Welcome to Multe Music! If you're new to listening to audio online, here's how to get started, so check it out and then pick a show and listen! You can also hear the show "live" on Saturdays at 2 p.m. CT and Mondays at 7 p.m. CT on air or online at KYMNRadio.net.
Norwegian National Broadcasting (NRK) has just released a video of the traditional Norwegian Christmas carol, "Det lyser i stille grender (The Lights In The Peaceful Villages)".
It's done by a group called "Julemorgen" as part of the NRK children's series, Super, and their "Jul i Svingen (Christmas in Full Swing)". I think the video – and the arrangement — is utterly charming.
Multe Music featured another, more traditional version of this song done by Sigmund Groven (harmonica) and Iver Klieve (organ) on our program "Peaceful Evening".
The text for the song was written in nynorsk by Jakob Sande from Dale in Sunnfjord. Sandes wrote the poem in the summer of 1931 and it was included a a volume of poetry called "Jul i Sunnfjord (Christmas In Sunnfjord) (1931) with the simple title, "Julekveld (Christmas Eve).
The most familiar melody for the tune (the one used in this video) was written by Lars Søraas d.y. (Jr.) in 1948.
The Norwegian text is:
Det lyser i stille grender
av tindrande ljos i kveld,
og tusende barnehender
mot himmelen ljosa held.Og glade med song dei helsar
sin broder i himmelhall,
som kom og vart heimsens Frelsar
som barn i ein vesal stall.Der låg han med høy til pute
og gret på si ringe seng,
men englane song der ute
på Betlehems aude eng.Der song dei for fyrste gongen
ved natt over Davids by
den evige himmelsongen,
som alltid er ung og ny.
There hasn't really been a good English translation done of this carol. Because it was written after the major portion of emigration from Norway and the tune after WWII , it never really made it into the Norwegian-American community, which is too bad. When I get some time, I'll try to translate it.
