halling | Multe Music

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A train in the night…

In one of the very first postings on Multe Music, I wrote about a tune written by Norwegian fiddler Sturla Eide, "Tog i natta (A Train In The Night)", that was inspired by a visit to our fair town of Northfield, Minnesota.
Recently Eide put a video (in HD, no less) of one of his performances [...]

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Breathing life into a reel halling

The Norwegian vocal group, PUST (which means "breath" in Norwegian), has released a new video to go along with the release of their second album, "Kry".
They explain their group concept, saying
PUST finds inspiration somewhere between folksong, jazz and ethnic vocal music. Tradition and innovation are a part of the groups musical expression.
Here they experiment with [...]

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Leif Rygg – lausdans kar!?

Now here's some fun for those of you familiar with the folk music scene in Norway — Leif Rygg competing in… lausdans / halling ?!?!

The video was taken at the recent Vestlandskappleiken 2009, held in Jostedalen. This is a multi-province folk music and dance competition on Norway's west coast.
They have just announced that Atle Hoff [...]

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MultePod presents: Røvene (The Robbers)

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Røvene (The Robbers)
This week's show uses Nordic music to help tell some of the story of the Northfield Bank Raid of 1876 by the notorious James-Younger Gang — and includes some tunes written by Nordic musicians specifically about Northfield.
If you're new to listening to audio online or downloading the shows, here's how to get started.
Playlist:Related [...]

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Pizza-kast

And in our final entry for this week's "halling-fest"…
Apparently some Norwegians prefer their pizza without peppers. The Norwegian pizza brand, Grandiosa, has made a commercial in the style of a American Idol-like competion about their new pizza "without peppers (paprika)". What they call "paprika" is what we in the USA would call "sweet red peppers".
What [...]

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A polska halling

Many people think that halling is a dance found only in Norway. That's not true. Sweden, too, has a halling tradition.

Halling is usually played and danced in a beat of 2/4 or 4/4. Here we have an interesting blending of halling being danced to a polska tune, which is in an asymmetrical beat of three.
The [...]

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Halling it on a guitar bouzouki

From Swedish halling yesterday to Norwegian today.
I've featured the work of Andreas Aase before. He's a Norwegian guitarist from Trondheim who has been doing some interesting things with folk music — and posting videos to YouTube.

Here he's playing a halling (laus) tune from on a hybrid instrument — a guitar bouzouki. The tune appears [...]

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Halling – Swedish style

Most people think of the dance, halling (or laus), as an acrobatic Norwegian dance for men. And it is.
But it is also found in Sweden and is played on fiddle as well other other instruments.
One of those interesting instruments is a spilåpipa — a type of Swedish herding flute — that has seven [...]

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A wonderfully laus-y way to dance

We're going to celebrate the dance known as "halling" this week by featuring both the dance and music for the dance.
In 2007 the winner of the Norwegian national competition in Class B laus/halling competition was Ulf-Arne Johannessen from Ål, Hallingdal. This was the second time Johannessen had won in Class B (open class) competition which [...]

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Norway wins Eurovision — with a folk twist!

They did it! It's truly a "Fairytale"! Even TIME Magazine is reporting the news.
Alexander Rybak and the guys from FRIKAR, representing Norway, won the famed Eurovision contest — with no contest! — and on the eve of Norway's biggest national holiday, the 17th of May (Constitution Day / Syttende Mai).
In fact, the entry was record breaking [...]

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Eurovision goes (un)traditional Norwegian

Eurovision 2009 will begin soon — and despite reading and re-reading the Wikipedia entry on it, I still can't even begin to tell you how this song contest works!
Nevertheless, it is one of the longest running TV program in the world and millions of people watch it and vote for their favorite song.
There are two [...]

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Frikar: Work in progress

Norway's tradition-rich dance company, FRIKAR, continues to push the envelope by combining old and new forms of traditional Norwegian dance.
This is video of a work in progress that will debut at a world music festival next summer. The full performance will have its premiere in Gudbrandsdal on 5 August 2009.
Danced by Ane Gjøvåg and [...]

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Class A Hallingspringar

Each region of Norway has its own style of rosemaling, its own bunad — and its own music and dance. These help to support the "dialect" of the region and make each region distinct from one another.
Here we have a great video of the dance called Hallingspringar — the springar (spring dance) from Hallingdal. It's [...]

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Halling dance in Age of Conan video game

In October, I wrote about how the Norwegian dance, halling (also known as laus) had been filmed in motion-capture for inclusion in the Age of Conan game. Hallgrim Hansegård, a Class A (Master) laus dancer in Norway, was the dancer filmed for the sequence.
I've now located a video that shows the dance in its entirety [...]

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1939: Valdresspringar and laus (halling)

Ta:lik recording company has some truly neat videos that they've been putting on their YouTube channel.
Here is a silent video (that's right, there's no sound!) that's meant to feature the hardingfele fiddler Ola O. Reishagen from Vestre Slidre in Valdres.
He was known as Oscar Hamry after he emigrated to the USA. After coming to Minnesota, [...]

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