Forskningsdagane

Research Week is observed by all departments of Høgskolen i Telemark. Instructors and masters students present their recent research. Students have free from classes so we can listen to breaking news in our fields. The lectures tend to be very academic and intensly interesting - for those of us who are interested.

My class started the week off with a trip to Porsgrunn. We were to play two songs for the opening of Forskningsdagane down there. They paid for overnight accomodations and we paid for our gas. Not a bad deal. We drove down on Monday evening and arrived in Porsgrunn around 10:30, that is after all restaurants were closed. Starving, we reluctantly ate at the only convenience store that was open before we went to bed.

After breakfast, we navigated our way to the school. We parked about as far away from our destination as possible and trekked our instruments across campus. The performance itsself went well enough. We smiled and sang and played through our mistakes. Our contact seemed pleased with our performance, as did a good portion of the audience. Before we started home, we stopped for coffee and a quick visit to the local music store.

Wednesday was the start of presentations here in Rauland. First, Per Åsmund Omholt presented his Ph.D. thesis, which he completed last year. He analyzed 500 fiddle tunes in a variety of tunings and from different places throughout Norway. The paper focused on what defines dialects in Norwegian folk music. By classifying every note in the 500 tunes, he arrived at a number of interesting statistical conclusions regarding regional dialects in Norwegian music. He also very kindly presented them in a number of easy to read graphs and charts.

After Per Åsmund, Atle Lien Jenssen took the floor. He is in the process of a masters project relating to tungehorn. Tungehorn is an instrument made from the horn of (usually) a goat. It has three to seven finger holes and a reed fixed to the outside of the mouthpiece; the reed can be made of any number of materials from the traditional juniper to metal or even a yogurt lid! Atle's project is especially interesting because his research seems to indicate that this is an instrument that originated in Norway and spread outward, unlike most other instruments in Norway. Possible implications include that tungehorn is an ancestor of the modern clarinet.

The highlight of the presentations came Thursday morning when Mats Johansson present the doctoral thesis he has nearly finished (it's in the editing stage). The paper focuses on assymmetrical rhythm in pols and springar. What I found most fascinating was his presentation of the variation of lengths of beats. He showed that variation exists within a regional style, between fiddlers, from one performance to the next as played by the same fiddler, and (most interestingly) from one measure to the next in the same performance of the same tune based on the melodic context. He presented examples that some melodic elements (particularly decorative trills) occupy a fixed period of time (relative to the performer) and that other elements are shortened or lengthened based on their relation to the fixed elements and their function in the melody (e.g. a triplet can be shorter when it leads to a continuation of the melody in the next beat and longer when it leads to the conclusion of a melodic phrase).

Of course, research can also manifest in the form of performance, so we at Rauland are treated to a concert each year in connection with Forskningsdagane. This year Nils Økland played on a variety of violin-like instruments. In addition to a standard violin, he played hardingfele and viola d'amour (a massive instrument with seven melody strings and seven understrings, I think). I was most impressed by the first piece he played, inspired by darkness - it really sounded like moths fluttering around in the night. He also uses all gut strings and light weight baroque style bows. If only I had a pile of money to play with, I could have gut strings and new bows as well!