MIDI song files, mostly classical

Here's one I found when ... oh, I don't know what I was looking for ... it was a Saturday morning, and I needed to practice the songs for my gig at New Salem next month. So instead of woodshedding, I started doing keyword searches on "woodshedding." What else is a guy to do? And I found The Silvis Woodshed. It's a collection of MIDI files of classical and early folk musicians from "anonymous" and Anton C. Adlgasser to F.M. de Zulueta. Since I've never heard of either, I decided the website was worth bookmarking. It does have Bach, Beethoven, Buxtehude, Praetorius and a lot of others I have. Says the webmaster, George Silvis: "In the old days a singer would hide out in the woodshed to learn his notes. Now we have tools like midi to help us along. I hope for this page to be a collection of midi files and tools to help singers learn their notes so that they can be ready to turn it into music when they go to rehearsal."

Gruff billygoat's 'Religiøse Folketoner'

Another guy to find out more about: Arve Moen Bergset, singer, member of the group Bukkene Bruse, hardanger fiddle player and classical musician. I heard him singing a song called "Min sjael nu lover herren" on NRK and looked him up on the web. He has a marvelous tenor voice, lots of ornamentation on the song. Sounded a lot like Irish sean nos as James Flannery might sing it.

The Norwegian Music Information Centre has a biography of Bergset. According to Wikipedia, he is a first violinist in the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Two clips from one of his early folk albums have been posted to YouTube: The first one includes:

1- 'Pal Sine honnor': Paul let the hens run over the hillside when the fox was abroad and was afraid to go home to his family's farm.
8. Eg var liten ((When) I was little) Sitting by the open cottage fire on her stool

2- 'Eg er Framand': I am a pilgrim who will stay only one night here. I seek the City of God where sorrow & death are no more. Dear Lord, lead me to Heaven's shore.

The second includes:

'Pa Dovrefjell':Queen Ingeborg's twelve brothers were heroes without equal, who could control the weather & tides, swim like a fish, stand on waves, play a golden harp to which all must dance, blow a horn so that all hearing it feared, capture a dragon . . . This say I and it is true: their like is not found in Norway's land.

'Mit Hjerte Altid Vankor': Xmas carol. My heart always wanders to where Jesus was born, where my longing finds its home.

He began recording when he was 14 years old, and these sound like they were recorded then.

There's also an album on the "This is Music from Norway" website called Religiøse Folketoner. Playlist:

MUSIC CLIPS FROM THIS ALBUM
Title Play Dur.
Store, Store Gud! 3:37
Et Lidet Barn Saa Lystelig 1:06
Det Er Det Nyt, Som Paa Jorderig Skeede 2:50
Herre Gud! Dit Dyre Navn Og Ære 6:36
Min Sjæl Nu Lover Herren 5:24
Overmaade Fuld Af Naade 3:32
Min Gud Jeg Prise Vil Med Flid 2:37
På Jorden Mange Blomster Vokse 0:49
Du Være Lovet, Jesu Krist 2:59
Kven Kan Seia Ut Den Gleda 1:26
Korset Vil Jeg Aldri Svike 1:54
Sørger Du Endnu, Min Sjæl! 5:28
Spor 13 3:57
Hellig Ånd, O Himmel-Lue 2:01
Ned I Vester Soli Glader 1:54
Eg Veit I Himmerik Ei Borg 3:33
Dagsens Auga Sloknar Ut 3:25
I Himmelen, I Himmelen 7:25

The clip I heard is on this album.

It sounds like he does some interesting classical/folk stuff. According to MIC Norway:

Arve emphasises that he is not a genuine dance fiddler because although he has been playing the Hardanger fiddle since the age of fifteen, it has mainly been in a classical context. He has recently recorded Geirr Tveitt’s Two concertos for the Hardanger fiddle with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ole Kristian Ruud. On an earlier CD, he played Johan Kvandal’s Fantasia for hardingfele og strykere (Fantasia for Hardanger fiddle and strings) with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra.

Kirsten Bråten Berg CD

Heard on NRK, Kirsten Bråten Berg singing "Du Være Lovet, Jesus Krist" on Jultid a CD by Kirsten Bråten Berg, Hallvard Bjørgum & Eilert Hægland. Lots of ornamentation, "swoops and slurs"

MUSIC CLIPS
Title Play Dur.
I Denne Søte Juletid 4:19
Et Barn Er Født I Betlehem 3:10
Her Er Det Ny Som På Jorderig Skjedde 2:29
Et Lite Barn Så Lystelig 2:46
Saligheten Er Oss Nær 2:19
Du Være Lovet, Jesus Krist 2:45
Eg Såg Ein Kristi Pilgrim 2:44
Gamlestev 1:17
Herre Jesus Krist 2:42
Guds Godhet Vil Vi Prise 3:43
Faremoanes Brureslag 1:55
Hjå Gud Er Alltid Gleda 4:06
Din Herlegdom, Frelsar 3:09
Stevpreludium 1:34
Nystev 0:55
Folketone Frå Lårdal 1:41
Det Er Den Første Julenatt 1:52
I Prektige Himler 2:02
Guds Sønn Har Gjort Meg Fri 2:34

O verden hav da gode nat

Heard on NKR today ... "O verden hav da gode nat," innspilt 1948 ... by Odd Mehus, Per Vetrhus and Anders Lunde. Singing in unision, lots of ornamentation, sounds like Scottish psalmody.

A keyword search on the title turns up this CD by Unni Løvlid on Amazon.com ... called Vita. Sound clips available on this Brittish website. Lovlid's home page has her schedule. And Scanarts management has a good bio. Excerpt:

... She was the first to take a Master’s degree in the performance of vocal traditional music at the Norwegian State Academy of Music in 2002. She has been a teacher at the Ole Bull Academy and the Norwegian State Academy of Music and has done a number of recordings. With the trios Fjøgl and Rusk she has broadened the scope of traditional music in the direction of contemporary music. Typically, she has recently performed Schoenberg’s ‘Pierrot Lunaire’ as a concert project of her own in Oslo.

And an Amazon.com reviewer had this to say:

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Experiencing the Divine, January 13, 2006
By someone - See all my reviews

I've never heard an album quite like this one [Vita]. The entire album features Norwegian singer Unni Løvlid singing acapella religious music, and while this prospect sounds only remotely appealing at first, it the location of the performance that is truly phenomenal.

Løvlid sings in the cavernous Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum underneath a Norwegian church.

While her voice alone is gorgeous enough to carry this entire album, it is the huge space of the crypt that elevates the experience toward the heavenly. The notes whisper in the absolute stillness, then crescendoing to echo and ripple against the walls to completely fill the gigantic cavern. The audio quality of Vita is as perfect as the acoustics, and it really makes you feel like you're there in the subterranean space.

An audio preview and better description of Vita is available at cdRoots.

Book review on Scandinavian folk hymns

Spiritual Folk Singing. Nordic and Baltic Protestant
Traditions. Kristen Sass Bak, Svend Nielsen
(eds.). Denmark, Forlaget Kragen 2006, 284 pp.

In Vol 36 - Electronic Journal of Folklore, edited by Mare Kõiva & Andres Kuperjanov and published by: FB and Media Group of Estonian Literary Museum.

Home page is at http://www.folklore.ee/

Money grafs. This:

A collection of articles this extensive and of this
quality on the Nordic and Baltic spiritual folk song
has been long expected. The nearly 300-page volume
features articles by ten authors on spiritual
folk singing in Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, the Faeroe Islands, Island and Lithuania.
Two attached CDs of audio samples of the spiritual
folk song repertoire of all the countries discussed
in the collection contribute to the high value
of the publication.

And this:

In the collection, two layers of the spiritual folk singing tradition are discussed. Firstly, scholars have taken interest in the popular variations of Lutheran hymn tunes, disseminated in Protestant European countries, such as the melismatic style, tonality, rhythms, etc. of folk hymns. Secondly, the articles focus on the newer spiritual folk singing tradition, mostly created in the course of the pietistic revival in Northern Europe, particularly in the 17th–18th century in Denmark and Norway. Regardless of historical and social idiosyncrasies, the tradition of all the Baltic and Nordic countries share similarities in the folklorisation of hymns.

Two articles relate to Norway:

Ingrid Gjertsen, Norwegian ethnomusicologist, takes an in-depth look at the musical
tradition of a specific pietistic religious movement, the Hauge movement, which
emerged within the framework of the Lutheran State Church. The revelatory movement,
founded in the early 19th century and still active, has considerably influenced
the traditions and repertoire of Norwegian spiritual singing. The main research focus
of the article is singing as an expressive medium within a particular religious practice,
and an inseparable part of the lives of the given pietistic sect. The main emphasis of
the approach is on the function of singing in different religious, historical and social
contexts.
Irene Bergheim, Norwegian musicologist, has taken interest in the influence of
published hymn tunes on the folk singing tradition in a rural region in Norway. The
author explores a 19th-century collection of hymn tune transcriptions by an amateur
Norwegian musician Knut D. Stafset. This is an interesting collection of more popular
hymn and folk songs of the period. By analysing the compiler’s choice of repertoire, the
principles of notation and the style of variation, the author seeks to answer questions
about the hymn singing tradition, popular among the rural population in the late 19th
century.

Another CD on Kirkelig Kulturverksted

Here are the details on the Kirkelig Kulturverksted page:

TORHILD OSTAD:
BLOMAR I MOLL
KIRKELIG KULTURVERKSTED (1996)
Catalog no.: FXCD167
Genre: Traditional music :: Trad. vocal
Duration: 0:33:43
Format: MP3 - 256kbps

And the playlist:

Buy single tracks for download:
Title Preview Length Price Buy
LOVA LOVA LINE 1:44 NOK 9,50
HELLIG ÅND O HIMMELLUE 2:23 NOK 9,50
FRYD DEG DU CHRISTI BRUD 2:00 NOK 9,50
SALIGHETEN ER OSS NÆR 3:14 NOK 9,50
GRET DU BARNET 0:59 NOK 4,00
SYNG I STILLE MORGONSTUNDER 2:04 NOK 9,50
MIN SJEL OG ÅND OPPMUNTRE DIG 2:49 NOK 9,50
I HIMMELEN, I HIMMELEN 1:24 NOK 9,50
NU DAGENS LYS SIG SNIGER HEN 2:02 NOK 9,50
SULLA LULLA UNGEN MIN 0:45 NOK 4,00
NU SOLEN GÅR NED 3:13 NOK 9,50
FRISK OPP MIN SJEL 1:53 NOK 9,50
KOM, REGN AV DET HØYE 1:59 NOK 9,50
NU RINNER SOLEN OPP 2:23 NOK 9,50
DAGSENS AUGA SLOKNAR UT 3:16 NOK 9,50
KYSJA ROA LITE BAN 1:35 NOK 9,50

Torhild Ostad sings a cappella. There's a little more information on the Web about her. But now I've really got to get back to work.

Later: From Ostad's homepage at http://home.no.net/torhilos/ ...

Torhild Ostad - "Blomar i moll"
The CD's title means both "Flowers In Soil" and "Flowers In A Minor Key". A recording debut by a unique voice (in every sense).
A folk music CD with one vocal voice only was never before released in Norway. Torhild Ostad's debut record, -Blomar I Moll-, contains 16 songs: traditional lullabies and folk hymns.

ONE VOICE

Religious folk hymns and lullabies from all parts of Norway are here performed without any accompaniment, bare and with total intimacy.
As such this makes Torhild Ostad's record one of a kind. It is a homage to a rich musical tradition and to all of them who, often modestly, have carried this tradition.
This is how Torhild Ostad herself describes her CD album and her own encounter with the traditional folk music heritage: - I have learned this way of singing from recordings of old people. Our Norwegian folk music is a soloistic tradition. You can raise up and sing all by yourself where ever. This is fantastic. The folk tunes have strength and simplicity. And every performer has her own personal and individual timbre. -

Another Norwegian folk hymn

Heard on NKR yesterday -- another song, "O du min Immanuel," by Ole & Knut Aastad Bråten and Bodil Haug. From the same CD that I tracked down and posted to the blog Feb. 28. Similar melodic contour and ornamentation to English and southern Appalachian folk hymns. There's a 30-second audio clip on the http://www.musicfromnorway.com/default.aspx?norwegian=artist&music=24232">Music From Norwaywebsite. Here's the playlist, copied and pasted (with

Her Er Jeg En Vandringsmann 2:24
Tankens Runer Og Mitt Farvel Til Norge 1873 3:19
Drankerhustruens Klagesang 3:22
Kaffetiden Os Påminder Svein I Syegarde 2:35
Den Tvilsomme Beiler 4:12
Liljen I Dalen 1:56
Svenskadn På Norderhov 1:26
Ved Dig Min Jesus Bestandig Jeg Bliver 2:55
Sig Mig O Broder Hvad Vei Går Vel Du 3:50
En Sang Om Salighet 1:39
Den Nye Stad "Klukkelåt" 5:31
O I Foreldre Kjære 5:24
O Du Min Immanuel 6:19
For Guds Folk Står En Kvile Tilbake, Etter Truls Tørrisplass, Nes 2:15

Something to order when finals are over and I have time to listen.