1. Intro [2:02]
2. Bereden väg för Herran
(Prepare Way for the Lord) [7:12]
3. Ett barn är fött
(A Child is Born Upon This Day) [4:02]
4. Personent hodie [2:55]
5. Det är en ros utsprungen
(Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming) [6:46]
6. Gläd dig du Kristi brud
(O Bride of Christ, Rejoice) [2:54]
7. Staffans hälsningssång
(Staffan’s Greeting Song) [2:23]
8. Staffansvisa (Staffan Ballad)
[1:11]
9. Staffan Halling (Staffan,
halling) [3:01]
10. En jungfru födde ett barn
idag (A Virgin Bore Us a Child Today)
[5:41]
11. Stilla natt (Silent Night)
[6:08]
12. Frid på jord (Peace
on Earth) [4:51]
13. Grins Hans’ Jässpôdspolska
(‘Banquet Polska’ after Grins Hans)
[2:44]
14. Världens Frälsare
(Our Saviour Has Come) [7:31]
15. Veni, veni Emanuel [2:53]
Too many Christmas
records plough through the same hackneyed
songs in strict traditional settings
or soaped up and happy-go-lucky arrangements.
This disc is an altogether different
proposition. Not that it shuns traditional
material but there are no Jingle
Bells or We Wish You a Merry
Christmas within sight and apart
from Silent Night, which is early
19th century, the melodies
are early Baroque or late Renaissance
or even older. This is basically no
novelty either but the treatment of
the songs is. Organist and arranger
Gunnar Idenstam’s concept has been to
intertwine the old melodies with folk
music, either ‘real’ traditional or
newly written in traditional styles.
The choir quite often perform the songs
in original settings while the folk
music material is employed contrastively
or contrapuntally. For this purpose
Idenstam engaged Lisa Rydberg, who is
uniquely trained as both a folk fiddle
expert (riksspelman) and a baroque specialist.
For the solo vocals he employed two
young folk music singers, also schooled
in the old traditions. The outcome of
this is a programme that constantly
juxtaposes the sacred and the profane
worlds as well as joining an ‘academic’
and a ‘folksy’ way of creating music:
dance rhythms mixing with strict chorales,
cluster-like minimalism against improvisational
or ‘straight’ tunes. Few of the sacred
songs are Swedish; most of them are
borrowed from Germany or in one or two
cases from France. Whether one likes
the concept or not is up to personal
taste. When I got this disc it arrived
too late to be reviewed before Christmas
– and no one buys a Christmas disc in
January. I played it through as in duty
bound and felt unconcerned but returning
to it now, in anticipation of the festive
season, I was caught from the outset.
It sets out with an
organ improvisation above a sustained
bourdon, followed by a polska for violin
and organ and then the choir sings a
cappella the first verse of Bereden
väg för Herran, probably
the best known Advent hymn in Sweden
– the melody is a German folksong from
1693 – and in the two following verses
the hymn and the polska are combined.
Towards the end descant parts are added.
A new organ improvisation leads over
to the next song, Ett barn är
fött, a newly composed setting
of the traditional text by Martin Luther,
and then it is combined with the original
melody, also of German origin.
This suite is followed
by the beautiful Personent hodie
from the 16th century Nordic
hymnbook Piae Cantiones. It is
arranged for violin and choir a cappella.
The old German chorale Det är
en ros utsprungen (Es ist ein Ros
entsprungen) is here sung in its original
version and intertwined with another
polska – beautiful and fascinating with
rhythmic shifts. As in Ett barn är
fött Sofia Karlsson is soloist
in an idiom that others probably like
better than I do. It is skilful, it
is musical but I can’t quite stomach
the sound.
Gläd dig du
Kristi brud is innovatively performed
as a slow schottis and Idenstam employs
the organ’s crumhorn to create a medieval
effect. The springy rhythm is a fine
illustration to the joyous theme of
the text.
Then follow three songs
about Staffan (S:t Stephen, the first
martyr), a very popular figure in the
Swedish Christmas and Lucia traditions.
The first is a bouncy entrance song
combined with a violin solo in the shape
of a halling, a well known Norwegian
dance, then comes one of the best known
Staffan songs, sung a cappella and finally
a swinging version , again a halling
with gospel accompaniment.
En jungfru födde
ett barn idag is a dancing melody
in ¾ time and the interludes – violin
and organ – are variations on the melody
in baroque style. Father Bach would
have nodded approvingly. Stilla natt
is basically a simple song, according
to tradition composed in no time at
all just before Christmas and performed
as a duet with guitar accompaniment,
since rats had gnawed holes in the bellows
of the organ. There is probably no other
song in the Christmas tradition that
has been subjected to such an amount
of arrangements and re-writings. This
is another example, where the simple
melody is surrounded by or even entangled
in a polska, causing the gentle flow
of the tune to be limping. Fresh approach?
Sure – and it is all so professionally
done – but why couldn’t it remain the
siciliano that Franz Gruber intended?
Frid på jord
is quite another matter. The text is
an old pietist hymn, the melody is Sofia
Karlsson’s. It opens with Sophia playing
a tin whistle and then she sings her
composition backed by the choir in a
very evocative minimalist piece of music.
This is my cup of tea! And so is Grins
Hans’ Jässpôdspolska,
a tune after a fiddler from Rättvik
in the province of Dalecarlia. It is
purely instrumental with violin and
organ gradually growing to a climax
and then back to a very soft end. Great!
Emma Härdelin,
fourth generation of folk musicians
in a well known family, sings the medieval
Världens frälsare and
embellishes her solo the same way a
folk fiddler would. The combined forces
of choir, organ, violin and solo voice
is grandiose. The concluding Veni,
veni Emanuel is another medieval
hymn, where the choir sings the melody
with a contrapuntal fiddle tune and
then, together with the organ and the
two singers employing the ‘kulning’
technique, the programme is brought
to a jubilant end. ‘Kulning’ may not
be a well known phenomenon everywhere
in the world so a short explanation
is not out of place. It is a way of
singing with a vibrato-less tone in
the uppermost register of the female
voice and the technique was used primarily
to call the cows at the mountain pastures
in Scandinavia. The sound can be heard
at very long distances and may also
have been used to send messages to other
herdsmaids. The technique has been employed
until quite recent times in the province
of Dalecarlia and the tradition has
been kept alive to this very day. The
sound is impressive, especially outdoors
where it belongs, but two maids
at the same time, as here? It is exotic,
trust my word, but hardly beautiful.
Don’t let this or any
other of my dissenting opinions deter
you from lending an ear to this different
Christmas disc. It is refreshing after
so many treacly Christmas songs one
can’t protect oneself from in shopping
malls and restaurants. New wine in old
bottles, indeed. I appreciated so much
of it – but I don’t think I will play
the ‘kulning’ on Christmas Eve.
Göran Forsling
