutad'n munnharpa and langeleik



#3 Erik Roine, Hallgrim Berg, Knut Aastad and Ole Aastad on Munnharpe and langeleik festival, Fagernes, Norway 2010. New CD release http://www.grappa.musikkonline.no/shop/displayAlbum.asp?id=40368

Халгрим Берг,Эрик Роине и братья Кнут, и Оле Аастад выступают на фестивале мунхарпы и лангелейка, г. Фанернес, Норвегия 2010. Презентация нового альбома http://www.grappa.musikkonline.no/shop/displayAlbum.asp?id=40368


Performance at Munnharpe and langeleik festival, Fagernes, 2010



From YouTube user ____: You will listen few tunes. The first one is is a Norwegian folksong Kråkevisa. The second tune is an Estonian folk tune, called "Raska på" at the concert. It is Bagpipes player's surname, but in Norwegian "Raska på" means hurry up.

Veronika Søum - Jew's harp (munnharpa)
Sigbjørn Høidalen - Jew's harp (munnharpa) and flute
Katariin Raska - Bagpipes
Olav Wendelbo -hammer harp

Звучит несколько мелодий, сначала норвежская "Kråkevisa".
Следующая эстонская, объявленная как "Raska på. Раска это фамилия исполнителя на волынке, а по норвежски "Raska på" означает поторопись.

Veronika Søum - варган
Sigbjørn Høidalen - варган и флейта
Katariin Raska - волынка
Olav Wendelbo - цитра (hammer harp)

Rick Santorum, mainline Protestants, politics and spiritual warfare: An Ash Wednesday meditation

While this year's Republican presidential primary candidates were debating tonight in Mesa, Arizona, I was singing in an Ash Wednesday service.

Out in Arizona the candidates treated each other, and CNN's audience of GOP party faithful, to a night of "brittle, passive-aggressive and macho blustering," as a live-blogger for The Guardian put it. Politics as usual, in other words. While they were politicking, I took part in my congregation's first Lenten soup supper, followed by a quick choir rehearsal; an Ash Wednesday communion service; and our regular Wednesday night choir practice after the service.

From the first bowl of soup to the last choir anthem, we spent three hours at church.

Soup suppers during Lent are a Lutheran tradition, one that's shared with Roman Catholics, the Episcopalians, the Methodists and other denominations who follow the seasons of the liturgical year. I don't know how old the tradition is. Early 20th century? But among Lutherans it's as time-honored as hot dish casseroles, Jell-O salad and lutefisk dinners in the church basement.

Ash Wednesday services are even older. The ritual is thought to date back to the 700s, and not too many years later the English homilist Aelfric of Eynsham recorded, "we strew ashes on our heads to signify that we ought to repent of our sins during the Lenten fast."

Holy Communion, of course, goes back to Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the first Easter. Bby the time a manual known as the Didache or The Teaching of the Lord to the Gentiles by the Twelve Apostles was written at some point between 50 and 120 A.D., it was recognized as the most important part of the early Christian liturgy, in a form still recognizable to us today.

Psalm 51 is a traditional part of Ash Wednesday services. It's the penitential psalm that begins, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness; / in your great compassion blot out my offenses." In our service, it was followed by a general confession, which our pastor introduced by saying:

As disciples of the Lord Jesus we are called to struggle against everything that leads us away from love of God and neighbor. Repentance, fasting, prayer, and works of love -- the discipline of lent -- help us to wage our spiritual warfare.

The confession itself followed the language of an ancient prayer called the Confiteor. First recorded in the eighth century, its language is familiar throughout western Christendom:

Most holy and merciful Father, we confess to you and to one another, and to the whole communion of saints in heaven and on earth, that we have sinned by our own fault in thought, word, and deed; by what we have done and what we have left undone.

After the confession, we sang Christian contemporary settings of "Create in Me a Clean Heart" by Mary Rice Hopkins and "Change My Heart, O God" by songwriter Eddie Espinosa that pick up the familiar language of the Confietor. (That's what our on-the-fly choir rehearsal was for -- to brush up on the service music.) We also sang hymns by John Wesley, 17th-century German chorale writer Paul Gerhardt and 19th-century Welsh composer Joseph Parry.

After the service was over, we had our regular Wednesday night choir practice. It made for a long evening, but you can't sound like much of anything on Sunday if you don't practice on Wednesday.

So for Sunday we worked up a contemporary, very syncopated arrangement of "O God Our Help in Ages Past" by Isaac Watts. And we ran through the 19th-century hymn "Jesus Paid It All," set to a new tune by contemporary pop musician David Clydesdale, and the American folk hymn "Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" by Marty Parks, a longtime United Methodist choir director who has put together a collection of anthems for small parishes titled O For a Dozen Tongues to Sing. I think that's one of the best titles in the whole world of choral literature.

In the meantime, out in Arizona the Republican presidential candidates were engaged in their own form of spiritual warfare. Well, the effect wasn't exactly spiritual, but they were certainly demonizing President Obama for an alleged "secular agenda" and "phony theology" ... and trash-talking each other while they were at it.

Wednesday's debate capped off a week when somebody -- it's not clear who but speculation points to Mitt Romney's campaign, made sure the media got ahold of a speech that former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum gave in 2008 at Ave Maria University, a very conservative Catholic school in Florida. In it, Santorum suggested that Satan has subverted the mainline Protestant churches, along with academia and popular culture.

Most of the media comment was, predictably enough, breath-takingly superficial. So I went looking for a transcript

In the true spirit of "horse race" coverage, the coverage centered on whether the four-year-old speech will hurt Santorum, or help him, in the presidential preference polls, and his efforts to put the issue behind him. A more nuanced assessment came from freelance writer Michael J. O’Loughlin in the Jesuit magazine America. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, O'Loughlin was troubled by Santorum's "particular understanding of the world and his unique interpretation of Catholicism." He suggested:

Utilizing one’s faith to inform one’s politics is healthy and encouraging, especially when the resulting policies answer the biblical exhortation to protect the poor and marginalized. But claiming that those who differ from you in the values they hold or the worldviews they profess have been influenced by the Devil himself is truly bizarre and perhaps abhorrent.

Most of the news media accounts just quoted little snippets -- sound bites -- from Santorum's speech, and there wasn't enough context to evaluate it. So I tracked down a transcript posted by People for the American Way on its Right Wing Watch website. Santorum's context indeed was what he described as a "spiritual war" in which Satan is successfully "attack[ing] all of our institutions" in America, starting with academic life and moving on to the church and popular culture, He said:

And so what we saw this domino effect, once the colleges fell and those who were being education in our institutions, the next was the church. Now you’d say, ‘wait, the Catholic Church’? No. We all know that this country was founded on a Judeo-Christian ethic but the Judeo-Christian ethic was a Protestant Judeo-Christian ethic, sure the Catholics had some influence, but this was a Protestant country and the Protestant ethic, mainstream, mainline Protestantism, and of course we look at the shape of mainline Protestantism in this country and it is in shambles, it is gone from the world of Christianity as I see it. So they attacked mainline Protestantism, they attacked the Church, and what better way to go after smart people who also believe they’re pious, to use both vanity and pride to also go after the Church.

Imagine my surprise. While I was singing in the choir and taking part in liturgical traditions that go back to the Apostolic church, I thought I was part of the "world of Christianity," too.

Der König in Thule - text by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - melody by Carl Friedrich Zelter

According to the Wikipedia article, Zelter was a friend of Goethe's. Composed 200 lieder, including settings of Goethe's poetry. Taught both Felix and Fanny Mendelsohn, communicated his love of Bach to Mendelsoh.

Ulricus + Friesische Hummel



Ulrich writes: "König von Thule" ist eine alte Balade von J.W.v Goethe.
Die "Friesische Hummel" ist ein altes Instrument entlang der Nordseeküste von Dänemark bis Westfriesland (NL). Replies to question: "This Hummel has a string length of 70 cm. The normal tuning is: c´c´ c´c´ f cc F . For this ballade I have the aeolian mode: b b c´c´ g cc C. In english term you woud write bb bb c´etc."

Der König in Thule (voice & harp)



sandman21283 on YouTube: vocals and harp by myself (Nighttime Bird): "Der König in Thule" is a poem written by famous German author J.W. von Goethe in 1774. It is recited by Gretchen in Goethe's Faust and has also been set to music by various composers. Here you find a version done by C.F. Zelter. You'll find this song in many traditional songbooks today as it is quite famous. It was one of the first songs I sang within my classical voice training and I love it. To break the song's content down to a few sentences: It is about a king in Thule who receives a golden cup (or goblet) from his dying lover. He keeps this cup as a keepsake from his beloved one until he tosses it into the sea a short time before he dies himself- so not necessarily a happy song. ;)

Es war ein König in Thule (Goethe/Zelter), instrumental on mandolin and tenor guitar



mj10008 on YouTube: Having already recorded this piece on solo tenor guitar, I have now made a somewhat fuller arrangement, played as a duet of mandolin (melody) and tenor guitar (harmony). The instruments used are my 1921 Gibson Ajr mandolin and my Ozark tenor guitar, tuned GDAE.

This is one of several musical settings of a poem written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1774. This particular tune was written in 1814 by Carl Friedrich Zelter (1758-1832). The poem attracted high caliber composers: there are other musical settings for the same words by Schubert, Berlioz, Liszt and Schumann, among others. Nevertheless, Zelter's tune is the best-known one and is still widely sung as a folk song in Germany.

Herre Gud, ditt dyre navn og ære - 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica's bio of Petter Dass

A catechism song by Petter Dass, according to Wikipedia, now sung to a folk melody from Romsdal that may be Dass'. (Google, by the way, translates the title as ""Lord God of your pet's name and honor" - because dyre means animal?) Text, in Norwegian, and MIDI file from NoS 268 are put on line in Orkdalsmenighetene by Orkdal church. Orkdal is a municipality in Sør-Trøndelag.

An old traditional Norwegian psalm tone. Two clips on YouTube, one very traditional and one by Norwegian pop and Christian contemporary artist Sissel ...

In Vang church --



Video of Musikklinja på Stange VGS - Spring 2010
Folketone fra Romedal, tekst: Petter Dass arr: Roger Andreassen

Magne Otervik og Tom Erik Antonsen, trompet
Anne Gunn Grimerud, horn
Erlend Østbø Juberg, trombone
Roger Andreassen, orgel
Musikklinjekoret og Ringsaker kantori
Torgeir Ziener, dirigent

Sissel in concert --



Sissel gives it the full treatment in what looks like a televised concert. Apparently in Sweden.
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Dass, Petter has this:

DASS, PETTER (1647-1708), the “father” of modern Norwegian poetry, was the son of Peter Dundas, a Scottish merchant of Dundee, who, leaving his country about 1630 to escape the troubles of the Presbyterian chursh, settled in Bergen, and in 1646 married a Norse girl of good family. Petter Dass was born in 1647 on the island of Nord Herö, on the north coast of Norway. Seven years later his father died, and his mother placed him with his aunt, the wife of the priest of another little island-parish. In 1660 he was sent to school at Bergen, in 1665 to the university of Copenhagen, and in 1667 he began to earn his daily bread as a private tutor. In 1672 he was ordained priest, and remained till 1681 as under-chaplain at Nesne, a little parish near his birthplace; for eight years more he was resident chaplain at Nesne; and at last in 1689 he received the living of Alstahoug, the most important in the north of Norway. The rule of Alstahoug extended over all the neighbouring districts, including Dass's native island of Herö, and its privileges were accompanied by great perils, for it was necessary to be constantly crossing stormy firths of sea. Dass lived here in quietude, with something of the honours and responsibilities of a bishop, brought up his family in a God-fearing way, and wrote endless reams of verses. In 1700 he asked leave to resign his living in favour of his son Anders Dass, but this was not permitted; in 1704, however, Anders became his father's chaplain. About this time Petter went to Bergen, where he visited Dorothea Engelbrechtsdatter, with whom he had been for many years in correspondence. He continued to write till 1707, and died in August 1708. The materials for his biography are very numerous; he was regarded with universal curiosity and admiration in his lifetime; and, besides, he left a garrulous autobiography in verse. A portrait, painted in middle age, now in the church of Melhus, near Trondhjem, represents him in canonicals, with deep red beard and hair, the latter waved and silky, and a head of massive proportions. The face is full of fire and vigour. His writings passed in MS. from hand to hand, and few of them were printed in his lifetime. Nordlands Trompet (The Trumpet of Nordland), his greatest and most famous poem, was not published till 1739; Den norska Dale-Visc (The Norwegian Song of the Valley) appeared in 1696; the Aandelig Tidsfordriv (Spiritual Pastime), a volume of sacred poetry, was published in 1711. The Trumpet of Nordland remains as fresh as ever in the memories of the inhabitants of the north of Norway; boatmen, peasants, priests will alike repeat long extracts from it at the slightest notice, and its popularity is unbounded. It is a rhyming description of the province of Nordland, its natural features, its trades, its advantages and its drawbacks, given in dancing verse of the most breathless kind, and full of humour, fancy, wit and quaint learning. The other poems of Petter Dass are less universally read; they abound, however, in queer turns of thought, and fine homely fancies.

Fiskervise [fish song] / "Det hender sig ofte ..." / Brudlops Digt Til Rasmus Angell / by Petter Dass

Heard on casette tape Birgette Grimstad, Songs of Scandinavia [Skandisk, 1978], beginning at 14:48

---

Portrait at left, thought to be of Petter Dass, in Melhus church, Norway. Available through Creative Commons (representation of work published before 1923 and in public domain in the US).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Petter_Dass_i_Melhus.jpg

---

Petter Dass was a poet and priest in Nordland along the coast north of Trondheim, best known today perhaps for the hymn "Herre Gud, ditt dyre navn og ære" Bio in Norwegian in Den Store Norske Leksikon at http://snl.no/.nbl_biografi/Petter_Dass/utdypning. Dass wrote it as a wedding song for his brother's widow, Judith Volqvartz, and her second husband, Rasmus Angell, both of Trondheim. According to a Benkestokslekt, a Family geneological webssite:

Judith ble første gang gift 17 år gammel med handelsmannen i Åkvika på Dønna, Benjamin Peitersen Dass, bror av dikterpresten Petter Dass. Benjamin og Petter tilhørte Benkestok-slekta gjennom sin mor, Maren Petersdatter Falch.
Judith var Benjamins 3.kone, og han var 26 år eldre enn henne. Da han døde i 1702 satt Judith igjen med fire små barn, bare 26 år gammel. For Hr. Petter ble det nå viktig å finne et godt gifte til sin brors enke, og dermed en ny driver til virksomheten i Åkvika. Han var helt sikker fornøyd, for han skrev et bryllupsdikt til dem som i dag er kjent som ”Fiskervise” , men originalen var ”Brudlopsdigt til Rasmus Angell i Nordlandene”. Vi ser at Hr. Petter leker seg med Angell-navnet, og kommer med et stikk til de frierne som kom for seint.

And yes, Dass does play with Angell's name, as well as the names of sevral fish.

Set to music by Edvard Grieg, under title "Fiskervise" [fisherman's song] in Syv Barnlige Sange (Op.61-4), and to a different melody by late Romantic classical composer Ole Olsen, in the early 20th century.

Grimsted and Erik Bye popularized Olsen's song in the 1970s on EN DOBBEL DEYLIGHED ( A Double Delight), a CD of hymns and songs of Petter Dass. Grimstad covered it as a solo on the American cassette tape I found in Dad's collection ... I imagine he would have got it on a trip to Minnesota in the 70s.

Complete words (all 15 verses) in Dagbladet's kultur diktbasen at http://www.dagbladet.no/docarc/showdoc.php?a=1&d=4210 ...

Petter Dass

BRUDLOPS DIGT TIL RASMUS ANGELL I NORDLANDENE AF PETER DASS.

Det hender sig ofte
Een Mand paa sin Tofte
Har sat sig i Baad,
[Og Sidet i Slimme
Saa mangen en Time
Mens intet har faad.

Med møye tit stræfvis
Tit kastet forgiæfvis
Det Snøre for Bor,]
Det er ey hvers lykke
En Flyndre at røkke
Med Angel og Snor.


Thi Flyndren som Laxen,
Hun bider ey straxen,
Gemeenlig er Seen.
Jeg kiender de Drenge
Der Slimet har lenge,
Fik aldrig et Been.

* * *

Naar Snøren er rundet
Og Senket til Bundet,
Staar lykken hos Gud.
Hand giver ey Skarnet,
Kast derfore Garnet
I Jesu Nafn ud!

* * *

Two verses at dikt.no website under title "Fiskervise" [fisherman's song].

Also on Dagens Dikt blog at http://dagensdikt.blogspot.com/2010/05/god-onsdags-morgen-i-dag-et-lite-dikt.html ... Tuesday, May 25, 2010 ... quoted here with Google translation in italics ...

GOD ONSDAGS MORGEN ! GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING!

I dag et lite dikt av dikterpresten Today a small poem by the poet priest
Peter Dass. Peter Dass.

FISKERVISE. FISHING SHOW.

Det hender vel ofte, It happens more than often,
du kaster fra tofte you throw the thwart
ditt snøre fra bord, Your line of the table,
men har ikke lykke but do not have good luck
til flyndren å rykke to flounder is to move
med angel og snor, with the angel and cord,
med angel og snor. with the angel and the string

Når snøret er runnen When the line is the runner
og senket til bunnen, and sunk to the bottom,
står lykken hos Gud. luck is with God.
Han giver ei skarnet, He donor a mire,
kast derfor ut garnet throw out the net, therefore,
i Jesu navn ut in Jesus' name out
I Jesu navn ut. In Jesus' name out.

http://www.amazon.com/Brudlops-Digt-Til-Rasmus-Angell/dp/B001CKRD4I Brudlops Digt Til Rasmus Angell - from CD Mit Navn Er Petter Dass (1999) by Kari Bremnes & Ola Bremnes

Listed in TOC of Sangboka Syng Med at http://www.syngmed.no/sangbok_ny.htm ... homepage at http://www.syngmed.no/ ... has a song book (Kr 180), a melody book (Kr 425) and a history of the songs (Kr 125).

Bio of Ole Olsen on NRK Nordland website, by Bjørn Tore Pedersen, "Glemt komponist fram i lyset." Publisert 12.02.2010 http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/distrikt/nordland/1.6990736 "«Fiskevise» av Petter Dass, som Birgitte Grimstad gjorde til sin egen på begynnelsen av 1970-tallet, har en enkel men iørefallende melodi. Den er det Ole Olsen som har skrevet." Google translation: ""Fish View" by Petter Dass, who Birgitte Grimstad did to his own in the early 1970's, has a simple but catchy melody. Den er det Ole Olsen som har skrevet. It is the [that] Ole Olsen wrote."
Link here to Google translation

Wikipedia bio, with links, at http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ole_Olsen

"Down the River I Go" - a D mixolydian fiddle tune as played by Don Pedi, and a couple of old-time Americana string bands in Copenhagen!

"Down the River I Go" is one of those D-mixolydian fiddle tunes that sound really old ... but maybe aren't.

I learned it from Don Pedi, mountian dulcimer artist of Madison County, N.C., who got it from the Double Decker String Band, a popular group of old-time musicians on the East Coast, and an a cappella version from McDowell County, W.Va. It isn't listed in Fiddler's Companion, but it's become a favorite on the oldtime music scene. I even found video clips on YouTube of string bands playing it last year in Denmark!

Don has lived in the North Carolina mountains since the 1970s, and he specializes in fiddle tunes he learned from the oldtimers who were still active in those days. As he tells the story, he first heard the dulcimer played by Richard and Mimi Farina (Joan Baez' sister and brother-in-law) in Cambridge, Mass. He fell in love with it, migrated with the folk music scene to the Rockies and eventually to North Carolina. He is now considered a tradition bearer in his own right.

Don Pedi in Townsend, Tenn. -



Don's performance in May 2010 at Wood-N-Strings Dulcimer Shop in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, Townsend, Tenn., "Down the River" is from 4:09 to 5:41. Tab available at http://www.donpedi.com/ (click on "Tab" and scroll down. He also has instructional books, CDs and a DVD with workshops on: 1. Free Style Strumming, 2. Natural Noting and 3. How to Play By Ear. Highly recommended. He also teaches in the dulcimer traditions class at Lois Hornbostel's Dulcimerville workshop in Black Mountain, N.C. This workshop, every year in early June, is also very highly recommended!

In Copenhagen -



Foghorn Stringband, of Portland, Ore., playing at an Irish-themed pup called Bloomsday Bar in the "Latin quarter" or university district in downtown Copenhagen. Filmed by Jesper Deleuran of the Danish band Big Hungry Joe (Peter Lorichs on banjo, Jesper Deleuran on guitar and vocal, Lasse Høi on harmonica and harmony, Mathias Enevoldsen on bass and Tobias Enevoldsen on fiddle). Here they are, below, practicing "Down the River" and "Big Eyed Rabbit."



[Deleuran's YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/r810s also has a vocal of the Dave van Ronk song "He Was a Friend of Mine" and several lengthy videos of a live performance in Denmark.]