Vinterfestivalen

This past week the school organized and hosted the Rauland internasjonale vinterfestival (vinterkappleiken.com). We had the opportunity to take part in music and art classes, Norsk folkemusikklag seminars, concerts and parties. My class also organized a kappleik (traditional music competition) on Saturday.

I can say with absolute certainty that I have never partied so hard, worked so hard, and learned so much in one week. Especially not all at once. My current level of exhaustion is extreme, but I wouldn't have missed a second of it. In fact, if I could have figured out a way to sleep less, I would have.

The festival got started when the students (and teachers) from Nitra, Slovakia arrived on Monday night. We joined them at at the school for a welcome jam session that lasted until the small hours of the morning. I managed to catch Slovak fever, the cure for which is more Slovakian music and brennevin.

Tuesday was our day to prepare for the kappleik, before the festival really got started. We found the sound equipment and the stage decorations. We made sure we would have enough change in the cash boxes and money for the kappleik prizes. We had time for a walk through of the Saturday events. Then we met the Slovak group for a couple of hours of fiddle exchange before dinner.

After dinner, some of the Slovak students met some of us at Anja's house for tea. Eventually things drifted to her room where the instruments were. Anja jammed with the Slovakians while the rest of us listened and then we drifted back to the living room for another cup of tea. It was time to let Anja sleep, so we headed back to the party at the school, which hadn't quite managed to get off the ground until we showed up.

There were some Norwegians there, including my friend Olav who was teaching one of the music workshops during the festival. He passed his hardingfele around to the other Norwegians and there was lots of nasjonalspel and dancing in the lunchroom. This was clearly not the first time and nor would it be the last. After my stomach gave me a sign that it was time to go to sleep, I dragged myself away from the party and back to bed.

The festival started Wednesday with Olav's workshop. Not very many people showed up, which meant that I had time to attempt to learn the tunes he was teaching. In the afternoon, I took a singing workshop with Hill Romtveit, a local kvedar with an interesting repertoire and a great singing style. The evening event was a concert by the Slovakian and Romanian guest musicians at the local pub. After the concert, they sat in the corner and played and played and played. They played until the pub closed, and we headed back to the school to finish the evenings festivities properly.

On Thursday, I listened to the seminars given for members of the Norsk Folkemusikklag. The theme was 'Toward a common Nordic sound style?' The various lecturers had different opinions with regard to defining the cultural region in reference and the existence or source of a common sound ideal. The day ended with a lecture about dance in The North with respect to the topic at hand and was really quite interesting.

After the lectures and dinner, we all headed back to the pub for another folk music concert. This time with a North Sea focus, Gabriel Fliflet and friends played a whole range of instruments and a variety of styles. After the concert, I found my way into the little room with the Slovakian students and listened to complex ornamentation and rich, full harmony for hours. Occasionally, I dragged Lucia out of our little world and danced while Per Gudmundson played the seductive Swedish pulse of polska on the dance floor behind us. Naturally the party continued long after we got sent home.

Friday morning, bright and early, we tuned our fiddles again for a workshop in music from Shetland. We raced through a pile of tunes with shivers and burls. The afternoon workshop was back to Sweden with Per Gudmundson, followed by a dance workshop taught by Mats Nilsson. I didn't make it to the evening concert (it was the only nap I took all week), but I did manage to get my eyes back open and my dance shoes on in time to dance all evening.

All evening that is, until we closed the school and the teachers wanted us to go home so we could go to sleep. Stine said we could move the party to her place, so we did. Almost the entire festival showed up and crowded into her tiny kitchen and room (it's the same size as mine). Before I even managed to get in the door, there were fiddles out and people were jamming. All of the chairs had been removed because there wasn't room for them. It is so cold here right now, that I'd broken a string on the way up from the school. Fortunately I had an extra and threw myself into the fiddling. When the tunes moved to Shetland, I passed my fiddle off to one of the experts for a while; I got it back when the jam returned to Swedish music. It was a brilliant party, that ended with a lot of drunks, but fortunately, I had gone to sleep before it lost it's shine.

Saturday morning came a little too soon, but it was time for my class to put on a competition, so off I went. There was a lot of running back and forth in the beginning, but on the whole, we managed to pull off what looked like a reasonably organized competition. The judges were happy with our system; the competitors seemed at ease or at least not put out by our level of planning. We managed to finish early enough that the judges had time for an hour break before the concert and we were able to announce the winners and finalists in good time before the concert began. I didn't get to hear all of the concert, because I was busy making sure things would be ready for the final prize announcement. I did manage to hear Olav play (magical) and the see the first half of the Slovakians (they played and danced this time!).

After the concert there was dancing. It was easily the best dancing I've done in Norway. Ever. I was completely worn out, but managed to find the energy for terrific teledans, great gammaldans, and perfect polskor. I didn't stay until the end of the night, because I was so tired. I wasn't surprised later when the party came up to my house and I got out of bed to join the fun. Fortunately, it wasn't that much fun and I went back to sleep after about an hour.

We still have to tie up some loose ends, but all in all things went pretty well. On Sunday we cleaned the school. Afterward we had dinner with the remaining guest artists. That party wore long into the evening as well, but was much more relaxing and a perfect way to end a wonderful week.