Multe Music

Last night, the finals were held for Lagspel at NM i Folkemusikk.

In previous years at Landskappleik, the Lagspel was done like all the other categories with the groups playing two slåtter (fiddle tunes) and then the final results were posted after they were available.

This year, in part because of the blending of Landsfestival and Landskappleik, a "qualifying" round was held with about 34 groups competing in a marathon of fiddle playing during the day. Shortly after, they posted the results with the top six groups going into the final round, which was held at 10 pm that night. The groups going forward were:

• Indre Sunnfjord Spelemannslag (Jolster, Sogn og Fjordane)
• Team Gløs Tøs (Trondheim)
• Sør-Fron spelemannslag (Gudbrandsdal)
• Lom spelmannslag (Gudbrandsdal)
• Vågå Spel- og dansarlag (Gudbrandsdal)
• Glåmos Spellmannslag (Røros)

The finales were constructed in a way similar to how finales have been held at Landsfestivalen, with a few differences.

There were six judges in all: the three from the hardingfele (Hardanger fiddle) competition and the three from the vanlig fele (regular fiddle) competition.

Good playing as a group and other expected important points are not the only criteria considered. During the finals, the judges also note how the group and the dancers on the floor respond to each other.

Each group played five tunes of various dance types: waltz, polka, masurka, pols, reinlender and, for those from Gudbrandsdal, springleik.

During the evening, one of the judges (a master dancer and fiddler) jumped up a number of times and went down to the floor to dance to music of the group playing. I was glad to see this as I have sometimes wondered why the judges in these competitions have not experienced the groups on the dance floor as well as from the judging platform.

During the competition, the sound quality seemed to be pretty good. In the finals, however, there seemed to be sound issues with the first two groups and the sound was not good. In fact, it seemed to be coming off the stage and not from the speakers. Hopefully, this did not put these groups at a disadvantage.

Some of the delightful moments in the evening:

• Team Gløs Tøs ended their set on a surprising and vibrant jazz B7 chord.
• Lom spelmannslag ended their set by singing the last few bars of their last tune with a flourish.
• Glåmos Spellmannslag's Olav Nyhus also tralled some of the tunes as he played harpeleik. His resonant baritone was a beautiful addition to the music.

The MC for the evening, Olav Sem from Telemark, did a fantastic job of keeping the energy of the crowd going by leading them in cheers for the music during the evening. Well done!

It was a fantastic evening of music with some of Norway's best  spelmannslag.

While it was great to have a final "play-off" among the top six groups, I wonder if this particular competition setup has affected the number of spelmannslag and bands playing in the evening for open dancing. There seem to be less groups playing  this year. Perhaps groups did not sign up with the hope that they would be in the finals or a reluctance to play before their competition.

While the finals are great, they are not a substitute for hearing the lags and groups play entire sets. Five tunes in the finals from Glåmos or Vågå doesn't suit me as much as an hour of open dancing with either of them does.

A good example was that Voss spelemannslag played an entire energetic hour at Thon Highland Hotel later that night and they were great! This is not to take away from the achievement of making it into the finales. Rather, it simply means that I'd like to hear more of these groups, not less. Perhaps the groups will now play an hour in the mat-telt (food tent) today or tomorrow.

The Gruppespel (band) competition will be on Saturday with finals on Saturday night.