MultePod presents: Destination: Finnskog, Part 1

January 9, 2010

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Destination: Finnskog, Part 1 A musical visit to the Finnish Woods, which are not in Finland. You can read more about the Forest Finns on Wikipedia. You can also watch a video of the Norwegian dance from Finnskog and get information about an upcoming Finnskog music/dance workshop in the USA. If you're new to listening to audio online and [...]

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MultePod presents: Strålande Jul

December 23, 2009

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Strålande Jul A special two-hour, commercial-free Multe Music with songs of a radiant Christmas. The complete show is available for download NOW on the Multe Music iTunes feed or on our archives/downloads page. The show will be broadcast online and on air at KYMNRadio.net on Christmas Eve (Thursday, December 24) from 7-9 p.m. and again [...]

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EVENT: Finnskogpols Workshops, April 16-19, 2010

November 23, 2009

Skandia Folkdance Society has announed that this year's Springdans Northwest dance and music workshops (April 16-19, 2010) will feature the Finnskogpols (Polsdans from Finnskoga) taught by Bjørn Sverre Hol Haugen and Veslemøy Nordset from Norway. Originating in the border area between Sweden and Norway, this dance is embraced by Swedes and Norwegians alike — as [...]

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Finnskogpols: Dancing from the past to the future

August 13, 2009

The Norwegian national folk music/dance competition, NM i Folkemusikk 2009, had some unexpected and pleasant surprises, particularly in the Senior Dance competition for regular fiddle. This year, by the way, there was no Klasse B (Open / Adult class) or Klasse A (Master Class) categories. Most categories were simply split into Junior and Senior. One [...]

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What are the top 5 traditional Nordic tunes?

August 11, 2009

Every Monday night here in Northfield, Minnesota, we have a group — Nordic Jam — that gathers to play traditional music from the Nordic countries. We've been meeting for almost seven years and it's been a joy to share both the traditions and music with each other. Recently, we were discussing repertoire and some new(er) [...]

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MultePod presents: A Midsummer Night's Dream

August 8, 2009

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A Midsummer's Night Dream An interview with stage director Susan Carlson, tellng the story of William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights Dream" through Nordic music. If you're new to listening to audio online or downloading the shows, here's how to get started. This Week's Playlist: // Related Posts:MultePod presents: Strålande JulMultePod presents: First Edition (rebroadcast)MultePod presents: [...]

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Rørospols with Margot Sollie and Tom Sears

August 4, 2009

Rørospols (or pols from Røros) is a traditional dance from the Røros area in Sør-Trøndelag province in Norway. Here it is being danced at Norway's national folk music and dance competition, NM i Folkemusikk 2009 (which combined Landskappleiken and Landsfestivalen) by Tom Sears and Margot Sollie. Rørospols has an asymmetrical beat in three. This beat [...]

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Thoughts on the new structure of Lagspel finals

June 26, 2009

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 [...]

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MultePod presents: Midsummer

June 20, 2009

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Midsummer Music for the longest day (and shortest night!) of the year. If you're new to listening to audio online or downloading the shows, here's how to get started. This Week's Playlist: // Related Posts:MultePod presents: October FrostMultePod presents: A Midsummer Night's DreamMultePod presents: Ólavsøka / St. Olav's WakeMultePod presents: First Edition (rebroadcast)MultePod presents: Summer [...]

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Dancing on the Rim with Pols etter Ola Rønninga

June 18, 2009

Norway's National Folk Music & Dance Competition begins next week in Geilo and Ål, Hallingdal — and some of the Multe Music crew will be there. This year the competition is called "NM i folkemusikk" (Norway's Master Cup in Folk Music) and is larger festival because they have combined two festivals this year that previously [...]

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Tagelharpa

April 1, 2009

Here we have a demonstration of a tagelharpa — a harp-like bowed instrument that may have its roots in Viking times. The demonstration is done in Norwegian Swedish, but the hand gestures help even non-Swedish speakers understand a bit of what the presenter is trying to get across. The instrument has a form like a [...]

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HamBAO and Bach…

March 20, 2009

The traditional Allsång på Skansen (Allsang at Skansen) in Sweden usually has some unforgettable moments. One of my personal favorites was the time that Swedish comedian Robert Gustafsson interupted a BAO (Benny Anderssons Orkester) performance as  "Sten Broman", a well-known Swedish music critic. At first, the announcer introduces BAO to play a hambo (a hamBAO?) [...]

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Benny Andersson & Orsa Spelmän: Klinga mina klockor

February 20, 2009

After the breakup of ABBA, Benny Andersson embarked on a new phase in his musical career — one that actually took him back to his roots. Many people are unaware that Andersson is an accomplished accordionist. His first album after ABBA was an album of music he composed, much of which is traditional gammeldans music [...]

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Maria Wernberg & Linnea Fredricson: Fardume-Lennarts polska

February 11, 2009

Some musicians and dancers in the Nordic countries have pointed out to me that more "folk" musicians seem to be coming out of classical music training at music academies. They point out that there are significant differences in playing styles between how you play a violin in the classical style or a fiddle in the [...]

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Nordafjells: Kristen Nakje, springleik

January 29, 2009

A traditional folk group from Norway has produced an interesting video.  The band is called Nordafjells and is from the central part of Norway. They record on the Ta:lik label. They are playing a tune from Gudbrandsdal, Norway called "Kristen Nakje". The video itself is an interesting concept. Almost a VH1 meets traditional folk quality [...]

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