http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/RSS.ashxiPaper PagesThu, 07 Apr 2011 12:17:34 +0200http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist Thomas Solomon (ed.)2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=2http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=22011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=3http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=3Thomas Solomon (ed.) Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond Essays Commemorating Edvard Grieg the Humanist2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=4http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=4Copy right © 2011 by Fagbok forlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke AS All Rights Reserved Graphic production: John Grieg AS, Bergen ISBN: 978-82-450-1112-8 Cover design by Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjørke AS Coverphoto and the photos of Edvard Grieg courtesy of Griegsamlingen ved Bergen Offentlige Bibliotek Support for the production of this book has come from Grieg07 and from the Grieg Academy – Department of Music, University of Bergen Inquiries about this text can be directed to: Fagbok forlaget Postboks 6050, Posttermina len 5892 Bergen Tel.: 55 38 88 00 Fax: 55 38 88 01 e-mail: fagbokforlaget@fagbokforlaget.no http://www.fagbokforlaget.no No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=5http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=5Preface: The Grieg07 Project This book is one of the outcomes of the project Grieg07, a Norwegian-led international project that took place throughout 2007 in commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the death of the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg. The year-long project is described on the organization’s website as “an occasion to revitalize and renew the Grieg heritage” (http://www.grieg07.no and http:// eng.grieg07.no). The various activities of the project were organized under three broad headings: “Grieg the Composer”, “Grieg the Humanist” and “Grieg the Sampler”. The project budget was primarily funded through contributions from the Norwegian Government (the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), the City of Bergen and the County of Hordaland. The City of Bergen was the initiator, the largest contributor and the owner of Grieg07. Throughout 2007 the project sponsored and/or promoted events including exhibitions, music festivals, individual orchestral and chamber music concerts, conferences and seminars in various cities in Norway as well as in international venues including in Brazil, France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the USA. One of the events sponsored under the rubric “Grieg the Humanist” was the international symposium “Music and Identity”, which took place in the city of Bergen on 13–14 September 2007, co-sponsored with the human rights organization the Rafto Foundation (Raftostiftelsen, http://www. raftohuset.no) and with funding from the Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo (Fritt Ord, http://www.fritt-ord.no), GC Rieber Fonds and the University of Bergen. The symposium programme included several invited keynote speakers as well as individually submitted papers. This book presents ten selected papers from that symposium, including revised versions of the keynote presentations by Susan McClary, Paul Gilroy and Hans Weisethaunet, as well as seven of the individually volunteered papers. While this book thus has its origins as a “conference proceedings”, it is hoped that the reader will find the collection of papers here to be more substantial and coherent than that phrase often implies, and that the book makes a significant contribution to contemporary debates on music and identity. Thomas Solomon 72011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=6http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=62011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7Contents Introduction . Thomas Solomon 13 Organization of the book . 15 Nation, music, Norway . 22 Grieg the humanist . 27 A postcolonial Grieg? . 30 Conclusion . 32 Notes . 33 References . 34 Music and Identity in Norway … 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond Hans Weisethaunet . 39 41 . “Vår alles Grieg”: Grieg – the pop star . 43 Music and the nation . 48 Bull, Gade and Nordraak . 51 Grieg, romanticism, and the nation . 53 Opus 72 and the folk . 58 Identity vs. nation-building . 67 Notes . 74 References . 80 Discography . 85 2 Playing the Identity Card: Of Grieg, Indians, and Women . 87 Susan McClary Notes . References . Discography . 101 102 104 92011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=8http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=83 Who Are You, Peer?: An Anniversary Postlude on Music, Text and Identity Constructions Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby . 105 An exhibited world order . 106 Ibsen’s fourth act . 109 Musical Orientalism? . 111 Norwegian folk lore and European Orientalism . 117 Summary and conclusion . 122 Notes . 124 References . 126 Discography . 129 4 Do pianists exist to play piano concertos?: Grieg’s A minor Concerto as a national canon Øyvind Aase . 131 131 133 136 139 142 143 A stranger like Grainger: Grieg on national identity in music . The nationalization of the A minor concerto . Ascribing national prestige to musical identity . In search of a repertoire beyond the national canon . Notes . References . 5 The Grieg Effect: On Music Therapy as Source of Knowledge about the Contextualized Effects of Music Brynjulf Stige . 145 145 146 148 150 155 156 158 161 161 162 Introduction . Music as use . An excursion to the Mozart Effect . The story of Upbeat’s encounter with Grieg . The interaction between bodily gestures and cultural resources . The interaction between individual experiences and group processes . Conclusion: the Grieg Effect in context . Coda . Notes . References . 10 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=9http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=9… and Beyond Erik Steinskog . 165 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite . 167 Dialectic of ensoniment . Three Edwards . Peer Gynt as trickster . The jungles of modernity . Sophisticated lady? . On the shores of the Atlantic . Notes . References . Discography . 169 172 174 176 178 180 181 182 184 7 A Non-national Nation? Diaspora, Globalization and Human Rights Paul Gilroy . 185 References . 199 Additional reading . 200 8 National Identity and Communication in Cuban Popular Music . 201 Ingvill Morlandstø Introduction . Music as communication . National identity . Cubanía, africanía and afro-cubanía . The son montuno as standard form for Cuban popular music . Cuba as social context . Timba . An analysis of “Tim Pop con Birdland” as communication of Cubanness . Conclusion . Notes . References . Discography . 201 203 205 206 208 210 211 212 218 219 220 221 Contents 112011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=10http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=109 African Islamic Pop: Religion as a Strategy in Popular Music . Annemette Kirkegaard 223 224 230 232 233 236 238 241 243 244 247 251 The return of religion in popular music . Sufism and music in Africa . Senegal . Zanzibar . Muslim culture and musics in Zanzibar . Sufi musics as a favoured image of Islam . Sufis on the World Music Scene . So what kind of identity does “African Islamic Pop” express? . Notes . References . Discography . 10 Whose Diaspora?: Hybrid Identities in “Turkish Rap” in Germany Thomas Solomon . 253 253 255 258 263 263 264 267 Introduction: on diversity within diasporas . Rap music in the “Turkish diaspora” in Germany . Exploring diasporic consciousness through rap music . Acknowledgements . Notes . References . Discography . Information on the contributors . 269 . 273 List of figures and musical examples 12 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=11http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=11Introduction Thomas Solomon Music and identity has arguably become one of the primary paradigms, if not the primary paradigm, of contemporary humanistic and social scientific research in music since the 1980s. The coupling of music and identity has become so commonplace and common sense, both in scholarly and popular discourse, that it can be hard to imagine a time when the two terms were not necessarily closely related. As Rice shows in his 2007 survey of selected literature on the topic, the study of music and identity has in the last quarter century been particularly productive within the field of ethnomusicology. Similar shifts can be seen to greater or lesser degrees in the other musical disciplines. Identity politics has been a key issue within the cultural-critical approach that emerged within historical musicology during the 1990s (e.g. McClary 1991); a recent edited volume (Baur, Knapp and Warwick 2008) represents what might be considered the healthy and growing second generation of this approach. Researchers in the sociology of music have explored various theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of musicalized social identities (Bennett 2000; DeNora 2000; Frith 1987, 1996; Gilroy 1991; Grenier 1997; Regev 1996; Shepherd 1986). Identity has been an issue to a much lesser extent within music theory (Krims 2000, Maus 1993), though a core group of dedicated thinkers have challenged the institutionalized orthodoxy within the field with critical discussions of music theory, feminism, and gender (see the 1994 set of essays by Cusick, Guck, Kielian-Gilbert, and McClary; Burns and Lafrance 2002; Hisama 2000). The focus on identity can thus be seen as a common thread running through and uniting the various musical disciplines and as part of a broader paradigm shift since the 1980s within the humanities and social sciences (Reily 2010:331). This new concern with identity also forms part of the “interpretive turn” more generally within the humanities away from positivism (Rice 2010:104). The turn to identity can be further 132011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=12http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=12contextualized within social and political developments in Europe and North America. Stokes suggests that identity gained prominence as an analytical category in academic work when identity politics emerged as a strategy for making political demands for social justice, in reaction to the entrenchment of neoliberal regimes in the 1970s and 1980s (2010:339), a development McClary refers to in her contribution to this volume when she mentions the use of identity politics as a strategy employed by women and minorities in the USA. The papers collected in this book build on and extend the intellectual trajectory in the study of music and identity with case studies focused through the specific lenses of nation, race, religion, ethnicity, gender, diaspora, and health. The book is specifically conceived as an interdisciplinary intervention in music studies. It thus brings together papers by contributors from several different disciplinary and professional backgrounds, including musicology, ethnomusicology, cultural sociology, music therapy, and performance; the research methodologies the authors employ are also diverse. Some of the papers are based on ethnographic fieldwork employing social scientific methods; some take musical texts (scores or recordings) as their starting point. Some are concerned with contemporary developments in cultural life; others are historically oriented. Many of the papers are methodologically eclectic, combining a variety of these approaches. Despite these very different disciplinary bases, the papers here cohere around the insistence that identity is not an essence carried within musical sounds (or, for that matter, within people’s bodies), but is rather socially, historically and culturally imagined, constructed, situated, performed, experienced, negotiated and contested, and the recognition that music is a powerful vehicle and resource for these processes. The papers thus interrogate the common sense relationship between music and identity, collectively making the point that cultural meaning and social identity are not inherent in musical sounds themselves, but rather that people attribute meanings to musical sounds in particular cultural and historical contexts. Such attributions of meaning may become so internalized through repetition that they may appear to be – are heard to be – natural. But meanings – including identities – become established by convention, through the repetition of statements about musical meanings that become taken for granted and unquestioned, as well as through the repetition of the sounds themselves in moments of performance that re-establish these meanings and potentially 14 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=13http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=13open them up to re-negotiation (Sugarman 1997). The papers in this volume thus look behind this “taken-for-grantedness” to query the ways in which music is used in “identity work” (Walser 1993:134, DeNora 2000:62) – how music “accomplishes” (following Walser 1993:109) nation, race, gender, and other kinds of musicalized identities. In the following sections I first introduce the contributions briefly, tracing continuities between them and suggesting an itinerary through the book. I then return in greater detail to a few of the key themes running through the papers, including music and Norwegian cultural identity, the notion of Edvard Grieg as a humanist, and the relevance of postcolonial theory to the project this book represents. There are of course other possible itineraries through the volume; the reader will no doubt also recognize other common threads running through and uniting the different papers. Organization of the book The papers are divided into two large sections, one section focusing primarily on music and national identity in Norway, using the music of Edvard Grieg as a starting point, and the second section expanding this focus both to places beyond Norway and to other kinds of identities besides that associated with the nation. The papers in the first section, Music and Identity in Norway …, all use the music of Edvard Grieg – and the figure of Grieg himself – as a point of departure for discussions of identity in a Norwegian context. The contributors collectively interrogate how Grieg and his music have been, in the words of Aase, “nationalized” and appropriated in projects of building a Norwegian national culture, or as Weisethaunet argues with reference to Homi Bhabha (1990), how these projects “narrate” the Norwegian nation. The papers thus address the question of music and national identity through one specific case study and repertoire: the nation of Norway and the music of Grieg. In his paper “Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond”, an expanded version of one of the keynote addresses at the symposium from which this book is derived, Hans Weisethaunet interrogates relationships between music and the nation, using the life and music of Grieg as an example. Weisethaunet problematizes facile generalizations about how music represents national identity, and explores how relationships between music and the nation are Introduction 152011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=14http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=14discursively constructed and changeable over time. The paper addresses over a century of musicians’ practices and the receptions and interpretations of critics, audiences, and musicologists, from Grieg’s ambivalent statements about the relationship between his Norwegian identity and his artistic agenda as a composer, to the specifics surrounding the composition of Grieg’s Slåtter, to the status of Grieg and Grieg’s music in contemporary Norwegian society. Weisethaunet applies a critical interpretive approach to important primary textual sources, including extensive quotes from sources such as Grieg’s correspondence and commentary by others on Grieg’s music during and after his lifetime. The author draws on postcolonial theory (particularly the writings of Homi Bhabha) to show how the Norwegian nation is “narrated” through discourse about Grieg’s music, as well as addressing issues in the practice of historiography, asking why music is assumed to be “national” in the first place. Susan McClary’s contribution “Playing the Identity Card: Of Grieg, Indians, and Women” creates an interesting and useful dialogue with Weisethaunet’s paper, since both papers deal with the same repertoire (Grieg’s Slåtter), but from different and complementary disciplinary and interpretive perspectives. Weisethaunet uses a textual-critical approach to explore the circumstances of – and ideologies behind – the collection and transcription of the melodies from a “folk” musician and Grieg’s subsequent use of these melodies in composition. In contrast, McClary employs music-analytical methods, including close analysis of the musical text itself (in the form of the score, with reference also to recorded performances of the “original” tunes played on the Hardanger fiddle, paired with performances of Grieg’s setting of them for piano) in order to explore Grieg’s creative transformation of the fiddle tunes. Focusing in particular on the expanded harmonic vocabulary Grieg employed in his setting of the melodies, McClary shows how Grieg’s inventive use of harmony, derived from the modal characteristics of the musical material itself, challenged the boundaries of European compositional practice at the time. McClary embeds this close reading of Grieg’s musical text within a critical discussion of how marginalized identities (women, Native Americans, a composer in a nation on the European periphery) struggle within the systems of power and representation that would dismiss their contributions to culture and society. McClary’s paper was also one of the invited keynote speeches at the symposium. 16 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=15http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=15Following up on evocations of postcolonialism by both Weisethaunet and McClary, Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby draws extensively on postcolonial theory in her paper “Who Are You, Peer? An Anniversary Postlude on Music, Text and Identity Constructions”. With Edward Said’s (1979) well-known critical category of Orientalism as a starting point, Høgåsen-Hallesby uses the metaphor of “friction” to examine the relationships between Ibsen’s text for the play and Grieg’s music for it. She specifically addresses the issue of whether Grieg’s music for the play’s fourth act can be considered Orientalist, in the sense of drawing on and supporting systems of knowledge and representation that justify the West’s perception of itself as morally superior to and culturally more advanced than those regions of the world on which it had colonial designs, and which thus legitimize the West’s political domination of them. Høgåsen-Hallesby concludes that while Grieg did draw on Orientalist musical tropes (such as pentatonicism) widely in use at the time, the articulation of this music to Ibsen’s text – which is explicitly critical of European and American imperialism – complicates the reading of Grieg’s musical representational practice. Høgåsen-Hallesby also addresses the gendering of Orientalist musical representations in her discussion of the figure of Anitra and Grieg’s music for “Anitra’s Dance” and the “Arabian Dance”. In his contribution “Do Pianists Exist to Play Piano Concertos? Grieg’s A minor Concerto as a National Canon”, pianist Øyvind Aase brings to the book the perspective of a professional performing musician. Like several other contributors to the volume, Aase questions the essentialist, reductive, or otherwise simplistic equating of music and different kinds of identity, arguing that, however natural they may come to be accepted as being, such equivalencies are not essential or given, but discursively constructed in specific historical circumstances. The discursive force of this construction becomes, for Aase, an oppressive force, acting to limit the artistic (and career) choices available to the performer. Aase quotes from Grieg himself, who maintained on the one hand, that being Norwegian is no guarantee that one would automatically understand his music, and, on the other hand, that nonNorwegians (such as the Australian Percy Grainger) may come to musically understand Grieg’s works in such a profound way that they can become the foremost interpreters of it. Using Grieg’s A minor concerto as an example, Aase thus presents a critical perspective on how national musical canons can constrain the artistic work of performing artists, effectively working to Introduction 172011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=16http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=16impose repertoire on and limit the choices available to performing artists who unwittingly find themselves, like the repertoire itself, “nationalized” in the perceptions and expectations of critics and audiences, both in Norway and internationally. For the six members of Upbeat!, the music therapy group that Brynjulf Stige reports on in his contribution “The Grieg Effect: On Music Therapy as Source of Knowledge about the Contextualized Effects of Music”, Edvard Grieg’s status as a national icon was less important than his more specific connection to Bergen, a city where they, as people with Down’s Syndrome, had spent part of their lives in an institution for people with intellectual disabilities. In a parallel to the argument noted above that meaning and identity are not inherent in musical sounds themselves, Stige argues, with reference to a critique of the so-called Mozart Effect, that the effects of music are not determined entirely by the musical sounds themselves, but rather “Effects are created through use [of music] by the involved people in a given context.” Stige uses music sociologist Tia DeNora’s (2000) concept of music’s affordances to explore how certain specific elements within Grieg’s music provided resources for – afforded – within a specific cultural and historical context, the musical social interaction of the members of the group. Stige’s critique of the notion of “music as a pill”, while coming from the disciplinary perspective of music therapy, arrives at the same critique of music as automatic reflection or unreflective expression found in other papers in the volume. Stige’s paper also represents the humanistic strand of music therapy that has developed in Scandinavia, offering a critical perspective while maintaining an emphasis on the human and humane in experience and practice. The papers in part two of the book, … and Beyond, move – as the title suggests – beyond the case study of Norwegian national identity to explore other kinds of identities – including race, religion and diaspora – and other geographic contexts, including Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, and the USA. These papers share with those in part one, however, the general theoretical position that identities are not given, but imagined, actively constructed, performed, and constituted through practices of representation. While Eric Steinskog’s paper “Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite” is the opening article of the book’s second section, in many ways it acts as a fulcrum between the two sections, both in terms of expanding the conception of identity beyond the national to consider 18 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=17http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=17musical representations of race, and also in moving beyond a specifically Norwegian geographical context. Steinskog uses the reception in Norway of Ellington’s version of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites as his starting point, but quickly shows that to account for this reception one needs to take into account the movements of music and discourse about it through a wide network between continents. Drawing on Paul Gilroy’s discussion of how the routes of what Gilroy (1993) calls the black Atlantic allow for an alternative history of the Enlightenment, Steinskog explores the routes of musical representations of race between Norway, New York (Harlem) and France (Paris), along the way playfully teasing out some of the “different intertwinings and overlapping dimensions” of the ostensibly fixed terms within conventional binaries − such as light/dark, white/black, high/low, (Americo-)European/other − at the core of Enlightenment thought. Steinskog notes how Ellington got inspiration from Europe not just in terms of the repertoire itself – Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt – but also in the way that Ellington’s “jungle sound” has at least some of its roots in the performances of transplanted African-American dancer Josephine Baker in Paris. Steinskog finds inspiration in the postcolonial theory of Gilroy, Edward Said and Homi Bhabha for hearing an alternative history of modernity through Ellington’s versioning of Grieg, exploring how it exposes and challenges the fault lines of race in Europe’s historical colonial relationship with Africa, and the postcolonial basis of African-American culture. In his contribution “A Non-national Nation? Diaspora, Globalization and Human Rights”, the final keynote speech from the 2007 conference included here, Paul Gilroy poses the question of what a post-racial and post-national nation might look and sound like. Using the life and music of Bob Marley as a starting point, Gilroy explores how Marley’s music articulates forms of black consciousness based not on colour, but on shared experience expressed through what Gilroy identifies as “the universal poetics of sufferation and hope”. Gilroy finds in Marley’s life story and music the possibilities for a political community based on “will, inclination, and affinity”, rather than on shared colour and shared land. In an argument calling to mind Steinskog’s exploration of the limits of the binary opposition between black and white, Gilroy explores Marley’s own subjectivity – grounded in his experiences growing up as a bi-racial child in colonial Jamaica – and Marley’s resulting understanding of the limitations of racial categories. The post-racial social Introduction 192011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=18http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=18imaginary Marley articulated in his music continues to unite the far-flung populations of the African diaspora, as it celebrates rather than pathologizes the social and cultural hybridity characteristic of diaspora. Gilroy also anchors his discussion in the concept of human rights, one of the themes of the symposium “Music and Identity” (see below). While many of the papers in this book critique essentialist conceptions of music and national identity, in her contribution “National Identity and Communication in Cuban Popular Music” Ingvill Morlandstø shows how such essentialized identities become powerfully meaningful to the people who have naturalized them, feel them in their own bodies, and use them on an everyday basis. Continuing the discussion of music and race begun by Steinskog and Gilroy, Morlandstø combines the results of ethnographic field work with musical analysis to show how racialized ideas about Cuban national identity become encoded in musical sounds, and how the performance of those sounds then becomes a way of embodying and enacting those ideas. In the Cuban context, blackness has been “nationalized” (Moore 1997) and integrated into the mythology that forms the basis for contemporary imaginations of Cuban national identity. Call-and-response form, rhythm and drumming are naturalized as expressing an essential Africanness, while an essential “white” Spanish Europeanness is said to be expressed in the “calmer” delivery of more “wordy” texts. The way in which these ideas have become an essential component of imagined Cubanness shows how such essentialized identities can go far beyond strictly verbal discourse, into the realm of embodied expression and feelingfulness which, through deeply felt experience, even more powerfully evoke and bring into existence a kind of identity felt as carried in the body. Drawing on Feld’s (1994) discussion of the social dimensions of communication, Morlandstø also shows how musical communication is an interactive process, even when the musical object is technologically mediated through space and time, as in sound recordings. Annemette Kirkegaard’s paper “African Islamic Pop: Religion as a Strategy in Popular Music” brings to this volume a perspective on religious identities as represented through music. Kirkegaard’s two case studies focus on popular musics performed by Muslims or associated with Islam on both sides of the African continent. Drawing on examples from West Africa (primarily Senegal) and East Africa (primarily Tanzania), Kirkegaard focuses especially on the influence of Sufism (Islamic mysticism) on musical practice. She combines 20 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=19http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=19historical and ethnographic material to give a comparative perspective on how popular musical practices have come to represent Islam and Muslim identities on each side of Africa, both historically and in the contemporary post-9/11 environment. Kirkegaard describes how certain musical sounds drawn from or associated with Sufism come to be coded as “Arab” and/or “Muslim” and how these sounds come to be strategically commercialized and deployed as signifiers of a non-threatening Islamic identity. Kirkegaard shows that while the musical representations she discusses go back centuries, they take on a new urgency in the post-9/11 environment. “Sufi music” becomes, like the recent popular attention to Sufi mystical writings such as that of the thirteenth century poet Rumi, a vehicle for representing a kind of “safe” Islamic identity where the participation in musical pleasures – and the invitation to the listener to also participate – is consciously deployed to contrast with the negative portrayal of Islamic fundamentalism widespread in the international media. My own contribution, “Whose Diaspora? Hybrid Identities in ‘Turkish Rap’ in Germany”, revisits from a different perspective Gilroy’s point about musics and lives that “overflow from national structures”. Interrogating the category of “Turkish rap music made in Germany” taken for granted and enthusiastically embraced by some researchers, the paper points out the diverse range of identities musically imagined and performed within multi-ethnic hip-hop scenes in cities such as Berlin. The diversity of subject positions constructed in this music challenges the very idea of Turkishness that forms the basis for the sociological category of the “Turkish diaspora” in Germany. It has become commonplace to assert that diasporic cultural expressions challenge, through their insistent hybridity, the idea of a coherent national culture and identity. Even while diaspora’s challenge to national mythologies is acknowledged, however, it is often paradoxically assumed that diasporic communities themselves are socially homogenous and culturally coherent. The paper thus argues that it is also important not to transpose the myth of national coherence onto diasporic communities, and that the hybrid subjectivities constructed in the experience of diaspora should also be given their due attention. Introduction 212011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=20http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=20Nation, music, Norway Roughly half of the papers in this book focus on one particular kind of identity, that of the nation. And the papers in the first part of the book collectively develop, albeit from different angles, a sustained case study of Norwegian identity, through a focus in particular on Edvard Grieg and his music. It is thus worth returning briefly here to the broader question of music and national identity, as well as addressing the specifically Norwegian context. Critiquing the now commonplace equation of music and national identity, Weisethaunet (2007) asks, “Why is music ‘national’?” One might also, however, turn the question around and ask: Why is the nation musical? Or more precisely: Why is music so often harnessed to projects of nation-making? What is it about music that makes it so consistently useful for “narrating” the nation, whether through the formulaic musical patriotism of national anthems, the creation of national canons drawn from the products of elite culture, or the appropriation and “domestication” of popular musics? The answer may lie in the way that music makes a uniquely powerful contribution to what Kelly Askew calls “the materialization of ideology through performance” (2002:2). While Benedict Anderson (1991[1983]:37–46) famously privileged literacy in the emergent print-languages of Europe, and the dissemination of content in those languages through “print-capitalism” as key to the development of national consciousness, Askew argues that in areas where literacy was not widespread, participatory modes of performance such as music and dance can be crucial to nation-building projects (2002:9– 10). Anderson’s analysis of print-capitalism is useful for understanding the emergence of language-based national communities among the members of a particular social stratum (the educated, literate elite) in Europe during a particular historical epoch. But the particulars of Anderson’s argument cannot easily be extrapolated to other geographical areas, historical periods, or social strata. If the printing press facilitated the first mass media of books and broadsheets, other channels for mass communication have since joined it to play an important role in the creation and dissemination of national culture, especially in countries where the state has had a monopoly on broadcast media. Baily (1994), for example, points to the way in which Kabul Radio, later Radio Afghanistan, codified a national Afghan music and disseminated it through broadcasting; Danielson (1997) notes how Egyptian singer Umm Kulthūm’s monthly radio concerts became an institution that 22 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=21http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=21brought Egyptians from all walks of life together as a listening public. As the technology for spreading the very idea of a shared national culture, as well as the vehicle for that culture’s “content”, broadcast media thus played in the twentieth century a role analogous to that played by Anderson’s “printcapitalism” in the sixteenth, in moving beyond the printed page to provide a more deeply embodied, multisensory experience of shared identity. As recording and playback technology became more widely disseminated during the course of the twentieth century, such experiences arguably became more fragmented, leading to a proliferation of social groups based on aesthetic affinities and not so closely tied to membership in national communities. But such mediated experiences still maintain a complex relationship to the embodied experiences of performance, and can still be selectively harnessed in nation-building projects. Skilful performance, when successful, can be used to capture the emotion and sentiment associated with the bodily pleasures of music and dance, and channel them towards specific goals, including towards the state, creating a reciprocal relationship between aesthetic and civic values. Embodied musical experiences can thus powerfully naturalize the sense of membership in a national culture, “performing the nation”, as Askew (2002) puts it. It is thus especially through acts of performance, including highly mediated ones, that national identity becomes a “fiction” – not meaning “false”, but in its original Latin sense as fictiō, something made or fashioned (Geertz 1973:15). But there is more to music’s power to construct shared feelings of community than the mere fact of its creation of a common listening public. The ways in which the meanings given to music come to be embodied in musical structures, and the ways in which those meanings also come to be shared within listening publics, are a crucial aspect of music’s power. The papers in this book take for granted the critique of the ideology of autonomous music (Leppert and McClary 1987, L. Kramer 1995, McClary 1991) and start from the premise that music is representative – it refers to things outside of itself. But what music represents is not wholly determined by its sounds alone. Meanings come to be assigned by convention to specific musical elements – bits of melody, sequences of chords, rhythmic patterns, timbres, form and other elements – as well as to the combination of these elements in complete “pieces” of music. Høgåsen-Hallesby and Kirkegaard make reference in their papers to the conventional association of Grieg’s famous composition “Morning Mood” Introduction 232011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=22http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=22with the Norwegian landscape. The piece is probably most familiar to listeners as the opening of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, and has conventionally been taken to represent a Norwegian sunrise. But, as both Høgåsen-Hallesby and Kirkegaard note, “Morning Mood” was originally composed as part of the incidental music Grieg created to accompany Ibsen’s verse play Peer Gynt, where it was intended to represent a sunrise not over picturesque Norwegian mountains and fjords, but over the mountains of the Sahara Desert in Morocco, where the fourth act of Ibsen’s play begins. The point is that the meaning of “Morning Mood” is malleable: which landscape it represents – and the very idea that it represents a landscape – is not inherent in the musical sounds themselves, but comes to be imagined in the stories people tell about those sounds, some of which come to be accepted by convention as common sense. Høgåsen-Hallesby points to how the ambiguous pentatonicism Grieg employed in the melody of “Morning Mood” lends itself to various re-stagings and re-emplacements. In the language of music sociologist Tia DeNora (2000) referred to by Stige in his contribution, “Morning Mood” provides affordances that allow it to be appropriated, interpreted and used in many different ways. Beyond the fairly simple example of the malleable meanings of “Morning Mood”, the case of Grieg and his music and their relationship to Norwegian identity provides fertile ground for the exploration of how social meanings come to be articulated to musical sounds, as the papers in the first part of this volume illustrate. The case of Grieg also provides many possibilities for examining how cultural processes of meaning-making are always embedded within relationships of power. Such power relationships are exposed in the way that Grieg is simultaneously central and marginal – central, within the Norwegian context, and marginal, within the hierarchies of European culture at large. Within a specifically Norwegian national context, Grieg has been canonized as “Norway’s national composer”; the figure of Grieg thus has a central role in Norwegian cultural life, to the extent that musicians looking to explore other potential musical identities may even find Grieg’s omnipresence oppressive, as Aase argues. Grieg’s music also occupies a solid place within Norwegian popular culture. Stige and Kirkegaard both note the frequent use of Grieg’s music as theme or background music in productions by NRK, the national broadcaster of Norway. Weisethaunet catalogues (in note 4 in his paper) some of the many adaptations of Grieg’s music by Norwegian jazz and 24 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=23http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=23rock musicians. To paraphrase Clifford Geertz’s famous discussion of the cockfight on Bali (1973:448), Grieg’s music is thus used as “a story Norwegians tell themselves about themselves”. Such widespread uses of the figure of Grieg and his music point to an erosion of the boundaries between elite and popular culture (in Steinskog’s terms, between the high and the low), making Grieg into, in Weisethaunet’s words, a kind of Norwegian pop star. But within the broader context of European art music history, Grieg occupies a decidedly marginal position. McClary notes how Grieg is mentioned only once in Richard Taruskin’s recent six-volume Oxford History of Western Music, a work intended to be a definitive account of its subject. A quick comparison of the coverage and space allotted to representative composers in the 2001 revised edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, also meant to be a definitive scholarly reference work, similarly points to Grieg’s minor place in the institutionalization of European art music. The article on Grieg is about 14 pages long, with 9 pages given to the main text, not counting the list of works and bibliography at the end. By comparison, the articles on Sibelius and Dvořák, figures with a similar standing as “national composers” of their respective countries, each get space more than double that given to Grieg, with a total of 29 and 36 pages, respectively. Moving from composers on the European periphery to those canonized as representing the heart of the hegemonic German tradition, the disparity between the space allotted to them and to Grieg becomes even more dramatic, with – in the small type and large page size used in the New Grove – monograph-length articles given to Bach (a total of 72 pages), Mozart (71 pages) and Beethoven (68 pages). Grimley cites a number of possible reasons for Grieg’s place outside the centre of the Western canon, and the corresponding lack of musicological attention to his work. These include the perception elsewhere in Europe that Grieg is “of merely ‘local’ significance”, in other words, relevant only to and within Norway; that his music, by falling into the category of “popular classics”, is aesthetically compromised; that his penchant for small forms suggests he could not handle large-scale composition; that his poor health and small physical stature restricted his creative growth; that his experiments with the use of folk materials were only a prelude to the later, more sophisticated and aesthetically interesting treatments of folk material by composers such as Bartók (Grimley 2006:3–4; McClary also discusses many of these issues in her paper here). Introduction 252011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=24http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=24The difference between the central place allotted to Grieg within Norwegian cultural life and national narratives, and the contrasting marginalization of him within a larger European context, is not necessarily a paradox. The disparity in Grieg’s standing within these two perspectives of scale can be seen as resulting from complementary processes, not contradictory ones. The marginalization of Grieg within the canon of European art music is only one instantiation of a much larger, historically based hierarchy within Europe that constructs the continent in terms of centre and margins. Norway’s place within this hierarchy is decidedly on the periphery, a fact which Norwegians themselves are keenly aware of. Norway’s contemporary collective cultural self-image is rooted in the country’s historical position on the margins of Europe – geographically, economically and culturally. Drawing on the work of Oxfeldt (2005), Høgåsen-Hallesby notes, for example, Norway’s marginalized position at the Paris World Exposition of 1867. Lacking any of the large-scale production that would have qualified it to take a place in the central hall occupied by the European industrial powers, Norway found itself in a place analogous to that of the exotic(ized) nations colonized by Britain, France, and the other European colonial powers. Relegated to the garden area along with the Oriental nations, Norway had to be content to exhibit its national identity through folkloristic presentations. Norway was thus imagined as one of Europe’s wild, exotic, internal others, a characterization which, for many, Grieg himself personified. McClary notes in her paper how Grieg was perceived as a “diminutive exotic” by his contemporaries during his student years in Leipzig; McClary and Stige both also mention the frequently evoked condescending description of Grieg as the “little master” (see also Grimley 2006:4), and McClary suggests that this pejorative appellation has the rhetorical effect of both feminizing Grieg and racializing him in relation to his German contemporaries. While Norway has developed significantly in economic terms since Grieg’s time, the cultural marginalization of Norway persists in part to this day and looms large in the national self-image. Attributing to Norwegians a collective cultural “inferiority complex” (Knudsen 1997:227) is perhaps an exaggeration, but Michael Herzfeld’s (1997) discussion of what he calls “cultural intimacy” is useful for understanding the way Norwegians collectively view how others (especially other Europeans) view them. Herzfeld describes cultural intimacy as 26 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=25http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=25the recognition of those aspects of a cultural identity that are considered a source of external embarrassment but that nevertheless provide insiders with their assurance of common sociality, the familiarity with the bases of power that may at one moment assure the disenfranchised a degree of creative irreverence and at the next moment reinforce the effectiveness of intimidation … the self-stereotypes that insiders express ostensibly at their own collective expense (1997:3).1 For me, the Norwegian variety of cultural intimacy is epitomized in the way that, when I first moved to Norway in 2002, I heard countless times from my new students, colleagues and friends how it was Norwegians who invented both the cheese slicer and the paperclip. The story was usually told with a bit of mock-seriousness that playfully underlined the “rueful self-recognition” (Herzfeld 1997:6) that Norway’s claim to international technological fame rested on such trivial items. The humble cheese slicer and paperclip easily became an allegory of the perceived inconsequentiality of Norway’s significance in and contributions to Europe and the world. One strategy for dealing with this cultural self-consciousness is to turn being one of Europe’s exotic, internal others into a marketable asset, a strategy that has worked for the Norwegian tourism industry as it markets “wild Norway”2 to foreign visitors eager to see up close and in person the dramatic places depicted in postcard pictures and National Geographic videos of mountains, fjords, glaciers, the northern lights, and reindeer. Grieg’s music has also played a role in this kind of marketing, exemplified in, for example, the obligatory inclusion of “Morning Mood” on “Norway in Music” compilation CDs marketed to tourists, as Høgåsen-Hallesby mentions. Such CDs compiling Grieg’s music typically have cover art with dramatic photographs of Norwegian landscapes, and thus serve as a re-instantiation of the conventional representation of Grieg’s music as having a close relationship to Norwegian nature, as critiqued by Aase in his paper. Grieg the humanist The subtitle of this book describes Edvard Grieg as a humanist. The attribution of this role to the composer deserves some comment. As noted in the “Preface” of this book, the various activities of the Grieg07 project were organ- Introduction 272011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=26http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=26ized under three broad headings – “Grieg the Composer”, “Grieg the Humanist” and “Grieg the Sampler” – and these headings were used on the organization’s website (http://www.grieg07.no in Norwegian and http://eng.grieg07. no in English) and in its various publications (e.g. Grieg07 2007 and 2008). Under the heading “Grieg the Humanist” were grouped activities including the symposium “Music and Identity” that this book is derived from and a seminar held in Paris in October 2007. The point of departure for the Paris seminar was “Grieg’s humanistic engagement in his age, in the Dreyfus scandal,3 and in other humanistic and international legal conflicts”; “the intent was to show the connections to contemporary conflicts and the struggle to safeguard freedom of expression and human rights” (Grieg07 2008:59, my translation from the Norwegian).4 Here humanism is understood as a broad concern with humanitarianism, social justice and human rights. Accordingly, one of the announced sub-themes of the symposium “Music and Identity” was music and human rights; this theme was represented in the keynote address by Paul Gilroy presented at the symposium and included here – see Gilroy’s discussion, for example, of what he calls a “non-racial humanism” – as well as a presentation, not included in this book, by Ole Reitov from the anti-music censorship organization FreeMuse (www.freemuse.org). Also related to this theme is Stige’s discussion of the concern in Norway with providing more humane living conditions for developmentally disabled persons, including the provision of outlets for them to engage in creative expression, in the form of music therapy groups like the one whose story Stige tells. Another way of viewing Grieg’s humanism is in terms of his involvement in what might be called “literary culture”. Grieg was a prolific writer of letters, essays and other texts, the value of which as source material is amply attested to in this volume in the contributions by Weisethaunet, McClary and Aase. A focus on Grieg’s literary activity connects him to an understanding of humanism and his “being a humanist” in relation to the academic disciplines collectively referred to as the humanities. In an essay commissioned by the Grieg07 project, Tone N. Slotsvik (2007) uses a critical-textual approach to explore this aspect of “Grieg the humanist”, discussing quotations from Grieg’s letters to show how apparent contradictions or ambiguities in his various statements on two specific issues – his view on the dissolution of the union with Sweden, and his opinion of Jews – should be understood in the contexts of Grieg’s own evolving thought, the intended audience for specific 28 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=27http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=27pieces of writing, and subtleties in the language Grieg used, the meanings of which have changed in the hundred years since Grieg wrote the texts. In a short essay on Grieg also published by Grieg07, Hild Borchgrevink (2007) begins by also noting Grieg’s engagement with issues of social justice and his prolificacy as a writer of texts. But Borchgrevink then suggests, in an argument related to that presented by Susan McClary in this volume, that Grieg’s humanism is to be found not only in his concern for the human dimension of current affairs, but also in his more properly artistic work as a composer. Borchgrevink notes that while listeners today are well-accustomed to the musical folklorism of late Romantic-period art music, Grieg’s use of identifiably Norwegian folk materials in his compositions could have been perceived as radical in his time, especially in the context of the debates leading up to the dissolution of the political union of Norway and Sweden in 1905. Borchgrevink describes Grieg’s music as a “radical artistic project” (2007:8) closely related to other projects to create and establish a Norwegian cultural identity distinct from that of its Scandinavian neighbours (see also Grimley 2006). Grieg’s folk-influenced compositions are thus an artistic parallel to, for example, the philological project of the creation of the new standard language form Landsmål (literally “language of the land”, later renamed Nynorsk, “new Norwegian”) by poet and philologist Ivar Aasen beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, as an alternative to the Dano-Norwegian standard perceived to be the heritage of Danish colonialism. Here Grieg’s humanism is located in his artistic agenda and his production of compositions containing overt signifiers of Norwegianness, and Grieg’s work as a composer is represented as a form of activism. The subtitle of this book not only identifies Grieg as a humanist, it states that the contributions included within it serve to commemorate Grieg’s humanism. The word “commemorate” in this book’s title is not meant to imply an uncritical appreciation of Grieg as a person and artist. While there is much in this book that can be construed as celebratory of Grieg – offering a positive assessment of Grieg’s contributions to both Norwegian and world culture, “enriching us all”, as McClary argues – the book is not intended to be an unreflective tribute. The contributors here who discuss Grieg and his music are specifically concerned about not replicating old uncritical, patriotic (even nationalistic) stories about the place of Grieg in Norwegian national and cultural identity, but rather to critically interrogate the ways Grieg and his Introduction 292011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=28http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=28music have, as cultural resources, been deployed in imaginations of Norway and Norwegianness. However one chooses to define Grieg’s humanism, I suggest that the best way to commemorate “Edvard Grieg the humanist” is not to repeat the “national mythologies” (see Morlandstø in this volume) that would appropriate Grieg in the service of imagining an essential Norwegian identity, or cement the place of his music in a national canon, but to draw on the best of contemporary humanistic thought – in the sense of thought pertaining to and developed in the humanities as a field of inquiry – in order to critically engage with Grieg’s life and artistic work, as the papers in the first part of this volume do, and to contextualize this critical work within the broader study of musical ways of being human, which the papers in the second part also contribute to. If one of the possible definitions of humanism is “a doctrine, attitude, or way of life centred on human interests or values” (www.merriam-webster. com) – in a broader sense, querying what it means to be human – then this volume explores what might be called musical ways of being human. In this connection, perhaps rather than thinking in terms of “music and identity”, we should more properly speak of musical identities (MacDonald, Hargreaves and Miell 2002) – a way of conceptualizing the issue that, by taking the and out from in between the two key terms – suggests that instead of there being two separate things that need to be somehow brought into contact or related to each other, the object of study is what Blacking (1973) referred to as “soundly organized humanity”. A postcolonial Grieg? A significant thread bringing coherence to this book is the application in many of the papers of concepts and theoretical approaches derived from postcolonial studies, including (especially) the papers focused on Norway and Grieg’s music. As noted above, in his discussion of how Grieg’s music has been appropriated into “coherence narratives regarding musical representations” of the Norwegian nation, Weisethaunet draws on Homi Bhabha’s discussion of how nations are “narrated” – not in the conventional sense of “a continuous narrative of national progress”, but in the sense that nations, like narratives, become mythologized in time, such that cultural representations of them are necessarily characterized by a “particular ambivalence” rooted in their 30 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=29http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=29discursive nature (Bhabha 1990:1). Edward Said’s influential theorization of the critical category of Orientalism informs Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby’s discussion of Grieg’s music for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. While also invoking Bhabha and Said, Erik Steinskog constructs his argument about Duke Ellington’s version of Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suites in terms of Paul Gilroy’s theorization of the black Atlantic as a postcolonial space for the construction of a black diasporic identity. And Susan McClary argues for an understanding of Grieg as a kind of postcolonial subject. In an academic context, postcolonial theory – and postcolonialism more generally as a critical lens through which to view culture and history – are most commonly associated with the study of the culture of subaltern peoples in the former European colonies, primarily in “the South”; these are for the most part still considered to be “developing countries” − what used to be referred to as the “Third World”. Bart Moore-Gilbert advocates an understanding of postcolonial criticism as being preoccupied principally with analysis of cultural forms which mediate, challenge or reflect upon the relations of domination and subordination – economic, cultural and political – between (and often within) nations, races or cultures, which characteristically have their roots in the history of modern European colonialism and imperialism and which, equally characteristically, continue to be apparent in the present era of neocolonialism (1997:12). For the reader not familiar with Norwegian history, it may seem odd that postcolonialism would be relevant to the study of music in Norway, situated as it is on the northern European periphery. One might also question postcolonialism’s relevance for understanding a country that is now among the wealthiest in the world, and which has repeatedly been named as “the best place to live” in the world in the United Nations’ annual listing based on its Human Development Index (Worsnip 2010). But the current international image of Norway as an oil-rich nation with an extremely high standard of living is actually of recent vintage. Norway’s “oil adventure”, as HøgåsenHallesby refers to it in her paper here, started only in the last quarter of the twentieth century, joining other industries such as aluminium production that had been expanding since World War II. Introduction 312011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=30http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=30As discussed above, Norway has historically been on the European periphery not just in terms of geography, but in political and cultural terms as well. Norway’s history is popularly imagined as a period of mostly independent existence under a series of kings (some semi-mythical) during the Viking period and the High Middle Ages (c. 872–1380), followed by a long period of colonization by Denmark (1380–1814), a shorter period (1814–1905) of enforced political union with Sweden (in which Norway was clearly the de facto junior partner), and finally the dissolution of the union with Norwegian independence in 1905 (J. Kramer 1984). The interruption of Norwegian sovereignty during the German military occupation during World War II (1940–1945) also continues to have a significant place in Norwegian historical consciousness (Eriksen 1993a:27). Gullestad thus notes that, “According to popular self-images, Norway is innocent in relation to colonialism” and “Majority Norwegians see themselves as victims of Danish colonialism and Nazi-German occupation” (2004:182, emphasis in original). J. Kramer also emphasizes that “Norwegian national identity must be seen as the result of a long anti-colonial struggle” (1984:93, my translation). It is in this context that McClary sees Grieg as “a composer attempting to speak as a postcolonial subject of Danish, Swedish, and German domination”, and hears Grieg’s preference for small compositional forms over large-scale structures as a specifically postcolonial strategy for negotiating the expectations of the European mainstream in relation to his own artistic agenda of exploring a more specifically Norwegian identity in compositions such as his Slåtter. Weisethaunet provocatively asks in his contribution, “Is there a postcolonial Grieg very different from the Grieg of his time?” Like identity, postcolonialism is a critical category, a particular perspective through which to view social and cultural processes. Postcolonialism is thus relevant for the study of music and identity in Norway – both historically and in contemporary settings – not just because of the facts of Norway’s history, but because it brings to the study of music and identity in Norway an important perspective on the power relations that constitute cultural representation and social life. Conclusion This book will not be, of course, the last word on the music of Grieg, much less on the vast subject of music and identity, whether in Norway or more 32 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=31http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=31generally. In the Norwegian context, for example, many significant topics are not touched on at all. To mention just one important aspect that deserves further exploration, the de facto status of Norway as a multicultural nation has profound implications for the “idea of Norwegianness” (Eriksen 1993a, 1993b). And while Weisethaunet and Steinskog address how Grieg’s music has breached the divide between high and low culture, the focus on Grieg means this book does not address how contemporary Norwegian identities are imagined and performed through jazz and popular musics such as rock, pop, rap, and club dance music. What this book does offer is a number of complementary perspectives on how the figure of Edvard Grieg and his music have provided affordances for imaginations of identity in Norway, and some complementary explorations of how musics in other, contrasting settings have also provided resources for doing identity work. The contributions gathered here cover a wide swath of geography and a long span of time, and use a variety of approaches from the humanities and social sciences, but they are united by the conviction that music is a potent resource for creating and living out social identities. It is hoped that this book will constitute a useful intervention in understanding the place of music in imagining, constructing and representing identity, both in Norway and beyond. Notes 1. With regard to Herzfeld’s comment about “creative irreverence”, it is relevant to note that in contemporary Norwegian popular culture, including popular music, the deployment of humour, self-parody and irony is a common strategy for relating to Norway’s position within global cultural hierarchies (cf. Hawkins 2007). 2. Wild Norway is the title of book published in 1897 and written by the English naturalist, hunter and travel writer Abel Chapman (1851–1929); Sporting Days in Wild Norway, published in 1925, is a book by the famous Norwegian polar explorer and scientist Fridtjof Nansen (1861–1930), who was also an ardent supporter of the dissolution of the political union of Norway with Sweden. See Aase’s paper in this volume and Grimley (2006) for discussions of how nationalromantic imaginations of the Norwegian landscape are discursively linked to Grieg’s music. A Google search suggests that the phrase “wild Norway” continues in the repertoire of expressions for evoking the dramatic qualities of Norwegian nature. Introduction 332011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=32http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=323. The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal in France around the turn of the twentieth century. French army captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, was unjustly convicted in 1894 on charges of treason related to false accusations, motivated by anti-Semitism, of espionage. Despite the presence of exculpatory evidence and the identification of another man as the actual spy in 1896, Dreyfus was not exonerated until 1906. An invitation to Grieg to conduct some of his works in Paris in 1899 coincided with a French court’s reaffirmation of Dreyfus’ guilt. Grieg refused the invitation, citing the case as his reason for not wanting to perform in France. With Grieg’s permission, his letter refusing the invitation was made public; the result was a French backlash against Grieg, including a stream of threatening and abusive letters that continued for several years afterward (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1988:350–352). Grieg’s letter read, in part, While I thank you for your kind invitation, I greatly regret to inform you that, in view of the outcome of the Dreyfus case, I cannot agree to come to France at this time. Like all non-Frenchmen, I am so indignant over the contempt with which law and justice are treated in your country that I could not bring myself to perform for a French audience (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1988:351). Grieg’s moral stance on the Dreyfus affair has become an important part of the Grieg mythology in Norway – the narrative by which Grieg is portrayed as a heroic defender of social justice and human rights. 4. “Utgangspunktet var Griegs humanistiske engasjement i samtiden, i Dreyfusskandalen og andre humanistiske og folkerettslige konflikter; og intensjonen var å trekke linjer til dagens konflikter og kampen for å kjempe for ytringsfrihet og verne menneskerettihetene.” References Anderson, Benedict. 1991 [1983]. 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Bennett, Andy. 2000. Popular Music and Youth Culture: Music, Identity and Place. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Bhabha, Homi K. 1990. “Introduction: Narrating the Nation.” In Nation and Narration, edited by Homi K. Bhabha, 1–7. London: Routledge. Blacking, John. 1973. How Musical is Man? Seattle: University of Washington Press. Borchgrevink, Hild. 2007. “Edvard Grieg – Humanist, Composer, Sampler.” Essay included in the booklet accompanying the CD and DVD set Edvard Grieg: The Humanist, The Composer, The Sampler. Bergen: Grieg07 and Oslo: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Burns, Lori and Mélisse Lafrance. 2002. Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity, and Popular Music. London: Routledge. Chapman, Abel. 1897. Wild Norway: With Chapters on Spitsbergen, Denmark, etc. London: Arnold. Cusick, Suzanne G. 1994. “Feminist Theory, Music Theory, and the Mind/ Body Problem.” Perspectives of New Music 32(1):8–27. Danielson, Virginia. 1997. The Voice of Egypt: Umm Kulthūm, Arabic Song, and Egyptian Society in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. DeNora, Tia. 2000. Music in Everyday Life. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1993a. “Being Norwegian in a Shrinking World: Reflections on Norwegian Identity.” In Continuity and Change: Aspects of Contemporary Norway, edited by Anne Cohen Kiel, 11–37. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press. Eriksen, Thomas Hylland. 1993b. Typisk norsk: Essays om kulturen i Norge. Oslo: C. Huitfeldt Forlag. Feld, Steven. 1994. “Communication, Music, and Speech about Music.” In Music Grooves: Essays and Dialogues, by Charles Keil and Steven Feld, 77–95. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Frith, Simon. 1987. “Toward an Aesthetic of Popular Music.” In Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception, edited by Richard Leppert and Susan McClary, 133–149. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Introduction 352011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=34http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=34Frith, Simon. 1996. “Music and Identity.” In Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, 108–127. London: Sage. Geertz, Clifford. 1973. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books. Gilroy, Paul. 1991. “Sounds Authentic: Black Music, Ethnicity, and the Challenge of a ‘Changing’ Same.” Black Music Research Journal 11(2):111– 136. Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso. Grenier, Line. 1997. “‘Je me Souviens’… en Chansons: Articulations de la Citoyenneté Culturelle et de l’Identitaire dans le Champ Musical au Québec.” Sociologie et Sociétés 29(2):31–47. Grieg07. 2007. Edvard Grieg: The Humanist, The Composer, The Sampler. Bergen: Grieg07 and Oslo: Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. [Set of 2 CDs and a DVD, with accompanying booklet.] Grieg07. 2008. Død eller levende? Grieg07 oppsumerer: Vi begynte med å markere hans død og avsluttet med å feire hans udødelighet. Bergen: Grieg07. Grimley, Daniel M. 2006. Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity. Woodbridge, UK: The Boydell Press. Guck, Marion A. 1994. “A Woman’s (Theoretical) Work.” Perspectives of New Music 32(1):28–43. Gullestad, Marianne. 2004. “Blind Slaves of our Prejudices: Debating ‘Culture’ and ‘Race’ in Norway.” Ethnos 69(2):177–203. Hawkins, Stan. 2007. “Those Norwegians: Deconstructing the Nation-State in Europe through Fixity and Indifference in Norwegian Club Music.” In Music, National Identity and the Politics of Location: Between the Global and the Local, edited by Ian Biddle and Vanessa Knights, 179–189. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate. Herzfeld, Michael. 1997. Cultural Intimacy: Social Poetics in the Nation-State. London: Routledge. Hisama, Ellie M. 2000. “Feminist Music Theory into the Millennium: A Personal History.” Signs 25(4):1287–1291. Kielian-Gilbert. 1994. “Of Poetics and Poiesis, Pleasure and Politics: Music Theory and Modes of the Feminine.” Perspectives of New Music 32(1):44–67. Knudsen, Knud. 1997. “Scandinavian Neighbours with Different Character? Attitudes Toward Immigrants and National Identity in Norway and Sweden.” Acta Sociologica 40(3):223–243. 36 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=35http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=35Kramer, Julian. 1984. “Norsk identitet: et produkt av underutvikling og stammetilhørihet.” In Den norske væremåten, edited by Arne Martin Klausen, 88–97. Oslo: J.W. Cappelens Forlag AS. Kramer, Lawrence. 1995. Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge. Berkeley: University of California Press. Krims, Adam. 2000. Rap Music and the Poetics of Identity. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Leppert, Richard and Susan McClary, eds. 1987. Music and Society: The Politics of Composition, Performance and Reception. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. MacDonald, Raymond A. R., David J. Hargreaves, and Dorothy Miell, eds. 2002. Musical Identities. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Maus, Fred Everett. 1993. “Masculine Discourse in Music Theory.” Perspectives of New Music 31(2):264–293. McClary, Susan. 1991. Feminine Endings: Music, Gender, and Sexuality. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. McClary, Susan. 1994. “Paradigm Dissonances: Music Theory, Cultural Studies, Feminist Criticism.” Perspectives of New Music 32(1):68–85. Moore, Robin. 1997. Nationalizing Blackness: Afrocubanismo and Artistic Revolution in Havana, 1920–1940. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press. Moore-Gilbert, Bart. 1997. Postcolonial Theory: Contexts, Practices, Politics. London: Verso. Nansen, Fridtjof. 1925. Sporting Days in Wild Norway: Pages from my Diary. London: Thornton Butterworth. Oxfeldt, Elisabeth. 2005. Nordic Orientalism: Paris and the Cosmopolitan Imagination 1800–1900. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. Reily, Suzel. 2010. “Discipline or Dialogue? (A Response to Timothy Rice).” Ethnomusicology 54(2):331–333. Regev, Motti. 1996. “Musica Mizrakhit, Israeli Rock and National Culture in Israel.” Popular Music 15(3):275–284. Rice, Timothy. 2007. “Reflections on Music and Identity in Ethnomusicology.” Muzikologija 7:17–38 [Belgrade]. Rice, Timothy. 2010. “Ethnomusicological Theory.” Yearbook for Traditional Music 42:100–134. Said, Edward W. 1979. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. Introduction 372011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=36http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=36Shepherd, John. 1986. “Music Consumption and Cultural Self-Identities: Some Theoretical and Methodological Reflections.” Media, Culture and Society 8(3):305–330. Slotsvik, Tone N. 2007. “Shedding Light on Grieg the Humanist.” http://eng. grieg07.no/index.php?page=75&show=138, accessed 29 September 2010. Stokes, Martin. 2010. “Response to Rice.” Ethnomusicology 54(2):339–341. Sugarman, Jane C. 1997. Engendering Song: Singing and Subjectivity at Prespa Albanian Weddings. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Walser, Robert. 1993. Running with the Devil: Power, Gender, and Madness in Heavy Metal Music. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press. Weisethaunet, Hans. 2007. “Historiography and Complexities: Why Is Music ‘National’?” Popular Music History 2(2):169–199. Worsnip, Patrick. 2010. “Norway Best, Zimbabwe Worst Places to Live: U.N.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6A34V520101104, accessed 27 January 2011. 38 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=37http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=37Music and Identity in Norway …2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=38http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=382011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=39http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=391 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond Hans Weisethaunet Nations, like narratives, lose their origins in the myths of time and only fully realize their horizons in the mind’s eye. Such an image of the nation – or narration – might seem impossibly romantic and excessively metaphorical, but it is from those traditions of political thought and literary language that the nation emerges as a powerful historical idea in the west. (Homi Bhabha 1990a:1) Music is a powerful means of representing the nation – and most great national and international ceremonies seek the assistance of music to enhance their celebratory power. The Norwegian Nobel Committee makes the annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert the highlight of the award celebration event, and on Thursday 11 December 2008 artists from all over the world gathered in Oslo Spektrum to celebrate the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Martti Ahtisaari. The musical star of the night – and the one who according to Norwegian newspapers’ headlines “saved the evening” (Dagbladet 2008) – was former soul diva of Supremes fame, Diana Ross. Even if the performance did not match her vocal strength of the 1960s, she was the biggest celebrity of the show. However, what triggered us Nor wegians the most was her bold statement in between songs like “Baby Love” and “Where Did Our Love Go”, clearly uttered in the Nor wegian language with a slight American accent: “Jeg er norsk” [“I am Norwegian”]!1 We knew that Diana had made a similar statement prior to her wedding to the late Norwegian mountaineer Arne Næss Jr. in 1985, but her performance at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert signalled the 412011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=40http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=40first time we might come to think of this powerful voice of African-American soul music as a Norwegian voice. In Nor way we have a longstanding relationship with our own national musical imagery. The musical image of the nation is in fact older than the nation itself, which gained independence from Sweden only in 1905, but with a constitution dating back to 1814 and a thousand-year long national history.2 My main concern in what follows is: how do we address the question of music and national identity in a period of increasing globalization? Does music generally speak for the nation and/or for ethnicity or race? Is there a need for music historians to be more reflexive in their accounts of national representation in their making of music history? And what problems of earlier national and/or nationalist imagery remain to be untangled in the baggage of contemporary cultural studies, musicological, ethnomusicological, folk and/or popular music scholarship? I have dealt with some of these questions in more detail elsewhere (Weisethaunet 2007); however, in a volume that honours the musical work and humanistic achievement of Edvard Grieg (1843–1907) such questions seem highly relevant. In a way the case of Grieg clearly illustrates the complexities with regard to questions of music and national identity, and in particular the ambivalence and ambiguities of such representations much prevalent in Grieg’s own time and subsequently perpetuated in the form of constructed music histories. Grieg himself was vividly concerned both with the artistic quality of his music and its symbolic significance, and he was thought of as one of the most culturally significant personalities of his time. In particular his presence was considered to be important in the events that celebrated Nor way’s independence from the union with Sweden in 1905.3 Politically speaking, Finn Benestad has characterized him as a “liberal-minded democrat with political acumen” (2008:39). In what follows, I argue that Grieg’s case seems relevant in terms of questioning coherence narratives regarding musical representations, the prevailing ambiguity between the individual as artist/composer versus his work and the discourse of historians, policy makers and society in general. The national politics of Grieg, I assume, became strongly intensified after his death; nonetheless, there were also plenty of politics to be associated with Grieg himself. 42 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=41http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=41“Vår alles Grieg”: Grieg – the pop star Even if he had left us only with the Peer Gynt Suites, and Op. 66 and Op. 72, he would have fulfilled his duties in relation to the mother country. (Boris Asafjev [Asafev] 1992[1942]:85) What is the status of Grieg and his music in contemporary Norwegian society? There is little doubt that Grieg is held in high national esteem and to this day he is considered by scholars and the public in general to be Norway’s greatest composer. The symbolic value of Grieg’s history, his personal life, his music, his travels and every thing to be associated with him, weighs heavy in Norwegian national cultural policy. This volume is a part of that policy, commemorating the 100 years since he passed away. Not so long ago, in 1993, we celebrated his 150th birthday. We celebrate Grieg, but Grieg also holds a position that reaches far more broadly than the national-political level. In schools Grieg’s music is taught as Norway’s claim to fame in the area of “classical music”. His music is also thought to be the most quintessentially Norwegian or emblematic when it comes to the music’s national character. Yet what is most striking about Grieg is that he is still very popular. His music is not primarily thought of as a part of elite culture. In a way his music is popular music, in the sense that his melodies are known and sung by everybody, from small children to elders, from professional singers to amateurs. And everyone who has learnt to play the piano or any other musical instrument in Norway has played some of Grieg’s music. Even jazz and rock musicians, including heavy metal guitarists pursuing virtuoso ambitions, play Grieg4 and several of Grieg’s tunes are frequently used as jingles in commercials and on public television. In the events of the 1993 celebration, Grieg’s music was heard everywhere, in homes, in small venues and in large concert halls. A facsimile from the Oslo newspaper Arbeiderbladet from 6 November 1993 (Figure 1.1) quite accurately sums it all up: “Vår alles Grieg” [“Grieg belongs to everybody”]. More patriotic and exaggerated headlines are also easily found, such as “Grieg slår Picasso” [“Grieg beats (is greater than) Picasso”]. International recognition is what guarantees a composer or musician his/her place in national music history, and this seems to be a general rule. Hence, Nor wegians might like to think that Grieg is greater than Picasso (even though the article was actually referring to the popularity of two different exhibitions). 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 432011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=42http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=42Figure 1.1 Facsimile collec tion from Nor wegian newspapers commemorating Grieg’s 150th birthday in 1993 (Solbu et al. 1993:45). 44 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=43http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=43There is little doubt that Grieg’s place in Western music history is solidly confirmed. Music historians John Horton and Nils Grinde give the following account of Grieg’s place in the canon of Western music in the introduction to their article on Grieg in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians: He was the foremost Scandinavian composer of his generation and the principal promoter of Nor wegian music. His genius was for lyric pieces – songs and piano miniatures – in which he drew on both folktunes and the Romantic tradition, but his Piano Concerto found a place in the central repertory, and his String Quartet foreshadows Debussy (Horton and Grinde 2001:396). Grieg is described here as the “foremost Scandinavian composer”5 whose compositional ideas foreshadow those of Debussy. Moreover, the authors leave no doubt that Grieg was a principal promoter of Nor wegian music. At the same time, Grieg represents an exception from “classical music” in the sense that his music has retained its popularity – unlike the music of other Norwegian composers of the nineteenth century. He has become “classical” in the same sense as Mozart, Chopin or Satie; that is, his music is continuously performed and considered almost eternal. Undoubtedly, the ubiquitous continuity of the National Romantic discourse might be a factor contributing to this position; still, this does not “explain it all” since equally romanticized music of his time does not hold such a position. Daniel Grimley (2006) nevertheless finds Grieg to be somewhat on the fringes of the canon of Western music, and much so, he argues, because there has been a lack of serious scholarly interest in his work: As with many “popular classics,” however, commercial success has often been associated with the idea of the aesthetically commonplace, so that Grieg’s music can easily seem over-exposed … When we think of Grieg as a popular or even overly familiar musical figure, therefore, it is only with a selective and unrepresentative range of his work in mind … Grieg has remained on the periphery of academic musical debate. Indeed, if anything, Grieg’s work seems even further beyond reach than before. He is neither “exotic” enough to appeal to interdisciplinary scholarship, nor a significantly central part of the Western canon to justify the employment 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 452011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=44http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=44of urgent rescue attempts from the supposedly totalising claims of structuralist analysis or historical positivism as has been the case with other more clearly mainstream figures (Grimley 2006:2–4). Contrary to this, I will argue, suspicion against any thing “popular” (also a commonplace of art discourses), does not detract from Grieg’s popularity as a very significant part of the reception history of his music. What is less known is that Grieg was also a very popular performer in his time, and in fact Norway’s first popular recording artist. A discussion of his own recorded work is provided by Vollsnes (1993), and it is known that his Hupfeld and Welte Mignon recordings made in 1906 (often mislabeled as Pianola rolls6) sold in quite a large number. The music was recorded by means of holes punched in paper and attached to rollers. His Gramophone recordings from Paris 1903 (Figure 1.2) have been reissued together with the Welte Mignon recordings on a CD collection by SIMAX.7 Even though these recordings were made at a time when he was no longer at his height as a performer, they point to a very significant aspect of his achievements, also contributing to his popularity. Also, it is well-known that Grieg’s piano pieces were much played in salons. What seems clear, nonetheless, is that musicology in general has struggled to be able to explain the genuine artistic qualities of smaller forms and melodic composition, since much of its discourse has relied so heavily upon ideas of formal complexity and harmonic development. Comparably, when the Times music critic William Mann in 1963 for the first time put a discussion of a pop group in the paper’s art pages, he resorts to somewhat strange metaphors like “pandiatonic clusters”, “flat submediant keyswitches” and misplaced musicological theory in order to try to explain the genuine compositional qualities and song-writing ta lent of The Beatles (Mann 1963). The aesthetic quality of good melodies seems particularly hard to explain in terms of musical structure; however, people instantly recognize such qualities in musical listening. In much of Grieg’s music, as in the “simple” melodic movements of “Aase’s Death” or “Morning Mood” from his Peer Gynt Suite No.1 (Op. 46), he is at the height of his “hit-making excellence” – an aesthetic/compositional task that is by no means easy to achieve. In terms of Grieg’s place in the canon of Western music, Russian music theorist Boris Asafev points out that even if he had left us only with the Peer Gynt Suites (Op. 46 and 55), and Op. 66 and Op. 72, he would still have fulfilled his “duties in relation to the mother country” (Asafjev [Asafev] 1992:85) and confirmed his place in the musical canon. 46 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=45http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=45Figure 1.2 Grieg’s recording for the Gramophone & Typewriter Company, Paris 1903 (original catalogue number 35517, “Nor wegian Bridal Procession Opus 19 No 2”). (Photo by Tore Simonsen of the 78 rpm record in the Dørumsgård collection, Nor wegian Institute of Recorded Sound, Stavanger, Nor way) Politically speaking, Grieg was inspired by the ideals of the French Revolution and, as Benestad underscores, on the whole he “sympathized with the weak rather than with the strong” (2008:39). Grieg’s political position is not easy to pinpoint since he did not want to be associated with any particular political party. Still there is little doubt that he held quite radical political views, and his orientation was also strongly influenced by his association with the Norwegian writer Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson (1832–1910), who became an ardent spokesman for Nor wegian independence. It also seems evident that Grieg considered his art an art for the people. In December 1899, Grieg made a speech for the workers at Folkets Hus (community house associated with labour and working class movements) in Copenhagen, announcing that he wished that the institution of concerts and art for the working classes would find its place in every country.8 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 472011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=46http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=46Music and the nation9 It was the spirit of the people of Nor way that demanded musical expression in and through Edvard Grieg. (Carl Dalhaus 1980:82) “More than any other form of identity, nationalism closes the gap between music and culture. In so doing, it heightens the disjuncture created by different musical processes for constructing the nation,” writes Philip Bohlman (2003:50). In Bohlman’s view “national music”, like national myths and national histories, becomes invested with the power to ser ve as “international political capital” (ibid.:51). In his comprehensive work on “the music of European Nationalism” Bohlman in fact maintains that there is only a gradual difference between “national” and/or “nationalist” music. Furthermore, he finds that more or less all music in Europe bears witness to the idea and ideals of the nation. The difficulties with which the national can be extricated from the nationalist again make it abundantly clear that there is very litt le music in Europe that does not bear witness to the idea and ideals of the nation in one way or another. National and nationalist music assume their functions, and even acquire their aesthetic and sonic characteristics, from the ways in which they connect history to the nation (Bohlman 2004:82). As a response to this, one might argue that the extent to which music becomes national (in Europe and elsewhere) is also the outcome of how music historians imagine and continue to construct the role of music and its possible national configurations. There is a vast amount of literature on the ideas of the nation and nationalism and, as Peter Alter emphasizes, “it can mean emancipation, and it can mean oppression: nationalism, it seems, is a repository of dangers as well as opportunities” (1994:2). As historian Eric Hobsbawm underscores, “the modern sense of the word [nation] is no older than the eighteenth century” (Hobsbawm 1990:3). European historians commonly distinguish between the German National Romantic idea of nationalism as a historical source and the more civil-rights and freedom-oriented ideas of the French revolution of 1789, and the term 48 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=47http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=47nationalism is in common use in both a positive and a negative sense. According to Raymond Williams (1983:213) the term was originally used (since the thirteenth century) with a primary sense of a racial group rather than a politically organized grouping. In his view this overlap in sense has continued and, as he points out, “claims to be a nation, and to have national rights, often envisaged the formation of a nation in the political sense, even against the will of an existing political nation” (loc. cit.). Uses of these concepts are, however, complex due to their multiple meanings. As Williams explains: Indeed in nationalism and nationalist there is an applied complexity comparable with that of native … But this is often masked by separating national feeling (good) from nationalist feeling (bad if it is another’s country, making claims against one’s own), or by separating national interest (good) from nationalism (the asserted national interest of another group). The complexity has been increased by the usually separable distinction between nationalism (selfish pursuit of a nation’s interests as against others), and internationalism (co-operation between nations). But internationalism, which refers to relations between nation-states, is not the opposite of nationalism in the context of a subordinate political group seeking its own distinct identity; it is only the opposite of selfish and competitive policies between existing political nations (ibid.:214). “Defined most simply, national music reflects the image of the nation so that those living in the nation recognize themselves in basic but crucial ways,” writes Bohlman (2004:82–83). Such a definition seems much in accordance with the general paradigm of music historians, who have all in one way or another been influenced by Johann Gottfried von Herder’s (1744–1803) conceptualization of der Volksgeist, claiming that the “spirit of the people” is audible in their songs. Herder’s two volumes, Stimmen der Völker in Liedern (1778) and Volkslieder (1779), sought to verify his theory asserting that the characteristics of a people (Volk) were reflected in their song traditions (Herder 1975 [1778–1779]).10 Herder’s work undoubtedly laid a foundation for the writing of national music histories; moreover, it influenced how Western musicology would come to comprehend its object. Music became “national”, whereas the bourgeois elite’s own “others” – that is the folk – would ser ve to secure raw material 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 492011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=48http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=48for the truly “national” art music. There is litt le doubt that Grieg’s music, his musical ideas, and compositional practices fit well into such a picture of the relation between folk and art music. According to musicologist and music historian Carl Dahlhaus, the general view of music as “national” is a fact that we must accept, whether we like it or not. As Dahlhaus sees it, the “national character” of music is a crucial part of the musical aesthetic; an aesthetic where both the intentions of the composer and the general view of the public are of importance in order to invoke nationalism in music. As he writes, if a composer intended a piece of music to be national in character and the hearers believe it to be so, that is something which the historian must accept as an aesthetic fact, even if stylistic analysis – the attempt to “verify” the aesthetic premise by reference to musical features – fails to produce any evidence. There is no line of argument which would make it permissible to leave ideological “appearances” out of account in assessing the aesthetic “rea lity” (Dahlhaus 1980:86–87). For Dahlhaus, the concept of what constitutes music is “a historically changing category”. But, as he points out, it was only after the French Revolution that “nationalism came to dominate Europe as a mode of thought and a structure of feeling” (Dahlhaus 1989:85). Also, Dahlhaus finds Herder’s idea of Volksgeist to be quite influential in this context: According to this idea, for instance, it was the spirit of the people of Norway that demanded musical expression in and through Edvard Grieg, and not Grieg (as an individual rather than as the representative of his nation) who first created what is thought to be quintessentially Nor wegian in Music (Dahlhaus 1980:82). It should be added that Dahlhaus understands that the construction of music and music history as “national” is a somewhat tautological endeavour. In his view, the “Volksgeist hypothesis influenced people, without their being very conscious of it” (ibid.:88). National and nationalist ideas have to a large extent underpinned the work of musicians and composers, as well as music historians and musicologists, as an ideological framework rather than as an aes- 50 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=49http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=49thetically conscious idea. As Dahlhaus rightfully observes: “At all events these beliefs were not established facts supporting nationalism but pious hopes created by nationalism itself. What is taken to be the premise and substance of nationalism is in fact its consequence and corollary” (ibid.:94). Bull, Gade and Nordraak In the study of Nordic sagas and Nordic folklife, I learned to know and find myself. (Edvard Grieg, 1881)11 It is commonly held that it was the legendary Nor wegian violin virtuoso Ole Bull (1810–1880) who, during a visit to the Grieg family’s place outside Bergen in the summer of 1858, persuaded Grieg’s parents to send the 15-year-old Edvard to begin his music studies at the music conservatory in Leipzig.12 Ole Bull was a friend of the family and his brother, Jens M. Bull, was married to Grieg’s mother’s sister. Ole Bull – whose 200 year anniversary was commemorated in 2010 – is often viewed to be almost as significant as Grieg when it comes to the making of the ideas of a Nor wegian musical identity in the middle and later parts of the nineteenth century.13 Bull also wrote works based on the distinct quality of the Hardanger fiddle and showed his virtuoso skills as a violinist by touring extensively all over Europe and in America. Grieg got his musical education and schooling in compositional techniques in Leipzig; he also came, however, to learn and greatly appreciate the orchestral and chamber music which could be heard in the German city, and in particular the music of Wagner, Mendelssohn and Schumann. In 1863 Grieg continued his musical studies in Copenhagen, and most historians highlight the impact of the work of the Danish composers Johann Peter Emilius Hartmann (1805–1900) and Niels Wilhelm Gade (1817–1890) from this period. Gade’s first symphony, which was performed by Mendelssohn in Leipzig in 1843 and built around Gade’s folk-tune inspired melody Paa Sjølunds fagre Sletter, is commonly considered to have laid the foundation for a Scandinavian school of music.14 It was Gade that persuaded Grieg to write his first (and only) symphony, a work that Grieg rejected sometime after 1867 with the inscription “må aldrig opføres” [“never to be performed”], supposedly after having heard 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 512011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=50http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=50the new symphony in D major by the Nor wegian composer Johan Svendsen (1840–1911) (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1980:61). However, it is Grieg’s meeting with fellow Norwegian composer Rikard Nordraak (1842–1866)15 that is considered to have been imperative for Grieg’s new path as a composer. It was after meeting Nordraak that he made his great decision: to create music influenced by National-Romantic ideals; in short, to become a Nor wegian composer. Grieg met Nordraak for the first time in Copenhagen in the summer of 1863. As Grieg writes, at this very moment he “learned to know and find himself”, even though he was in fact not very impressed by Nordraak’s skills as a composer: Så kom Kjøbenhavneropholdet, hvor jeg i Omgang med nordisk Kunst og nordiske Kunstnere, under Studiet af nordisk Saga og nordisk Folkeliv lærte at kjende og finde mig selv … Hvad Nordraak angår, står det nu klart for mig, at han var en genial Seer, men aldrig var bleven nogen udviklet Kunstner i dette Begrebs omfattende Betydning. Godt for ham altså, at han gik bort, før Virkeligheden overraskede ham. Hvad mig angår, kom jeg ved hans afsluttede Løbebane til Klarhed om mig selv. Hans Foragt for Kunstens Teknik, som jeg ikke delte, blev for mig en Spore til alvorligt Arbejde. Når de spørger om N.s Indflydelse på mig, så er det altså, som De antager: Hans syn på vor Folkemusik har styrket mit eget. Men min nationa le Begejstring var allerede vakt tillive, da jeg lærte ham at kjende, uden endnu at have båret kunstnerisk Frugt. Det var Sammenstødet, der fremkaldte det produktive Udslag af Begejstringen (from Grieg’s letter to Aimar Grønvold, Bergen, 25 April 1881; Benestad 1998a:246).16 [Then came my stay in Copenhagen, where I, in association with Nordic art and Nordic artists, in the process of studying Nordic sagas and Nordic folklife, learned to know and find myself … As far as Nordraak is concerned, it is now clear to me that he was an ingenious seer, but never had become an accomplished ar tist in the full sense of this term. Fortunate for him, then, that he passed away before rea lity surprised him. As for me, it was at the end of his life that I achieved clarity about myself. His contempt for the technique of art, which I did not share, spurred me on to serious work. When you ask about N.’s influence on me, it is, as you assume, his views of our folk music have strengthened my own. But my national excite- 52 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=51http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=51ment had already been awakened when I came to know him, albeit it had not yet borne artistic fruit. It was the encounter that produced the productive outcome of the enthusiasm.]17 With Nordraak, Christian Frederik Emil Hornemann (1840–1906), Louis Hornbeck (1840–1906) and Gottfred Matthison-Hansen (1832–1909), Grieg founded the musical association Euterpe in 1865. This was an initiative to front their new ideas of Scandinavian music, in opposition to the more conservative music society in Copenhagen (much influenced by Gade and his association with Mendelssohn). In the same period (1865) Grieg wrote his Humouresques for Piano, Op. 6, where impulses from Norwegian folk dances springar and halling are prevalent. However, much more direct uses of Nor wegian folk music are later to be found in Grieg’s Op. 17 Twenty-five Norwegian Folk Songs and Dances (after Lindeman), Op. 24 Ballade in G Minor, Op. 29 Improvisations on Two Norwegian Folk Songs, Op. 35 Norwegian Dances, Op. 51 Old Norwegian melody with Variations, Op. 63 Two Nordic Melodies, Op. 64 Symphonic Dances, Op. 66 Nineteen Norwegian Folk Songs, and Op. 72 Slåtter. A large number of his other works were also influenced by or directly based on folk melodies.18 Grieg, romanticism, and the nation The history of music in Nor way in the 19th century can be accurately described as the history of how to write distinctively Nor wegian music. (Nils Grinde 1993:29) There is little doubt that Grieg was influenced by National Romanticism, and that these ideas led him on a search for “Norwegian” elements in his music. Likewise, it seems apparent that Nordraak’s influence in this respect was considerable. In 1865 Nordraak wrote to Grieg from Berlin (only a year before Nordraak’s death at the age of 23) in an almost visionary manner. As Nordraak underlines, their greatest ambition is to make the “Nordic tones” be heard and “echo from the rest of the world”: 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 532011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=52http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=52Man må ej tabe Troen på sin Tid, da taber man Troen på sig selv. Og jeg føler så klart at der netop nu nærmer sig store Ting i Musik ken. Hvor langt vi unge ville nå frem med vort Håb og Længsel, det bestemmer Vorherre; men længe vil det ikke vare før Tonerne fra Norden hører sig selv igjen i Ek koet fra den øvrige Verden (letter from Nordraak to Grieg, 12 June 1865; Monrad Johansen 1934:82). [One must not lose faith in one’s time, because then one loses faith in oneself. And I clearly feel that precisely at this moment big things are approaching in music. How far we the young will come with our hopes and longing, is in the hands of the Lord; but it will not be long before the tones from the Nordic [countries] will echo from the rest of the world.] When music historian Nils Grinde writes that “the history of music in Norway in the 19th century can be accurately described as the history of how to write distinctively Nor wegian music” (Grinde 1993:29) he is only partly right, in the sense that Norwegian composers of this period, and in particular Grieg, unwaveringly struggled to gain mastery of compositional techniques and artistic expression on an international (European) level – to become internationally acclaimed composers and musicians. Their orientation was just as much, or rather more, outward looking than homewards. Grieg’s many reports on his own achievements bear witness to his international orientation, but nowhere is this more evident than in his accounts of his meetings with Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Liszt. He especially valued that a composer so unlike himself as Brahms would have a positive opinion about his music (letter to Frants Beyer, 24 January 1896; Benestad and Kortsen 1993:204; see also Benestad 1998b:468). Still nothing matches the excitement he describes at the moment when Franz Liszt played through some of the Norwegian composer’s music, including a new sonata; their playing together, and the fact that Liszt appreciated his music: “Så spillede jeg tilslut Sørgemarschen, som ogsaa var i hans Smag” [“Then, at the end, I played the Funeral March, which was also to his liking”] (Grieg in a letter to his parents Alexander and Gesine Grieg, 17 February 1870; Benestad 1998a:198).19 Musicologists and music historians have in general made few reservations in their accounts of Grieg’s music as genuinely “Nor wegian”.20 Representations of National Romantic ideas likewise commonly link music with 54 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=53http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=53images of nature and landscapes. In some of these depictions, music is almost thought to grow directly out of the soil; and this tendency has continued into the twenty-first century. Nineteenth-century Nor wegian attorney and music critic Aimar Grønvold (1846–1926)21 gives a biographical description of four Norwegian composers in his book Norske musikere [Norwegian musicians] (Grønvold 1883). Grønvold in particular maintains that there is a strong connection between Grieg’s music and the Hardanger fjord, where, in this period, Grieg had his country house: Midt i al denne Naturpragt, i Hjertet af Norges stolteste og kraftigste Naturskjønheder har han plantet sitt Erardske Flygel og sit Skrivebord. Her sidder han som en anden Orfeus og “spiller” blandt Vilddyr og Stene, midt i Fjelduren, blandt Bønderne selv, med Haringens rappe, sonore Tungemaal daglig i Øret, med Hardangerfjordens betagende Naturstemninger for Øie (Grønvold 1883:161). [In the midst of this natural splendor, in the heart of Nor way’s proudest and most powerful natural beauty he has planted his Erardian grand piano and his desk. Here he sits like an Orpheus and “plays” among wild animals and stone, in the midd le of the mountain scree, among the peasants themselves, with the quick and sonorous speech of the Haring in his ear daily, with the enthralling nature moods of the Hardanger fjord before his eyes.] Even though Grønvold’s characterizations seem somewhat “wild” in comparison to how critics and music historians write today, there are also strong resemblances in the way music is thought to grow “naturally”, almost as an extension of nature itself. This belief advocates – as Grønvold does here – that there is nothing less than an “organic” relation between music and nature. Thi der er et saa inderligt, uløseligt Forhold mellem den Grund, hvori han er voxet, og den Musik, han har skrevet, det ene er ligesom groet saa naturligt, saa organisk frem af det andet, at man næsten ikke kan høre en Tone af den uden midt i Koncertsalen eller Sa lonen at fornemme et frisk Pust fra de blaa Fjorde, et Glimt fra de tindrende Bræer, et Minde fra de bratte Fjeld og Livet i den hele Natur der vester, hvor han er født, og hvor han saa gjerne færdes (ibid.:161–162). 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 552011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=54http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=54[For there is such an intense, inseparable relation between the ground, from which he grew, and the music he has written. It is as if the one grew so naturally, so organically from the other that one almost cannot hear a tone from it in the concert hall or the drawing-room without sensing a fresh breath from the blue fjords, a glimpse of the glittering glaciers, a memory of the steep mountains and life in that whole nature in the west, where he is born, and where he likes to move.] The term nationalism has many nuances; however Grieg’s affinity for National Romantic ideology and his relation to Nor wegian folk music does not necessarily make him a nationalist in his pursuits. On several occasions he reser ves himself strongly against certain nationalistic descriptions and prose. In a letter to Grønvold 25 April 1881 Grieg writes that the descriptions characterizing him as a “national” composer seem exaggerated and in part misunderstood: in his artistic pursuit as “a modern composer” he rather sees the “universal” and “individual” as his goal: Jeg har i enkelte Biografier over Svendsen læst den Yttring, at hos mig var det Nationa le Formå let, hos Svendsen Midlet. Herimod vil jeg bare bede Dem om, i Sandhedens Navn protestere. Jeg vil ikke tale om den norsknorske Vildskab i Opvæksten. Thi som moderne Kunstner står det Universelle som mit Mål, eller rettere, det Individuelle. Bliver det nationalt, nu, så er det fordi Individet er nationalt, og det er da ingen Last (Grieg, letter to Aimar Grømvold, 25 April 1881; Benestad 1998a:248). [I have in some biographies on Svendsen read the statement, that for me the national was the end, whereas for Svendsen the means. To this I will simply ask you, in the name of Truth, to protest. I do not want to speak about the Nor wegian-Nor wegian wildness of my youth. Though as a modern artist the universal is my goal, or rather, the individual. If it becomes national, well, that is because the individual is national, and that is surely no vice.] Grieg here strongly emphasizes that his music is not necessarily “national” even if he as an individual belongs to the Nor wegian nation in terms of citizenship.22 Likewise, Grieg’s National Romantic influences in no way make him a single-minded “nationalist” in political terms. There are also numer- 56 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=55http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=55ous accounts of Grieg’s beliefs going against local and/or national patriotism. Even though he was a strong ambassador for the local musical life in Bergen, and conductor for the philharmonic orchestra Harmonien from 1880–1882, he often showed an ambivalent attitude both to Bergen and Norway. In 1897, his plan of hiring the Concertgebouw orchestra from Amsterdam for the first music festival of its size to be arranged in Bergen in 189823 raised a storm of protests. Grieg insisted against patriotism, claiming that artistic demands had to come before chauvinistic wishes.24 This resulted in turmoil; in the end the concert series with the Dutch orchestra became a very successful event with several thousand people attending.25 The dispute with local musicians in Kristiania nevertheless resulted in claims from some that Grieg ought to lose his scholarship from the state.26 In 1897 Grieg wrote an article on Mozart that was published in the November edition of the British The Century. After its publication, however, he protested against several claims made by the editor in the introduction to the article, in particular the characterization of Grieg as a representative for “Scandinavian music”; that Grieg’s music should in any way stand in opposition to Wagner’s; and last but not least, Grieg denied that he was a follower of any kind of “ism” whatsoever: “Jeg er, oppriktig talt, ikke tilbeder av noen slags ‘isme’” (quoted from article in the Norwegian daily Verdens Gang, 18 December 1897; Gaukstad 1957:146). Similarly, in 1889 Grieg strongly objects against assertions in an article in the Danish magazine Musikbladet based on statements made by the German writer Alexander Moszkowski, including a categorization of Grieg as “the true Messias of Norwegian composition” (“den norske kompositions egentlige Messias”). At this stage Grieg maintains that he prefers to view himself as a “cosmopolitan” and that this might have been apparent to the writer if he had possessed more general knowledge of his art as a whole (Gaukstad 1957:118).27 In all, we see that Grieg’s relation to the National Romantic ideology is far more ambivalent than usually represented in the literature. Moreover, it seems apparent that Grieg understands that there is also an ambiguity between life and work, and his case for cosmopolitanism bears witness to a reflexive understanding of his role both as a national and international citizen. 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 572011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=56http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=56Opus 72 and the folk I guess all songs is folk songs, I never heard no horse sing ’em. (Big Bill Broonzy)28 African-American blues musician Big Bill Broonzy’s (1898–1958) much quoted statement “I guess all songs is folk songs, I never heard no horse sing ’em” is principally a critique of the idea that folk music is without authorship; that it is orally transmitted and hence the communal product of a people (Herder’s idea). African-American blues has often been romanticized by writers obsessed with obscurity and with their own authenticity myths, an attitude Keil (1966:34) categorizes by way of jazz terminology as “moldy-fig mentality”. Broonzy was a seminal figure. His performances in Europe in the 1950s came to have a great influence on the burgeoning British R&B scene in the late 1950s and early 60s (cf. Lindberg et al. 2005:92–98). As already outlined, the National Romantic ideas of “folk music” of the nineteenth century in Norway, in the writings of Grønvold and others, suggest an almost “organic” relation between music and nature in Grieg’s music, just as “feeling” and “naturalness” became omnipresent metaphors of the reception of African-American music in the twentieth century. The term “folk music” has been much debated in ethnomusicological literature; as pointed out by Jan-Petter Blom, however, “folk music is a historical phenomenon that reflects the emergence of new ideational forms, identities and va lues, as a response to dilemmas and challenges given by modern society” (1993a:13– 14).29 As such, the idea of folk music as opposed to art is above all also the product of modernity and bourgeois society. All in all Grieg’s relation to Nor wegian folk music and his musical appropriation of that music is very central to the reception of his artistic work as a whole. Nowhere is that influence more evident than in his Opus 72, Slåtter, Norwegische Bauerntänze (Norwegian Peasant Dances), where Grieg reworked the transcriptions of traditional Hardanger fiddle tunes, transcribed by his Norwegian friend and composer Johan Halvorsen (1864–1935), into his own compositions for piano. It is often claimed that Grieg’s work influenced, and to a certain extent anticipated, impressionism30 (in particular his String Quartet), and as music historian John Horton argues “it is true to say that his [Grieg’s] harmonic development reached its climax in the later folk-tune 58 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=57http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=57arrangements of Op. 66, Op. 72 and Op. 74” (1979:201; see also McClary in this volume). Russian musicologist Boris Asafev, from his perspective, praises the fact that Grieg’s Opus 72 is influenced by an “otherness” which is the “most important and valuable in Grieg’s music” and a “precious gift from his contact with the Nor wegian peasants … Opus 72 is a joyful play with art in all its beauty” (Asafjev [Asafev] 1992:65&86). This said, Grieg’s relation to the music and the folk whose music he endorsed might today at best be seen as peculiar; just as the folk musician’s manner of playing was viewed as remarkably idiosyncratic and strange in comparison to the learned art music of the day, especially due to its rhythmic characteristics and mixtures of modal tonalities. In the original C.F. Peters edition of Opus 72, Slåtter, Grieg wrote a short preface that was presented in German, Nor wegian and French as well as in English. Here he writes: These Nor wegian “Slåtter” (“Slåt” is the usual Nor wegian name for the peasant’s dance), now for the first time brought before the public in their original form for the violin (or for the so-called Hardanger-fiddle) and re-arranged for the piano, were written down after an old gleeman in Telemarken. Those who can appreciate such music, will be delighted at the originality, the blending of fine, soft gracefulness with sturdy almost uncouth power and untamed wildness as regards melody and more particularly rhythm, contained in them … My object in arranging the music for the piano was to raise these works of the people to an artistic level, by giving them what I might call a style of musical concord, or bringing them under a system of harmony (Grieg 1903:Preface). Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe (1980:312) observe that there has been a debate concerning the accuracy of Halvorsen’s transcription, in particular in relation to the asymmetric springar rhythm, and hence also in Grieg’s piano composition. Especially in No. 2, Jon Væstafæs springdans, a beat motif seems to have been lost in relation to the positioning of the bar. Similar problems have been pointed out in relation to Nos. 13 and 16.31 We also know that Grieg made some corrections in a new edition of Opus 72 that was published in 1904–05, and that he was well aware that it is not possible to capture in notation some of the very characteristic details of the Hardanger fiddle playing. Of more general interest here, however, is that neither in his preface nor elsewhere in these editions is there a mention of the name of the fiddle player from 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 592011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=58http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=58whom Halvorsen and Grieg learned these tunes, the locally renowned musician Knut Dahle (1834–1921) (Figure 1.3) from Tinn in Telemark, described in Grieg’s preface (see above) simply as “an old gleeman in Telemarken”.32 This old “gleeman” (who in fact was only nine years older than Grieg himself, but about 30 years older than Halvorsen) was a very skilled traditional musician who had learned some of his tunes from the legendary Telemark fiddle player Torgeir Augundsson (1801–1872) from Sauherad, more commonly Figure 1.3 Knut Dahle (1834–1921). Photograph by Chris. Engell, Spring Grove, Minnesota, taken during Dahle’s 4-year stay in America, late 1800s. (Courtesy of the Pic ture Collec tion of the University of Bergen Library) 60 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=59http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=59known as Myllarguten (Figure 1.4), and from Håvard Gibøen (1809–1873), also from Telemark. It is well known that it was Dahle who wrote to Grieg in April 1888 to ask if he was willing to hear some of his music. Dahle later travelled to the American Midwest and stayed there for four years; in October 1901 he wrote to Grieg again, also mentioning that some of his tunes had been transcribed during his stay in America (see the copy of Dahle’s letter in Figure 1.5).33 Figure 1.4 “Myllarguten”, Torgeir Augundsson (1801– 1872). Photographer unknown. (Courtesy of the Pic ture Collec tion of the University of Bergen Library) 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 612011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=60http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=60Figure 1.5 Copy of Knut Dahle’s let ter to Grieg; Tinn (Telemark), 11 Oc tober 1901. (Courtesy of The Grieg Archives, Bergen Public Library) Among Dahle’s concerns was that he was worried that his music might get lost altogether if it was not written down, a worry that might seem peculiar today; however, it must be remembered that music recording was at this time definitely in its infancy.34 After having received Dahle’s letter, Grieg wrote back and commissioned Halvorsen to transcribe some of the material. Grieg also added that “only a violin player with a Norwegian emotional life” (“kun en Violinspiller med norsk Følelsesliv”)35 would be compe- tent to take on this task. Whereas Benestad’s edition of Grieg’s letters basically collects letters written by Grieg, a gathering of the letters by Grieg, Dahle and Halvorsen gives a much fuller picture of the events that took place leading to the realization of Grieg’s Opus 72.36 Dahle travelled to Kristiania (now Oslo) where he met Halvorsen; some controversies regard- 62 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=61http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=61ing the payment of his stay and travel expenses are revealed, however, in the correspondence between the three men. Grieg had sent him 100 Nor wegian kroner to cover his expenses; however, a travelling companion of Dahle had mentioned to Halvorsen that Dahle also expected some payment for the performance.37 This request was resolutely turned down by Grieg.38 In his letter to Grieg of 25 November 1901, Halvorsen marvels at the fact that Dahle’s slåtter seem “divinely authentic” (“Gudomlig ‘ægte’ er slåtterne”), and he also characterizes Dahle’s personality: “Dahle is noble, incredibly modest and intelligent” (“Knut Dahle er prægtig. Umådelig beskjeden og klog”) (Anker 1992:54). In his next letter to Grieg, written 26 November 1901, Halvorsen again brings up the question of the finances, based on the account that Dahle supposedly only had 3.75 kroner left from the money he had received. In this letter, Halvorsen describes Dahle as a dawdling character, as he still had not paid his hotel bill. Nonetheless, in the end Halvorsen thanked him kindly for the slåtter, since, as he writes to Grieg, “they are as authentic as can be.” Kjære Ven! Modtog Dit sidste brev idet jeg stod ifærd med at sende dette. Da du berører pængespørgsmaalet og jeg deraf ser at Du ikke vil spandere mere på ham, spurgte jeg for sikkerheds skyld Dahle om hans pengeafærer. Jeg fik den effektfulde oplysning at han havde 3,75 øre [!] igjen, ikke havde betalt på hotellet og ingen ting havde til hjemreisen. Efter at have nedskrevet den 17de slåt fulg te jeg med ham på hotellet, da han ikke kunde give mig grei oplysning på nogen af mine spørgsmål. Her viste det sig at han havde en regning på 48 kr. og 10 øre. Vær tinden sagde at det ikke var andet end øl og brændevin hele dagen. Han havde lånt bort noget til en anden telemarking o.s.v. En somlekop af rang . Jeg sagde ham tak for slaatterne, for de er så ægte som vel mulig. Gangar, springar og brudemarscher med ægte musikalsk rosema ling på (Halvorsen, letter to Grieg, 26 November 1901; The Grieg Archives, Bergen Public Library). [Dear friend! I received your last letter as I was about to send you this. As you bring up the question of money and see that you do not want to spend more on him, I asked Dahle about his money affairs, just in case. I got the impressive piece of information that he had 3.75 øre [!] left, had not paid for the hotel and had nothing 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 632011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=62http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=62for the journey home. After having written down the 17th slått I accompanied him back to the hotel, where he could not provide clarifying answers to any of my questions. It turned out that he had a bill of 48 kroner and 10 øre. The hostess said that there was nothing but beer and alcohol the whole day through. He had lent some to a fellow Telemarker, etc. A procrastinator of merit … I thanked him for the slåtter, for they are as authentic as can be. Gangar, springar and bridal marches with proper Norwegian rose painting on them.] In the history of ideas this correspondence raises several interesting questions regarding the role of folk music vs. that of art; the role of the folk musician vs. the role of the composer; the question of oral/aural versus written music and the significance of printed representation, but above all it raises questions about the ideas of musical value and uniqueness, including the concepts of performance and composition as well as that of copy right. In the correspondence that followed, between Grieg, Halvorsen, and the publisher C.F. Peters in Leipzig, it is evident that they were very concerned about the significance of the publication as well as the value of the work. In his let ter to Halvorsen on 18 October 1901, Grieg had already envisaged his idea of making his piano versions of the Slåtter a compositional success: Hvis ingen Rigmand vil beta le hans Rejse og Ophold, skal jeg nok påtage mig det herfra. Så den finansielle Side vil vi ikke offre en Tanke. Nej tænk, om du gjorde dette og om jeg bagefter satte Slåtterne for Klaver og så gjorde vi dem verdensberømt gjennem Peters midt for Næsen af det af bare Nationalitet unationale Storting! (Anker 1992:49). [If no wealthy man will pay for his travel and accommodation, I will take that upon me. So the financial side of the mat ter we will not give another thought. Imagine, if you did this and if I afterwards did the slåtter for piano, and then we made them world-famous through Peters and right under the noses of the only-of-nationality un-national Parliament!] We see that in his letter to Halvorsen, from Copenhagen 6 March 1903, Grieg describes his negotiations with Peters regarding the title for the work and the publishing contract for Halvorsen to sign. Halvorsen thanks him warmly in response, indicating that he is more than pleased with his fee for the tran- 64 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=63http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=63scription work. He has even ordered an extraordinarily expensive silk waistcoat to impress people in Bergen for his next performance there. Min vameste og allerinderligste tak, ikke alene for det mangenullede honorar (der neppe står i noget rimelig forhold til mit arbeide), men især for at Du gav mig denne oppgave og sørgede for at “slåtterne” kom i så gode hænder som Peters forlag … En ualmindelig fin silkevest har jeg idag bestilt. Den skal jeg imponere Harmoniens gamle Publikum med når vi kommer til Bergen (undated letter, Anker 1992:58). [My warmest and most heartfelt thanks, not only for the many-digit fee (which hardly stands in any reasonable relation to my work), but in particular for your giving me this task and ensuring that the slåtter came into such good hands as those of Peters’s publisher … I have ordered an exceptionally nice silk waistcoat today. With it I will impress the Harmonien’s [Bergen Philharmonic] old-established audience when we come to Bergen.] In terms of ideas of “Nor wegian identity” in music, there is litt le doubt that Opus 72 is commonly considered to be of central importance because this work found its national character in a way that also challenged European art music’s tonality. The Norwegian composer, music critic and Grieg biographer, David Monrad Johansen, for instance, concludes that Opus 72 represents Grieg at his most radical stage: “Av all norsk folkemusikk Grieg har tatt opp til kunstnerisk behandling, er dette den mest eksklusive, den som både i tonal og rytmisk henseende står mest steilt like overfor vanlig europeisk tonefølelse” (Monrad Johansen 1934:391) [“Of all Nor wegian folk music which Grieg has treated artistically, this is the most exclusive, which both in tonal and rhythmic terms stands in sharp contrast to the ordinary European sense of tonality”]. Somewhat paradoxical of course, is the fact that the folk music which in such narration is generally construed as primitive, premodern, and untainted, at the same time may ser ve as such a radical impulse for the development of art.39 More conspicuous are perhaps the sociological implications of these paradoxes, in terms of artistic value, hierarchy and the question of aesthetics and taste in relation to class, social background, etc. Some of the issues I have pointed out here are complex indeed. However, it must be remembered that 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 652011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=64http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=64in the nineteenth century the discourse around these issues was altogether different from today. Already at the time of its publication there were debates on Grieg’s contribution versus the impulses he received from the original folk material. Grieg biographer Henry T. Finck (1854–1926) strongly defends Grieg on this point. In his 1906 biography he writes, “it is of the utmost importance, if we would be just to Grieg, to guard against the egregious and all too prevalent error of supposing that the essence and substance of his art are borrowed from the Norse folk-music” (Finck 1906:80). Finck goes on to say that “there is much more of Grieg in them than of Nor way,” in short, claiming that art prevails over folk influences. While his compositions are unmistakably Nor wegian, it is important to remember that there is much more of Grieg in them than of Norway. The melodies, though redolent of their native soil, are emphatically his own – you do not find such enchanting melodies even among Nor wegian folksongs – and still more unmistakably his own are his bold and fascinating harmonies; for folk-music in its primitive state has no harmonies at all, whereas Grieg’s music, as I have already remarked, represents the very latest phase in the evolution of harmony (Finck 1906:80–81, emphasis in original). Even though Finck undeniably exaggerates Grieg’s influence as a composer in relation to European music history, his statements clearly exemplify how music history has commonly been understood in terms of evolution, particularly with regard to harmony, an out look that continues to construct music history in terms of teleological progress. Such narratives were, however, often paired with an essentialist, racial thinking to an extent that is uncommon today. Monrad Johansen, for instance, in 1934 enthuses about the harmonic developments from romanticism to impressionism, a development where Grieg is also fit into the picture.40 Ja, det er helt eventyrlig å tenke på hvilke harmoniske verdier som er innvunnet gjennem romantik ken og impresjonismen. Samtidig har slaverne og skandinavene tilført kunstmusik ken nye melodiske og rytmiske elementer (Monrad Johansen 1934:1). 66 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=65http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=65[Yes, it is marvelous to think of the harmonic va lues that have been gained through Romanticism and Impressionism. At the same time the Slavic peoples and the Scandinavians have brought to the musical art new melodic and rhythmic elements.] Taken together, we see that even if the music of the folk is construed as primitive – or perhaps, precisely because it is imagined in this way – it begets its place in the history of art when refined by the composer genius. Identity vs. nation-building41 Grieg’s works have long been established as a true, genuine expression of Nor wegian identity. (Ola Kai Ledang 1993:39) Norwegian ethnomusicologist Ola Kai Ledang discusses Grieg’s importance in terms of the building of “national identity” in Norway and, with reference to the work of Hopkins (1986), he observes that Grieg’s effort to create a national art music style occurred concurrently with the promotion of the Hardanger fiddle as Norway’s “national instrument”: “Grieg’s work and the promotion of folk music and the harding fele were both outcomes of the same struggle to establish an independent culture for a young, independent nation,” writes Ledang (1993:39). Ledang’s main argument is that Grieg’s music is in fact more significant than the Hardanger fiddle in this context, since quite a few Nor wegians do not in fact “have any particular feelings for the hardingfele or the harding fele music” (loc. cit., emphasis in original). In Ledang’s view, there are several reasons for this, but above all the Hardanger fiddle has its stronghold in the southern and western regions of Nor way. In contrast, most Nor wegians do have a relationship with Grieg’s music, Ledang argues, leading him to his conclusion that “Grieg’s works have long been established as a true, genuine expression of Norwegian identity” (ibid:39). As we know, Hardanger fiddle music did not vanish with Dahle. Rather the opposite: it has been the object for strong revitalization processes, characterized by a general shift of focus from the music’s “national character” (“det 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 672011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=66http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=66nationale spelet”) at the beginning of the twentieth century to increased focus on regionality and local characteristics in the playing styles. It should also be remembered that Norwegian folk music has not always been that popular or appreciated. As Rolf Myk lebust writes in his account and history of the mediation of folk music programmes on Norwegian national radio (NRK), it was Eivind Groven (1901–1977) that in 1931 initiated a week ly programme with “national music” to be transmitted every Saturday. According to Groven, the composer Per Reidarson (1879–1954), who was then the principal representative for music on NRK’s programme board, had stated that “Hardanger fiddle music is simply to bow back and forwards on the strings. So, it does not really matter where one puts the fingers” (“Hardingfelemusikken er bare å stryke frem og tilba ke på strengene. Det blir jo nesten det samme hvor en setter fingrene”) (Myk lebust 1982:13). And, in the newspapers Tidens Tegn and Aftenposten there were frequent letters from readers, especially from the urban areas, claiming that the Hardanger fiddle music was simply horrific (“redselsfull”) (loc. cit.). There are also several recordings of Grieg’s Opus 72 attempting to do justice to the folk tradition aspect of this work, for instance the aforementioned recording by Knut Buen (Hardanger fiddle) and Einar Steen-Nøk leberg (piano) from 1988, where Buen definitely plays the tunes somewhat freely – meaning “in tradition” – compared to Grieg and Halvorsen’s notation. Knut Dahle also recorded his versions of the tunes on wax cylinders in 1910 and 1912,42 and Dahle’s grandson Johannes Dahle (1890–1980) recorded his versions in 1953.43 Discussions of authenticity aside, Grieg’s Op. 72 piano versions can in no way be taken to be a faithful representation of Hardanger fiddle music (as Grieg also knew), but must be understood on their own terms and in historical context, as a musical work quite distinguishable from the Hardanger fiddle performance tradition. A more significant problem with the musicological debate as such is that “identity” tends to be essentialized as an immanence of the musical work. “National identity” in such narratives is thought of as embedded in the music, in the scores or the performance, and not as the outcome of people’s actions and choices (including as listeners); whereas we have already seen that even Grieg seemed quite ambivalent to such representations. Part of the problem with such nationalizing narratives is the tendency not to recognize that the 68 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=67http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=67image of the nation – and, so to speak, its historicity – does not grow from its soil, but is the outcome of historical, social and geopolitical constructions. Bhabha (1990a) discusses the inherent ambivalence of our understanding of the nation, and he writes, with reference to Arendt (1958): “it is an exact (not a rhetorical) statement about nationalism to say that it is by nature ambivalent” (1990a:2). As such, the nation has to be imagined, performed or, in Bhabha’s terms, narrated. Notions of cultural coherence and essence of “nations” as well as the characterizations of “race” seem a great deal more problematic today than they might have done at the end of the nineteenth century. Cultural coherence narratives have been greatly challenged by anthropological research (see, for instance, Clifford 1988), and current anthropological approaches to nationalism, nationalizing processes and cultural policy pay attention to how dissimilar world views might support as well as challenge strategies of “nation-building”, in which music (and art in general) definitely plays its part. As Bhabha emphasizes, the people are the “objects” of such a pedagogy; however, they are also the “subjects” of a process of signification (which he terms “the performative”), and herein lies the structure of ambivalence that constitutes modern social authority (its “dissemi-nation”): The people are not simply historical events or parts of a patriotic body politic. They are also a complex rhetorical strategy of social reference where the claim to be representative provokes a crisis within the process of signification and discursive address (Bhabha 1990b:297). In this crisis of representation the nation becomes “a space that is internally marked by cultural difference and the heterogeneous histories of contending peoples, antagonistic authorities, and tense cultural locations” (ibid.:299). Moreover, as underscored by Paul Gilroy, specific problems arise from the lure of ethnic absolutism and “the fatal junction of the concept of nationality with the concept of culture” (Gilroy 1993:2). Stuart Hall, likewise, in his discussions on identity and its relationship to a politics of location maintains that (cf. Foucault) it is in the relationship “between subjects and discursive practices that the question of identity recurs” (Hall 1996:2). As Hall sums it up, “identity does not signal that stable core of the self,” rather on the contrary, as previously stated by Freud, “identification is, in fact, ambivalent from the 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 692011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=68http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=68very start” (ibid: 3). Zygmunt Bauman sees identity and belonging as a task to be performed, and no longer secured by a “lifelong guarantee” (Bauman 2004:11): “The ‘naturalness’ of the assumption that ‘belonging-through-birth’ meant, automatically and unequivocally, belonging to a nation was a laboriously construed convention: the appearance of ‘naturalness’ could be anything but ‘natural’” (ibid.:23). Many Nor wegians, I think, have a somewhat ambivalent relationship both with Norwegian folk music – whether played on the Hardanger fiddle or not – as well as with Grieg’s music. To many it represents a kind of a love-hate relationship. It is probably hard to argue that there is such a thing as a coherent Norwegian musical taste and, in spite of nation-building processes and prevailing cultural heritage discourses, rock music, pop, metal, and especially American-influenced country music seem to have a stronghold in the Norwegian population. At least, it seems evident that Norwegians who grew up in the 1960s and 70s generally have a more intimate relationship with The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin or Bob Dylan’s music than with any sort of “indigenous” musical form, whereas the musical tastes of the 1980s and 90s seem more diverse. In this sense, many find it welcoming that Diana Ross might think of herself as “Nor wegian”, just as we are well aware that in our period of “cultural complexity” (Hannerz 1992) African-American musical influences are in no way foreign to musical practices and listening experiences among Nor wegians. Our musical tastes already are quite globalized; moreover, it has also become increasingly unclear here, as in most places, who the folk (in the sense of the culturally homogenous indigenous ones) are and how they are supposed to define themselves. An ubiquitous symbol celebrating the Norwegian nation is the wearing of bunad (traditional Nor wegian costume) on 17 May; however, this custom also marks regional differences and is not observed by everybody; an example in this case is the picture of a cowboy 17 May celebration, in Vestby, by photographer Chepstow-Lusty (Figure 1.6). Norway is in quite a mixed state, in terms of social class, ethnicity, global influence and cultural conceptualization. At the same time, the artistic qualities of Nor wegian folk traditions seem more highly profiled than ever, where Norwegian folk musicians no longer perform only locally but globally, and on stage rather than in homes. 70 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=69http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=69Figure 1.6 A cowboy 17th May celebration in Vestby, Akerhus, Nor way, 1991. (Photograph by Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty; first published in Chepstow-Lusty and Bentzrud 1992:35. Courtesy of Lill-Ann Chepstow-Lusty) Pollock et al. advocate the concept of “cosmopolitanism” due to “recognizing the harm that nationalism does in promoting territorially based identities” (2002:2), and as they point out: “a cosmopolitanism grounded in the tenebrous moment of transition is distinct from other more triumphalist notions of cosmopolitan existence” (2002:5). There are also reasons to be cautious about nationalistic movements in the areas of politics and culture. In the period after 9/11 2001, when international 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 712011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=70http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=70political discourse returned to the most simplistic form of binary logocentrisms – “either you are with us or you are against us” – essentialist thinking in terms of nationalism, race and religion, once again seemed to creep out of its closet wearing its most frightening outfit. Accordingly, having examined the various historical configurations and definitions of nationalism, Alter warns us that “there is no reason to assume that its astonishing grip on the masses all over the world will weaken in the decades ahead” (Alter 1994:118). Hobsbawm is equally sceptical of the workings of nationalist agendas, as he writes, “nationalism by definition excludes from its purview all who do not belong to its own ‘nation’, i.e. the vast majority of the human race” (1990:168). Norwegian sociologist Dag Østerberg has claimed that it was not German music that misguided Grieg (thinking of his time in Leipzig), but German philosophy.44 Grieg’s identification with the National Romantic movement tied him to a particular outlook, Romantic idealism, which came to determine both his self-understanding and his work. This orientation becomes fatal, writes Østerberg (1997:138–145), in the sense that it brings with it a retrospective viewpoint. Grieg in fact could have done better as a composer if he had stayed on the German path, in terms of compositional principles. In comparison to Debussy, Grieg seems old-fashioned. “He resides in a European culture that evaporated with World War I,” Østerberg concludes.45 Norwegian musicologist Kjell Skyllstad dismisses this reading as based on an understanding “that is incommensurable with concrete, historical reality” (Skyllstad 1983:71). Grieg was on the whole an avant garde composer, in terms of compositional materiality, communicational aspects and social development, Skyllstad writes (ibid.:73). Skyllstad himself contributed to the shocking discursive effects of Grieg’s music at the instant when Grieg’s “never to be performed” C-minor symphony all of a sudden was broadcast in the USSR by Radio Moscow’s philharmonic orchestra, conducted by Vitalij Katajev, in what was still the Cold War period (December 1980). Skyllstad had obtained a copy of the score for “research purposes” that he had presented to the Russians. The incident is interesting in terms of the symbolic value of Grieg’s music (and the shock waves this created) in Nor wegian cultural policy. It was surely a knock to the nation-building image when the Soviet orchestra performed Grieg’s “secret” symphony.46 In the aftermath of the shock, policy makers were quick to reconsider all earlier restrictions, and already in February 1981 it was decided that Grieg’s only symphony was to be performed by the phil harmonic 72 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=71http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=71orchestra Harmonien in Bergen within the very same season. Karsten Andersen conducted it at the Bergen International Festival three months later and the performance was broadcast to a number of European countries.47 What might Grieg have said about the canonization of his work and the nation-building issue 100 years after his death? Possibly, he may have related quite well to the current order of things. At least, according to his own remarks, it was his links with National Romantic ideas that made him stay and not leave this country. As he writes in a letter to Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, when he had taken on his task as the conductor for Harmonien in Bergen: Det er min Begeistring for den nationa le Ide, der bringer mig til at forsone mig med mit Fædreland som Opholdssted for en Kunstner, men i mørke Øieblikke staar desuagtet min Fremtid skybetynget, og det paa Grund af den tota le Isolation og Mangel af Paavirkning heroppe (Grieg, letter to Gottfred Matthison-Hansen, 12 December 1866; Hauch 1922:12). [It is my excitement for the national idea that leads me to reconcile with my fatherland as the place of residence for an ar tist. But in dark moments my future is nevertheless clouded, because of the total isolation and lack of influences up here.] Or more likely, his cosmopolitan penchant could have made him leave the place, in favour of a more metropolitan existence: Skal De ikke snart ud at reise? Jeg spekulerer så småt på at gjøre en eller anden Dumhed, forat komme til Paris næste Vinter. Se til at gjøre det samme! I Norge må man ikke være forlænge ad Gangen. Nu, når Svendsen drager, bliver jo også Hovedstaden en musikalsk Umulighed (Grieg, letter to Aimar Grønvold, 18 March 1883; Benestad 1998a:251). [Are you not travelling soon? I wonder by and by if I should do some stupidity or other in order to get to Paris next winter. See to it that you do the same! In Nor way one must not stay too long at a time. Now, as Svendsen leaves, the capital becomes a musical impossibility, too.] 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 732011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=72http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=72Just as Grieg struggled with the ambivalence of his relation with every thing local and Nordic, music historians have struggled with their coherence narratives of Grieg’s rather contradictory politics, both in relation to their discussions of musical form and national identity. As underscored by Bhabha (1990a&b, 1994), there is always ambivalence and inherent structural heterogeneity in the discursive processes of the nation-building project, as is also apparent in the ongoing discourses, cultural and political movements of Grieg’s time. The symbolic significance of his work, nevertheless, has become a larger and larger part of the national identity discourse. One might ask, is there a postcolonial Grieg very different from the Grieg of his time? If so, Grieg’s case may very well be taken as an illustration also of the heterogeneous relations inherent in language, music and cultural conceptions; Grieg undoubtedly saw his role both as a local and global composer, as well as citizen – supposedly he always also remembered that his great grandfather had immigrated to Nor way from Scot land – and his frequent travels had unquestionably given him a cosmopolitan world view. Grieg’s view of the folk undoubtedly seems outdated; however, he in no way saw foreign ideas as a threat to his own. In every thing he has written and done, Grieg seems more than willing to follow us along, on a path “from identity to difference”.48 Notes 1 2 Dagbladet somewhat exaggerated her accent by misspelling her utterance as “Jai er norsk,” on the front page. Different sources give different information on how and when Nor way was united as one kingdom; still most attribute this to the achievements of Harald Luva (later named Harald Hårfagre [Fairhair]) and the events following the Battle of Hafrsfjord sometime after 872 AD. Grieg’s own diary (Grieg 1993) from 1905 describes some of the details of these events; there were many dinners with prominent guests, including himself, Ibsen and Bjørnson, politicians and royals (although Grieg himself was principally a republican). Grieg also met with the British King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at Buckingham Pa lace (on 28 May 1906), where he was in no way impressed with the King’s musical taste (ibid.:140–142). There are numerous examples of jazz versions of Grieg’s music or recordings where his tunes/motifs are employed in jazz improvisations. The most renowned jazz version of Grieg’s music is undoubtedly Elling ton’s arrangement and recording of The Peer Gynt Suites dating from June and October 1960, discussed more 3 4 74 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=73http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=73in detail elsewhere in this volume. Other Scandinavian examples include Arne Domnérus Kvartett, Blåtoner fra Troldhaugen; The Nor wegian Big Band (conducted by Kjell Karlsen), Day In, Night Out; and Dag Arnesen, Norwegian Song. Rock examples are Aunt Mary (Nor wegian prog rock band), “In the Hall of The Mountain King” (1972 single) and Mads Eriksen: Intermission Troldhaugen. For more details on sound recordings mentioned here and elsewhere in this article, see the Discography below. 5 The term Scandinavia includes Nor way, Sweden (the Scandinavian Peninsula) and Denmark, but excludes Finland and Iceland, whereas all of these countries are usually included in the term Nordic. The authors thus avoid any competition with Sibelius by their choice of “Scandinavian” here. 6 See Vollsnes (1993) for an overview and technical discussion of these recordings; see also Matt hew-Walker (1993). Grieg made 10 Gramophone recordings (of which one is missing) under the direction of the future EMI-chairman Alfred Clarke in Paris on 2 and 3 May 1903. 7 The three-CD set “Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music in Historic Interpretations”. These original recordings are also included in a new release (“Edvard Grieg: Chasing the Butterfly”), along with new interpretations by pianist Sigurd Slåttebrekk, who attempts to copy the original playing style of Grieg. 8 Grieg’s “Tale til arbeiderne” [“Speech for the working classes”], at Folkets Hus in Enghavenvej, Copenhagen, reprinted in the Nor wegian newspaper Verdens Gang, 14 December 1899 (Gaukstad 1957:180). This house was built in 1895. A few years later, in 1910, The Second International arranged the first international women’s conference, declaring 8 March as International Women’s Day, at a related Folkets Hus in Jagtvej in Copenhagen. In a letter to Dr. Max Abra ham at C.F. Peters Musikverlag, 30 September 1898, Grieg stated that the oppressed masses might take the power in their own hands: “There will come another time. By blood or intelligence? I hope by the latter!” (Benestad 2008:42). 9 Some parts of this section are taken from my earlier article on music and nationa lism (Weisethaunet 2007). 10 According to Bohlman (2004:42), it was here that the term “folk song” (Volkslieder) appeared for the first time. 11 From Grieg’s letter to Aimar Grønvold, Bergen, 25 April 1881 (Benestad 1998a:246). 12 This is based on information that Grieg gave to the biographer J. de Jong printed in the Dutch magazine De Tijdspiegel in 1881 (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1980:36). Grieg further discusses the significance of his meeting with Bull in his autobiographical article “Min første succes” (“My first success”) published in 1905 (reprinted in Gaukstad 1957:7–30). Here he characterizes Bull as a “fairy tale God”; “Det er ham, æventyrguden, jeg har drømt om, men aldrig seet 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 752011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=74http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7413 14 15 16 17 før” (ibid:18). However, according to Benestad, Grieg here exaggerates the significance of Bull’s influence on his decision to become a musician and composer (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1980:37; see also the English edition, Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1988). See Bjørndal (1940) for an account of Bull’s relation to Nor wegian folk music. Still, it is commonly argued that this work resides in the German symphonic tradition. There are also earlier examples of Scandinavian compositional works influenced by folk music. In Sweden Erik Gustaf Geijer (1783–1847), Adolf Fredrik Lindblad (1801–1878), Jacob Axel Josephson (1818–1880), Franz Berwald (1796–1868) and August Söderman (1832–1876) all utilized influences from folk music. In Nor way Ludvig Mathias Lindeman (1812–1887) collected folk tunes as well as wrote his own music, and Halfdan Kjerulf (1815–1868) and Thomas Dyke Acland Tellefsen (1823–1874) were early practitioners who included folk material in their own compositions. In Denmark the composers Daniel Frederik Kuhlau (1786–1832), Christoph Ernst Friedrich Weyse (1774–1842) and Johannes Frederik Frølich (1806–1860) anticipated Gade. Gade’s work Elverskud (“The Elf King’s Daughter”) for 3 voices, chorus & orchestra, Op. 30 (1853) in particular highlights his National Romantic ideas. Nordraak is also the composer of the song that later became the Nor wegian national anthem, “Ja, vi elsker”, composed in 1864 to lyrics by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson. Benestad’s two volumes (1998a) and (1998b) collect a large number of the letters written by Grieg, but contain very few of the letters that Grieg received. Grieg expressed reservations against citations from his private material; however, there is litt le doubt that the wealth of correspondence that he left behind gives very valuable information on Grieg and the ideas and discourse of his time. (Grieg’s characterization of Nordraak is not particularly flattering, yet not uncommon to the discourse of his time. For example, the Nor wegian composer Halfdan Kjerulf (1815–1868) states about the Nor wegian writer Henrik Wergeland’s (1808–1845) illness: “Hvad Wergeland angaaer, da skal Lægerne have erklæret ham saa svækket at han ikke kan leve mange Aar. Og lad ham forsvinde! Han har misbrugt sine store Anlæg og han har forskjertset Nav net af en hæderlig Mand” (quoted in Monrad Johansen 1934:110). [“As far as Wergeland is concerned, the doctors are said to have declared him so weakened that he will not live many years. And let him disappear! He has abused his great talent and he has wasted the name of an honest man.”] I have here, and in what follows, relied on my own translations to keep them as accurate as possible (thanks to Kjetil Enstad for help with these translations), even though Grieg’s letters have also been translated in Benestad (2000). 76 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=75http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7518 A more detailed overview of Grieg’s uses of Nor wegian folk music, including ana lyses of melodic and rhythmic material, is given by Nagelhus (2004). Significant source material as regards Grieg’s relation to, and use of, folk music sources is given by Nor wegian folk lorist and folk music collector Arne Bjørndal (1882–1965) (cf. Bjørndal 1951). Grieg was also present at the kappleik (contest for traditional musicians) held in Bergen in May 1896 (Blom 2000:319). 19 On Liszt’s playing Grieg writes: “Og hvad gjør Liszt: Han spiller hele Greien med Rub og Stub, Violin, Klaver, ja mere til, for han spillede fuldere, bredere, Violinstemmen kom til sin Ret midt inde i Klaverstemmen, han var bogstavelig over hele Klaveret paa engang, uden at en Node blev bor te, og saa hvorledes? Med Storhed, Skjønhed, Genialitet til det Højeste i Opfattelsen” (loc.cit.). [“And what does Liszt do: he plays the whole thing lock, stock and barrel, violin, pia no, yes, and even more than that. He played fuller, more broadly, the violin part came into its own right in the midd le of the piano part. He was literally all over the keyboard at the same time, without missing a note, and how? With greatness, beauty, geniality and to the highest in perception.”] 20 Grieg biographer John Horton has argued that “the conventional portrait of Grieg as man and musician, derived from an uncritical reproduction of the statements and opinions of his earlier biographers, represents him as a frail, dreamy recluse set against a background of tourist-brochure scenery” (Hor ton 1979:196). 21 Grønvold worked as a music critic for Aftenbladet in the years 1867–1881, and for Aftenposten 1881–1886. 22 On similar grounds, he occasionally objects to being characterized as a Danish composer: “Når Illustreret Tidende i sin Hartmann-enquete idag indregistrerer mig som dansk kunstner, må jeg på det mest energiske protestere. Jeg er normand og kan ikke være med på at se min nationalitet for vansket. Min kjærlighed til Danmark er stor. Men så stor er den dog ikke” (statement in the Danish daily Politiken, Copenhagen 14 May, 1905; Gaukstad, 1957:214). [“When Illustreret Tidende in its Harmann-enquete today registered me as a Danish ar tist I must protest most energetically. I am Nor wegian and cannot accept that my nationality becomes complicated. My love for Denmark is great. But that great it is, after all, not.”] 23 This event that took place on Grieg’s initiative might be considered an early forerunner of the Bergen International Festival (Festspillene i Bergen), first arranged in 1953. 24 For artistic reasons Nor wegian music should be performed by the best possible musicians, Grieg argued: “Vi er jo dog først og fremst kunstnere, norske kunstnere, som vil ha norske verker fremført på den bedst mu lige måde. Selv følgelig: er der ingen grund foruden den kunstneriske til at vælge hollænderne, så bør de norske foretrækkes. Men da den pekuniære grund er en hovedgrund, så sy nes 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 772011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=76http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7625 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 jeg at vi ligeoverfor chauvinisterne står fuldstændig grejt og klart” (Grieg, in a letter to Iver Holter, 25 December 1897; Gaukstad 1957:162). [“We are after all first and foremost artists, Nor wegian artists, who want to have Nor wegian works performed in the best possible way. Obviously: If there is no reason except the artistic for choosing the Dutch [ensemble], the Norwegians should be preferred. But when the pecuniary reason is the main reason, I think that we, in relation to the chauvinists, stand clear and fair.”] Cf. Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe (1980:296–300). These controversies are discussed in some detail by Herresthal (1997:137–149). “Havde forf. kjendt til min kunst som helhed, var det neppe undgået ham, at jeg i mine senere værker mere og mere har søgt hen imod et bredere, almenere syn på min egen individua litet, et syn, der har fået sin påvirk ning fra tidens store rørelser – altså fra det kosmopolitiske” (Grieg, letter printed in Musikbladet, 8 October 1889; Gaukstad 1957:118). [“Had the author known my art as a whole, it would not have escaped him that I in my later works more and more have sought a broader, more general view of my own individuality, a view, which has had its influence from the big movements of our time – that is the cosmopolitan.”] “Folk Singing – Sybil with Guitar,” Time, 23 November, 1962; quoted in Keil (1966:36–37). (Quote, my translation from Nor wegian.) Blom’s definition is somewhat broader than other definitions of folk and/or traditional music in that it avoids essentialism and includes a perspective on historical processes. Grieg’s music is said to have influenced Debussy, Ravel and Delius, however, it also influenced the music of Bartók. It is also known that Grieg’s Op. 72 inspired the song and dance collecting activities of Béla Bartók. Bartók had been introduced to Grieg’s work in Paris around 1910 through his friend the composer Frederick Delius, and two years later Bartók travelled for four weeks in Norway, even taking a Hardanger fiddle back home (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1980:311). Sevåg (1992) discusses some of these problems in his review of Knut Buen and Einar Steen-Nøk leberg’s 1988 CD recording of Op. 72, where their different versions are played successively on Hardanger fiddle and piano. A more detailed account of the characteristics of the asymmetric springar is given by Blom (1993b). The theme is also discussed by Nyhus in his introduction to the revised edition of Op. 72 (cf. Grieg 2001). Later editions of the work usually feature an afterword where parts of the history of Dahle’s meeting with Halvorsen is accounted for. In 2001 we find a version that is reworked by Geir Henning Braathen and Sven Nyhus “in accordance with the Dahle-tradition for Hardanger fiddle” (Grieg 2001). 78 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=77http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7733 In his letter to Grieg of 11 October 1901, Dahle mentions that it was some of the tunes by Myllarguten that had been transcribed by a professor (Hanssen) in America. 34 In addition, the knowledge of music notation was socially restricted due to limited access to music education. No standard notational practice for transcribing Hardanger fiddle music had yet been developed. On the other hand, it seems strange that Grieg did not seem to be aware of the fact that there already existed quite good transcriptions of some of Myllarguten’s material, made by Bergen-organist Carl Schart and published in 1865. For further discussion, cf. Blom (2000). 35 From Grieg’s letter to Johan Halvorsen, 18 October 1901 (Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1989a:369). 36 This correspondence has been collected in an article by the Nor wegian researcher Øy vind Anker (the article was published in Norsk musikkgranskning. Årbok 1943–1946, and is reprinted in a collection of articles in the journal of Landslaget Musikk i Skolen, cf. Anker 1992). The original letters are kept by the Edvard Grieg Archives in the Bergen Public Library; copies are also accessible online via the library’s website at http://www.bergen.folkebibl.no/grieg-samlingen/engelsk/ grieg_intro_eng.html 37 Johan Halvorsen’s letter to Grieg, 17 November 1901 (Anker 1992:52–53). 38 In his response to Halvorsen, dated Troldhaugen, 23 November 1901, Grieg writes: “Hvad Mynten andgår, er det en glimrende Bondeidé af Manden, at han efterat have bedet og tigget om at få Lov og så fåt Reisepenge, endnu vil have mere. Men det får han desværre neppe. Jeg kan ikke afse mere nu” (Anker 1992:53). [“As far as the money is concerned, it is a wonderful peasant idea of the man that he, after having asked and begged for permission and then received travel money, still wants more. But he will unfortunately probably not have any. I cannot spare any more now.”] 39 However, it was not uncommon that also the nineteenth century folk lorist would view himself as an artist in the sense that he was free to “put his personal stamp” on the folk music material that he transcribed (Havåg 1997:41). 40 Grieg’s ideas too, must be viewed in relation to the discourse of his time, and there is also evidence that racial categories played some role in his thinking, for example, he writes: “Vi er nordgermaner og har som sådanne meget af germanernes hang til tungsind og grubleri. Men vi har ikke denne races trang til at udtale seg bredt og vidtløftig.” From Grieg’s essay “Fransk og tysk musikk”, printed in French translation in Le Figaro, Paris, October 4, 1900, and in Norwegian in Verdens Gang and Morgenbladet, October 8, 1900 (Gaukstad 1957:184) [“We are North-Germanic people and have as such a lot of the Germanic tendency towards melancholy and brooding. But we have not this race’s urge to speak broadly and elaborately.”] 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 792011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=78http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=7841 Parts of this section are also adapted from Weisethaunet (2007). 42 At least one of his 1910 recordings is featured on the CD reissue Gjenklang. Vår Musikalske Arv: Folkemusikk Gjennom 100 År 1910–2005. 43 These are also reissued on CD as Griegslåttene: Hardingfeleinnspillinger av Johannes og Knut Dahle. This release features fragments of Knut Dahle’s 1910 and 1912 recordings. 44 “Det er ikke tysk musikk, men tysk fi losofi som hemmer ham hele livet” (Østerberg 1997:138). Østerberg’s article was originally published in the journal Basar, 4, 1981. 45 Such claims, however, are in no way new or original in the sense that larger forms were already in the nineteenth century held in higher esteem than smaller compositions. As Gerhard Schjelderup wrote in his festskrift for Grieg’s 60th birthday, discussing Grieg’s works of the 1870s: “Hans værker fra den tid beviser, at han valg te det rette. Vi må blot beklage, at Grieg ikke har skænket os flere kvartetter og tildels splittet sin kraft på en mængde små arbeider. Efter kvartetten har han blot en eneste gang samlet sig til et storværk, violinsonaten i c moll, der også tilfulde beviser hans begavelses hemmelige vækst mod stadig bredere former og dybere inhold” (Schjelderup 1903:93). [“His works from the time prove that he had chosen correctly. We can only regret that Grieg had not bestowed on us more quartets and partly divided his powers between a lot of smaller works. After the quartet he has only once focused on a large work, the violin sonata in C minor, which in full proves his ta lent’s secret growth towards constantly broader forms and deeper content.”] 46 See, for example, Dragenes (1981). 47 Johnson (1983) observes some of the processes of bureaucratic decision-making and the role of the media in this event. 48 Title of a book by Gressgård (2005) that sums up a much-needed theoretical reorientation in relation to concepts of identity, cultural coherence and multiculturalism; cf. also Burke (2009). References Alter, Peter. 1994. Nationalism. London: Edward Arnold. Anker, Øy vind. 1992. “Knut Dahle-Edv. Grieg-Johan Halvorsen. En brev veksling ved Øy vind Anker.” In Grieg og folkemusikken: Landslaget Musikk i Skolens musikkpedagogiske serie nr. 5, 44–58. Oslo: Landslaget Musikk i Skolen. Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition. 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Benestad, Finn. 2008. “Edvard Grieg: Liberal-minded Democrat with Political Acumen.” In A Due: Musical Essays in Honour of John D. Bergsagel & Heinrich W. Schwab, edited by Ole Kongsted et al., 39–54. Copenhagen: The Royal Library. Benestad, Finn and Bjarne Kortsen, eds. 1993. Edvard Grieg. Brev til Frants Beyer 1872–1907. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Benestad, Finn and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe. 1980. Edvard Grieg: Mennesket og Kunstneren. Oslo: Aschehoug. Benestad, Finn and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe. 1988. Edvard Grieg: The Man and the Artist. Gloucester: Alan Sutton. Bhabha, Homi K. 1990a. “Introduction: Narrating the Nation.” In Nation and Narration, edited by Homi K. Bhabha, 1–7. London: Rout ledge. Bhabha, Homi K. 1990b. “DissemiNation: Time, Narrative, and the Margins of the Modern Nation.” In Nation and Narration, edited by Homi K. Bhabha, 291–322. London: Rout ledge. Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. Bjørndal, Arne. 1940. Ole Bull og norsk folkemusikk. Bergen: A.S. Lunde & Co.s forlag. Bjørndal, Arne. 1951. “Edvard Grieg og folkemusik ken.” In Frå Fjon til Fusa: Årbok for Nord- og Midhordaland sogelag, edited by Arne Bjørndal and Conrad Clausen, 72–103. Bergen: Lunde & Co. Blom, Jan-Petter. 1993a. “Hva er folkemusikk?” In Fanitullen: Innføring i norsk og samisk folkemusikk, edited by Bjørn Aksdal and Sven Nyhus, 7–14. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 812011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=80http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=80Blom, Jan-Petter. 1993b. “Rytme og frasering: Forholdet til dansen.” In Fanitullen: Innføring i norsk og samisk folkemusikk, edited by Bjørn Aksdal and Sven Nyhus, 161–184. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Blom, Jan-Petter. 2000. “Folkemusik ken: Modernisering, organisering og bevaring.” In Norges Musikkhistorie, vol. 4, 1914–1950, edited by Ar vid Vollsnes et al., 297–328. Oslo: Aschehoug. Bohlman, Philip V. 2003. “Music and Culture: Historiographies of Disjuncture.” In The Cultural Study of Music: A Critical Introduction, edited by Martin Clay ton, Trevor Herbert and Richard Middleton, 45–56. New York: Routledge. Bohlman, Philip V. 2004. The Music of European Nationalism: Cultural Identity and Modern History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Burke, Peter. 2009. Cultural Hybridity. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Chepstow-Lusty, Lill-Ann and Inger Bentzrud. 1992. Norge – helt Texas. Oslo: Pax. Clifford, James. 1988. The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. Cambridge, MA: Har vard University Press. Dagbladet. 2008. “Jai er norsk: Diana Ross reddet kvelden.” Dagbladet 12 December 2008:1 and 50–53. Dahlhaus, Carl. 1980. Between Romanticism and Modernism. Berkeley: University of Ca lifornia Press. Dahlhaus, Carl. 1989. Nineteenth-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press. Dragenes, Kjell. 1981. “Griegs eneste symfoni blir spilt i Sov jet.” Bergens Tidende 28 January. Finck, Henry T. 1906. Edvard Grieg. London: Lane. Gaukstad, Øystein, ed. 1957. Edvard Grieg. Artikler og taler. Oslo: Gyldendal. Gilroy, Paul. 1993. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso. Gressgård, Randi. 2005. Fra identitet til forskjell. Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press/Spartacus forlag. Grieg, Edvard. 1903. Norwegische Bauerntänze (Slåtter) für die Geige solo wie dieselben auf der norwegischen Bauernfiedel gespielt werden. Originalaufzeichnung von Johan Halvorsen. Freie Bearbeitung für pianoforte solo von Edvard Grieg. Opus 72. Leipzig: C.F. Peters. 82 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=81http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=81Grieg, Edvard. 1993. Dagbøker. 1865, 1866, 1905, 1906 og 1907. Bergen: Bergen offentlige bibliotek. Grieg, Edvard. 2001. Slåtter Op. 72 for klaver. Revidert utgave etter Dahle-tradisjonen på harding fele. (Edition prepared and revised by Geir Henning Braaten and Sven Nyhus.) Oslo: Musikk-Husets Forlag. Grimley, Daniel M. 2006. Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity. Woodbridge: The Boydell Press. Grinde, Nils. 1993. “Grieg’s Vocal Arrangements of Folk Tunes.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 19:29–34. Grønvold, Aimar. 1883. Norske musikere. Kristiania: H. Aschehoug & Co. Hall, Stuart. 1996. “Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?” In Questions of Cultural Identity, edited by Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, 1–17. London: Sage. Hannerz, Ulf. 1992. Cultural Complexity: Studies in the Social Organization of Meaning. New York: Columbia University Press. Hauch, Gunnar. 1922. Breve fra Grieg. Et Udvalg ved Gunnar Hauch. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske boghandel. Havåg, Eldar. 1997. “For det er Kunst vi vil have.” Om nasjonalitet og kunst i norsk oppskrivartradisjon og folkemusikkforsking. KULTs skriftserie nr. 85. Oslo: Noregs forskingsråd. Herder, Johann Gottfried von. 1975 [1778–1779]. Stimmen der Völker in Liedern and Volkslieder. 2 Vols. Stuttgart: Reclam. Herresthal, Harald. 1997. Edvard Grieg med venner og uvenner: Tegnet og karikert. Bergen: Edvard Grieg Museum, Troldhaugen. Hobsbawm, Eric J. 1990. Nations and Nationalism since 1780: Programme, Myth, Reality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hopkins, Pandora. 1986. Aural Thinking in Norway: Performance and Communication with the Harding fele. New York: Human Sciences Press. Horton, John. 1979. Grieg. London: J. M. Dent & Sons LTD. Horton, John and Grinde, Nils. 2001. “Edvard Grieg.” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Second Edition, edited by Stanley Sadie, vol. 10, 396–410. London: Macmillan Publishers Limited. Johnson, Geir. 1983. “Edvard griegs c-moll symfoni som mediebegivenhet.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 8:53–68. Keil, Charles. 1966. Urban Blues. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 832011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=82http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=82Ledang, Ola Kai. 1993. “Individual Creation and National Identity: On Grieg’s Piano Adaptions of Harding fele Music.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 19:39–44. Lindberg, Ulf, Gestur Guðmundsson, Morten Michelsen and Hans Weisethaunet. 2005. Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers and Cool-Headed Cruisers. New York: Peter Lang. Mann, William. 1963. “What Songs the Beatles Sang.” In Times (London), 27 December 1963:4. (The article has later been credited to William Mann.) Matthew-Walker, Robert. 1993. The Recordings of Edvard Grieg: A Tradition Captured. St Austell: D G R Books. Monrad Johansen, David. 1934. Edvard Grieg. Oslo: Gyldendal. Myk lebust, Rolf. 1982. Femti år med folkemusikk. Oslo: Det Norske Samlaget. Nagelhus, Lorents Aage. 2004. Edvard Grieg og folkemusikken: Stoff og stiltrekk fra norsk folkemusikk i instrumentalmusikken. Oslo: Norsk Musikkforlag. Pollock, Sheldon, Homi K. Bhabha, Carol A. Breckenridge, and Dipesh Chakrabarty. 2002. “Cosmopolitanisms.” In Cosmopolitanism, edited by Carol A. Breckenridge, Sheldon Pollock, Homi K. Bhabha and Dipesh Chakrabarty, 1–14. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Schart, Carl. 1865. VIII Norske slaatter for Hardangerfele. Nedskrevet efter Myllargutens diktat samlet og utgit av C. Schart. Bergen: C. Rabe, Musikforlag. Schjelderup, Gerhard. 1903. Edvard Grieg og hans værker: Et festskrift i anledning af hans 60årige fødselsdag. Copenhagen: Gyldendalske bok handels forlag. Sevåg, Reidar. 1992. “Slåtter.” Review from Spelemannsbladet 2, 1979. Reprinted in Grieg og folkemusikken. Landslaget Musikk i Skolens musikkpedagogiske serie nr. 5, 39–43. Oslo: Landslaget Musikk i Skolen. Skyllstad, Kjell. 1983. “Folk lore eller fremtidsmusikk: Kontrapunkter fra Grieg-debatten 1981.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 8:69–76. Solbu, Einar et al., eds. 1993. Tilbakeblikk på Grieg-jubiléet. Bergen: Griegjubiléet 1993. Vollsnes, Ar vid. 1993. “Grieg’s Own Interpretations: Modern Use of Old Piano Recordings.” Studia Musicologica Norvegica 19:175–178. Weisethaunet, Hans. 2007. “Historiography and Complexities: Why is Music ‘National’?” Popular Music History 2(2):169–199. 84 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=83http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=83Williams, Raymond. 1983. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Fontana Press. Østerberg, Dag. 1997. “Edvard Grieg: Hans musikk og den romantiske filosofi.” In his Fortolkende sosiologi II: Kultursosiologiske emner, 131–145. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Discography Arne Domnérus Kvartett. Blåtoner fra Troldhaugen. Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD65, 1986. Arnesen, Dag. Norwegian Song. Resonant Music CD RM 17-2, 2007. Aunt Mary. “In the Hall of The Mountain King.” Single first released in 1972, also included on The Best of Aunt Mary. Philips LP 6478 009, 1974. Reissued on CD Philips 842973-2, 1990. Buen, Knut and Einar Steen-Nøk leberg. Edvard Grieg: Slåtter/Norwegian Peasant Dances, Op. 72 with the Original Fiddle Tunes from Telemark. Knut Buen, Hardanger fiddle; Einar Steen-Nøk leberg, piano. Simax CD PSC 1040, 1988. Ellington, Duke. Swinging Suites by Edward E. & Edward G. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos.1 & 2; Ellington/Strayhorn: Suite Thursday. Columbia CS 8397, 1960 [LP.] Reissued on CD Sony Music Col 472364-2, 1980. Eriksen, Mads. Intermission Troldhaugen. MTG CD 54532, 1993. Gjenklang. Vår Musikalske Arv: Folkemusikk Gjennom 100 År 1910–2005. [4 CDs.] Heilo HCD 7190, 2006. Grieg, Edvard. Edvard Grieg: The Piano Music in Historic Interpretations. [3 CDs.] SIMAX PSC 1809, 1992. Griegslåttene: Hardingfeleinnspillinger av Johannes og Knut Dahle. MusikkHusets Forlag MH CD 2642, 1993. The Nor wegian Big Band (Conducted by Kjell Karlsen). Day In, Night Out. Talent LP TLS 4016, 1976. Reissued as In the Hall of The Mountain King. Crema CD 705-2, 1991. Slåttebrekk, Sigurd. Edvard Grieg: Chasing the Butterfly. [2 CDs.] SIMAX PSC 1299, 2010. 1 Music and National Identity: Grieg and Beyond 852011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=84http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=842011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=85http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=853 Who Are You, Peer?: An Anniversary Postlude on Music, Text and Identity Constructions Hedda Høgåsen-Hallesby The age of commemorations is upon us. 2008 was declared the Nor wegian Year of Cultural Diversity. It followed the year of Grieg, 2007, which succeeded the year of Ibsen, 2006, in turn superseding the anniversary year of 2005, during which Nor way’s 100th anniversary as an independent nation was commemorated. In October 2006, 130 years after its first performance at Christiania Theatre, Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt with Edvard Grieg’s music was performed in Giza, just outside Cairo, Egypt. This production can be seen as a focal point and a common denominator of the aforementioned commemorations. In addition to being a highlight of the Ibsen anniversary, it functioned as a transition to the year of Grieg. The production marked Nor way’s position as a nation of culture internationally, in this way creating connections to the anniversary year of 2005. Also, Ibsen’s text raises questions concerning cultural homogenization and constructions of individuals and nationality which should be highly relevant in a Year of Cultural Diversity. Rarely has a cultural event been afforded as much column space in Norwegian media as Peer Gynt in Giza, before, during as well as long after the actual performance. In February 2008, one could still find repercussions of this debate on the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten’s editorial pages.1 What could be the background for this enormous interest and these intense emotions? 1052011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=86http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=86Grieg biographer Finn Benestad (1996) describes Ibsen and Grieg as “two cultural giants”.2 It is difficult to deny that these two have been and still are dominant figures in the construction of a shared, Nor wegian self-understanding. The collaborative project between these two, the verse play with incidental music titled Peer Gynt, has been an important contribution to the establishment of Nor wegian culture and identity. Not only is it a key work in the Nor wegian literary canon, it is also one of Ibsen’s most widely performed pieces internationally. And Grieg’s incidental music accompanying Ibsen’s text still holds a position as the most widely known piece of Nor wegian stage music.3 It is likely that the emotional verbal exchange following the 2006 performance has its roots here: in Ibsen’s, Grieg’s – and in Peer Gynt’s – dominant position in Nor wegian cultural life and national feeling. With this as a backdrop, it is particularly interesting to observe how Peer Gynt in text and music also comments on the constructions of identities, particularly a Nor wegian national identity in encounter with “the Others”. The complex work seems to be permeated by the phenomenon of identity construction. This dominates the story in the way it is told, linguistically and musically, and in the cultural context and history of effects that have surrounded the work. Both text and music are therefore interesting objects of study in relation to constructions of identities, though they do not necessarily say the same thing. The encounter between text and music is not without some measure of friction. It is this experience that is the point of departure for my article. My hypothesis is that the background for the friction is found in the unique position in which Nor way found itself at the end of the nineteenth century: as part of Europe, but still as somewhat marginal and exotic. This position dominated the contemporary Norwegian self-understanding and is reflected in various cultural expressions: visual, textual and musical; it surrounds Peer Gynt as the encounter between text and music. I base my assertions on an analysis of Ibsen’s fourth act as a critique of the European empire and ask whether Grieg’s contribution to Ibsen’s text supports this critique, or whether it joins the series of works that can be said to fall within the category of “Musical Orientalism”. An exhibited world order The same year that Ibsen’s Peer Gynt was first released, the European audience also had the opportunity to witness a meticulously directed and con- 106 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=87http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=87structed staging. The Paris World Exposition of 1867 was in many ways a stage production of a world view, with continental, industrialized Europe as the dominant centre.4 This was reflected in the design of the exposition: in the main hall were found the Western nations that could boast great industry and production. France occupied nearly half of the hall, England one quarter, while 32 other countries shared the last quarter. Surrounding this hall of products and industry was a garden, where national folk culture was displayed (Oxfeldt 2005). As a substitute for their lack of innovative industry, exotic, smaller countries could in this way display their national identity in another arena, through folkloristic elements. The exhibition of such a world order with a centre and periphery in small-scale format can be interpreted as a visual representation of Edward Said’s (1978) now over 30-year-old explanation of the concept Orientalism, about how the Western world constructed a periphery which enabled it to emerge as the centre. One hundred and thirty years and an oil adventure later, the production of Peer Gynt in Giza has been criticized e.g. for being a Nor wegian contribution to a continuous Orientalist project – as “foreign-political ethno-national brand name building”.5 In light of this, it is highly interesting to note that the same year that Ibsen’s piece was published, Nor way’s place in the world exposition was not to be found in the main hall, but in the surrounding garden, side by side with the Arabian nations (Oxfeldt 2005). The Nor wegian delegates were not particularly happy with this placement. Thus, out there in the folkloristic, exotic exhibition it became crucial to highlight the difference between Norway and the Oriental countries. A journalist from the Nor wegian newspaper Morgenbladet reported the following to readers back home in Norway: Between Turkey’s and for example our exhibit there is the same difference as between a Turkish odalisque and a beautiful peasant woman from Dovrefjeld. I once saw such a woman. She was of royal heritage. She was plainly dressed, but there was not a spot to be found on her entire person, and her room was scrubbed so clean, the woman was so friendly through her sincerity that one forgot the rough weather outside. In Turkey everything is magnificent, but do not look in the corners. There is also much interesting to look at, but what ma kes it interesting for us is probably that it is as different from ours as if it were not created on the same pla net (quoted in Oxfeldt 2005:113). 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1072011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=88http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=88As this quote shows, the Norwegian recognized the exotic nature of his/her national culture. However, this exoticism was rather to be found in the peasant woman than in Morgenbladet’s readers in the capital Kristiania; the distance between these is evidenced in the comment “I once saw such a woman.” At the same time, the distance between the exoticism of the peasant woman and that of the Oriental is also remarkable: Where the exoticism of the Turk was dirty, the Norwegians were spotless, to the extent of being virtually gilded. Norwegian weather and nature are drawn into the description of the clean, Norwegian peasant woman – as if the Norwegian gales had blown her clean and unblemished. Despite their similarity as exotic figures, the Nor wegian peasant woman is so different from the Turk that the journalist concludes that the two cannot be from the same planet! A more clearly articulated segregation would be difficult to find. In her book Nordic Orientalism from 2005, literary researcher Elizabeth Oxfeldt explains the duality in the Norwegian self-image by pointing to the fact that the Paris World Exposition of 1867 took place in a phase during which a shift can be identified in European nation building. She describes the first phase as vertical: it was inwardly directed. Inspired by Herder’s idea of Volksgeist, one looked to a nation’s past, present and future as one sought to create a national identity. In the second phase, the horizontal phase, national identity primarily came about in the comparison and differentiation with other nations and world regions. Oxfeldt refers to Nor way as an interesting case in this regard. In this young nation, one can virtually speak of an overlapping of these two phases; here, the horizontal and the vertical levels met. The historic heritage and the folkloric elements were used in the construction of “the Nor wegian”, to highlight an identity in contrast to “the Others”. The upper classes in the larger cities embraced the idea of the clean, Norwegian peasant and his fascinating stories, traditions, costumes and dialects. Assisted by this, a national identity was constructed in contrast to the neighbouring Scandinavian countries. But as the quoted Morgenbladet’s journalist attests, it was important to mark a distance from the Oriental’s folk lore. Where “their” exoticism was primitive, that of the Nor wegian was considered a national treasure. At the same time, both Nor wegian culture and Oriental exoticism were important sources of artistic inspiration towards the end of the nineteenth century, as evidenced by Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt. 108 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=89http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=89Ibsen’s fourth act While Morgenbladet’s reporter distinguished the Oriental from the Norwegian in Paris, Ibsen was concerned with completing the manuscript for Peer Gynt in his home in Italy. In line with contemporary tendencies, he had used elements from the fairy ta les collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe in the 1840s. Still, his goal was not to glorify, but on the contrary to achieve a critical distance from the Nor wegian culture. Peer Gynt has from its first publication been interpreted as a portrayal of the Norwegian nationalistic and selfabsorbed attitude to life (see e.g. Figueiredo 2006). Yet the desire to see the work as an expression of Nor wegian nation building has resulted in its isolation from a broader global context. One example is the fourth act of Peer Gynt. Located in Africa, this part has been difficult to incorporate in the work as a complete expression, and consequentially, it has often been left out. Oxfeldt (2005) regrets this tendency. She holds that traditional interpretations of Peer Gynt have ignored the way Ibsen comments the shift from a Nor wegian culture defined by folkloristic elements to a culture defined by global capitalism and imperialism (2005:135). In her analysis, she highlights instead the fourth act and interprets Peer Gynt simultaneously from a national and a postcolonial context. The somewhat abrupt shift from the third to fourth act is read as an expression of a hasty shift between the first and the second phase of nation building in Nor way. In the first three acts, Peer is in a virtually timeless, inwardly focused Norwegian context, while in the fourth act he has his identity challenged by Europeans as well as Orientals. This leads Oxfeldt to draw the conclusion that the scenes in Morocco and Egypt are evidence of the transition from a vertical construction of a distinct “self” and cultural heritage to a horizontal investigation of Nor way’s position in relation to both the European and the Oriental worlds. The fourth act depicts Peer as a colonizer and capitalist. A liquidated “nigger-plantation” in South Carolina and transport of European missionaries to China have earned him a fortune (Ibsen 1998:85). In Peer’s monologue, Ibsen’s critical satire of patriotic nationalism and race-oriented imperialism are clearly expressed: “On a plump oasis in the ocean I would propagate the Norwegian race; A dalesman’s blood is almost royal, and crossed with an Arab, would do the trick” (Ibsen 1998:91). Further into the fourth act, Ibsen plays on established Orienta list stereoty pes. We find Peer resting idly in a 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1092011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=90http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=90Bedouin camp. Here he drinks Arabian coffee, smokes a pipe and enjoys his view of dancing, Oriental women. Among these women is Anitra. As the dancing, Oriental woman, the Anitra figure emerges as a classic example of the Oriental “Other”, as we find her in various artistic expressions throughout the nineteenth century. The fascination with this figure may be due to her representing a virtual negation of the Western man’s self-perception. As a sensual, irrational and mysterious woman, she expressed herself and defined herself through her body rather than through words. Thus, one finds her as the dancing, seductive temptress, with a presumably untamed passion. In a music-historical context, this figure was often found performing on opera stages in the latter part of the nineteenth century, where Anitra has her sisters in figures such as Carmen, Dalila and Salome – all of them dancers. Dance became an important device in the portrayals of the Orient and an indicator of the Orientals’ “Otherness”. The dancing Oriental could be interpreted as an expression of the Orient’s irrationality, of “the Other’s” heathenism, degeneration, primitivism, infantilism and deviant sexuality. Often, these aspects went hand in hand. What they have in common is their connection to the body. The opposition of Orient versus Occident was presented as the opposition of body versus soul (Gilman 1985, McClintock 1995). The view of the dancing Oriental therefore became a clear expression of the dissimilarity between the rationality of the West and the physicality of the Orient. This idea of the Oriental emerges in Ibsen’s text when Peer describes Anitra as a child of nature, as the underdeveloped and infantile, yet servile.6 Anitra herself confirms this with the statement “I haven’t a soul” (Ibsen 1998:95). Anitra appears as body – a dancing, attractive body – which does not coincide with Western ideals. Peer describes: “Her feet move like the patter of drums. Hey! She is exquisite, this filly. Her build is on the generous side, not what beauty normally measures … Her feet – aren’t altogether clean, – nor her arms, either; especially one” (Ibsen 1998:94–95). Like Morgenbladet’s journalist, Peer Gynt is also concerned with the filthiness of the Oriental. Peer wants to help this dirty, soulless body, like he has helped Anitra’s country develop. In this way, Ibsen uses yet another famous metaphor from nineteenth-century Orienta list literature: the Orient is portrayed as a feminized area begging for Western penetration, colonization and realization.7 As Oxfeldt points out, this emerges in Peer’s fantasies of penetrating the African landscape with canals (2005:147). However, instead of realizing Orienta list and Romantic fantasies 110 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=91http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=91about the Orient, Ibsen opens up the possibility of subversion and questions the traditional roles. Ibsen’s text portrays an ambivalent and unresolved relationship between the Nor wegian man and the Oriental woman. It is Peer (selfdeclared as “master of the situation” (Ibsen 1998:94)) who suggests that he and Anitra swap clothing and roles. When he offers her his riding whip, Anitra “raps him hard across the knuckles and dashes at full gallop back through the desert” (Ibsen 1998:104).8 The Western man, “the master of the situation”, in his belly dancer costume is left behind, and traditional power structures between man and woman, west and east, are subverted.9 Musical Orientalism? However, when it comes to Grieg’s music to Ibsen’s text, it is difficult to detect any radical alteration of roles. On the contrary, we see a well-known scenario – a European composer portraying and realizing his idea of the Orient through music. In a letter posted January 1874, Ibsen himself suggested that Grieg replace the long fourth act of Peer Gynt with a potpourri of American, English and French melodies.10 This would be a reflection of Peer’s encounter with other nations in Africa’s deserts through figures such as Master Cotton, Monsieur Ballon and von Eberkopf. However, Grieg did not comply with this proposal. The decision to portray the dancing Oriental and the exotic Orient may have been made with regard to the fact that Grieg was familiar with and inspired by the possibilities that this music opened up. “Anitra’s Dance” and “Arabian Dance” are musical pieces written by a European composer in the early 1870s, a period in which European interest for the Oriental, and particularly the Arab part of the Orient, flourished in European musical life (see e.g. Scott 1998). With these pieces, Grieg demonstrates that he knows the same musical tropes as his European colleagues. The dancing female body in “Anitra’s Dance” is accompanied by a musical palette consisting of a chromatic tonal language and a sparse orchestration, consisting of strings and a single triangle. The dance has several points of similarity with e.g. the priestess’ dance in Saint-Saëns’ opera Samson et Dalila: “Danse des prêtresses de Dagon” (1877). In both dances, a characteristic chromatic descent appears in the main themes (Examples 3.1 and 3.2). 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1112011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=92http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=92Example 3.1 Grieg, Peer Gynt: Excerpt from “Anitras dans”. Example 3.2 Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila: Excerpt from “Danse des prêtresses de Dagon”. Like Anitra’s, the priestess’ dance is sparsely orchestrated. The harp and tambour de Basque on the fourth beat play a similar role to the triangle on the first beat of “Anitra’s Dance”: they reinforce the impression of a dancer accompanying herself with simple percussive instruments, as the exotic Gypsy woman Carmen also did in her “Seguidilla” in Bizet’s opera from 1875. These effects point back to the music as music – as dance music. It is simply constructed, functional music with the purpose of accompanying and pointing back to the dancing body, which in turn has the purpose of seducing the Western man, whether it be Peer, Samson or Don José. The percussion instruments in general and the triangle in particular also recur throughout the “Arabian Dance”. This dance alternates between insistent choral sections, dominated by winds and percussion instruments, and a section where a solo soprano is accompanied by strings and triangle, in which the Anitra figure describes “the prophet” Peer. While the choral section marches steadily in 2/4, the soprano solo meanders away from leading notes which could have provided a secure tonal basis. From the piece’s key of C major, with an A minor interlude, we move rather quickly over to Bb Lydian and Ab Lydian. In addition to the vague tonality, this dance is also characterized by chromaticism. Grieg himself said the following about this piece: “I think this piece will be effective … I hope that each of the dancing 112 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=93http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=93girls will have a tambourine, for that is the only way to get the sound I have in mind. I heard something similar this winter, and it sounded wonderful. The contrabassoons and the pianissimos must sound genuinely Turkish” (quoted in Benestad 1996:138). This quote supports the assertion that the dancing woman accompanying herself was a (theatrically and musically) established conception of the Oriental world. It is interesting to note that Grieg himself describes his own musical depiction of Morocco as Turkish. Around 1800, there was really only one European, musical conception of the Orient, the style known as Alla Turca. This musical expression was derived from imported Turkish janissary groups (mehter). However, as Jonathan Bellman points out, few people were familiar with the way this music sounded (1993:14). The style was therefore as much a result of European conceptions and imaginations, as a product of knowledge and/ or influence. In addition to the 2/4 meter, which gave the march-like aspect, the use of percussion instruments such as tambourines, cymbals and bass drums were a characteristic feature of the style. While these were instruments originally found in the Turkish janissary groups, the triangle was added by Western composers (Hunter 1998). We can identify the Alla Turca e.g. in instrumental sections of operas, such as the overtures of Gluck’s La rencontre imprévue (1764) and Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782).11 This Turkish style is one of several which Derek Scott (1998) mentions in his article on Orientalism and musical style, in which he reviews musical representations of the Oriental world from Henry Purcell’s The Indian Queen (1685) to Alain Boubil and Claude Michel-Schönberg’s Miss Saigon (1989). But – what does the phenomenon of Musical Orientalism actually imply? According to Said, the world of art has contributed immensely to the Western construction of the Orient. He defines Orientalist artworks, including musical ones, as “texts that happily co-existed with or lent support to the global enterprises of European and American empire” (1993:186). Based on Said’s use and explanation of the concept of Orientalism as a discourse, Musical Orientalism implies the function of the music rather than a unified style. Another characteristic of Musical Orientalism is that it does not include clear distinctions in the musical portrayal of Eastern cultures. Instead, it is concerned with establishing easily recognizable stereoty pes – about building, rather than break ing down, the gap between “Ourselves” and “the Others”. More than imitating other cultures and musical styles, it is about representing “the Others” musi- 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1132011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=94http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=94cally through simplified devices. This process of representation involves using a set of culturally acquired codes. In his portrayal of Peer’s encounter with the Orient, Grieg uses the same musical devices as his European colleagues, who were portraying dancing Oriental women at the same time. In addition to having structural similarities, such as in instrumentation and extensive use of chromaticism and modality, the music also has similarities regarding function, where it should portray the Western man’s encounter with the Oriental “Other”, and then create a distance between “us” and “them” musically. Consequently, it is difficult not to include Grieg’s music in the fourth act of Peer Gynt in what can be termed Musical Orientalism. Nevertheless, it is not necessarily this simple in the case of Peer Gynt. As previously mentioned, Peer Gynt in Giza has been criticized for representing Nor wegian megalomania and a new Orientalism of the twenty-first century. In a feature article in the Nor wegian national newspaper Dagbladet on 11 November 2006, written as a defence of this enormous production, the director of Peer Gynt in Giza, Bentein Baardson, used another work which has also been performed in front of the Sphinx to support his argument, namely Verdi’s opera Aida (1871): “When Verdi’s opera ‘Aida’ is performed with Italian and Egyptian singers, musicians and dancers in front of the Pyramid of Cheops, thousands of Italians travel to Egypt to see the performance … and Italian culture commentators do not find this strange.” In the comparison of Peer Gynt and Verdi’s opera, a key point emerges concerning Peer Gynt and Orientalism. Let us therefore take a closer look at Aida. In several ways, Egypt is the common denominator of the two works. Like Peer Gynt, Aida was completed during the final phases of the construction period of the Suez Canal. The opera was commissioned for the opening of Cairo’s new Opera House, which was completed one year after the opening ceremony of the impressive Suez construction, where Ibsen himself was invited as a guest. But when Ibsen arrived in Cairo, he had already commented and criticized this building project in Peer Gynt two years earlier, through the megalomaniac Peer’s fantasies of canals in the sun-scorched landscape (Ibsen 1998:90). Such criticism of the European presence in Egypt is not found in Aida. In his interpretation of the opera, Said describes it as an “imperial article de luxe” (1993:129). The libretto is based on a story recorded by the French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette, who, among other things, organized the Egyp- 114 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=95http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=95tian pavilion at the World Exposition of 1867 and who had been involved as an engineer in the building of the Suez. Said assumes that this industrious Mariette also participated in the designing of costumes and stage sets, based on Napoleon’s records Description de l’Égypte from 1798 (Said 1993:120). This basis in European Orientalist research gave Aida’s portrayal of the Orient academic authority; also, it simultaneously confirmed the West’s supremacy in the form of promoting European knowledge and control. Apparently, the European knowledge elite were even proficient in the history of the Oriental world. Besides, when Egypt and the Oriental world were presented as something distant and archaic, Europe attained status as the only contemporary agent. With this as his point of departure, Said considers Aida as a representation of an Orientalized Egypt from a European perspective, as part of a larger European, classificatory perspective on the non-Western world. It was European settlers, functioning as administrators of this part of the Western empire, who filled Cairo’s newly built Opera House. Physically, this house was located on the north-south axis dividing the Muslim part of Cairo from the European part. The entrance faced westward. Verdi also gives a western entry – a Western, musical entry – into the African world of Aida. His clear, diatonic, brass-based and majestic portrayal of Egypt has been used against Said’s assertion that Aida is an Orientalist opera.12 Yet, the representation of the Egyptian theocracy functions precisely as an entrance, a way of encountering other aspects of the Orient, such as the Phrygian worship of the Egyptian priestess or the chromatic theme of the oboe solo, which is associated with the Oriental woman – Aida – and her distant, utopian Ethiopia. The imagined Oriental world functioned as a source of inspiration and artistic innovation, particularly within the complex genre of opera, which allows for the combination of musical and theatrical – both visual and auditory – expressions. In addition to Verdi’s Aida, Bizet’s Carmen (1875) and the aforementioned opera by Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila (1877) are examples of works from the 1870s where a fascination with and fantasy of the Orient served as an important inspiration. Stereoty pes of other parts of the world and other ethnic groups were constructed and shaped through the combination of text, music and theatrical performance. The complexity of opera as an art form gave these constructions their own weight. It contained a combination of four elements: 1. The Orientalist narrative: the Western man arrives in the foreign world, represented by the exotic woman. She entices him to give 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1152011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=96http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=96up his morals, his people and his faith to follow her into this attractive, yet threatening decadence.13 The narrative ends with the Western man overcoming (and overpowering) the temptation, strengthening his own faith, morals and identity. 2. The scenic representation that supplied the story with a visual impression of the Oriental world. 3. The musical representation, which provided an experience of how the Orient sounded and strengthened the structures of the narrative. 4. The performing bodies who danced, played castanets and tambourines and gave a physical voice to the Oriental “Other”. In visual or literary representations of the Orient, the live encounter did not exist. This final aspect, as well as the combination of all four of them, made the portrayal of the Oriental world on the opera stage unique. In being music composed for the stage, Grieg’s Peer Gynt is akin to the operatic form. In this regard it is worth noting how Grieg himself pointed to the close connections between his music and Ibsen’s text. This was – and was intended as – scenic music. Grieg wrote this to his American biographer H. T. Flinck about the Gynt music: “If it were possible for you to [attend the play], you would see that the musical intentions can be clearly understood only in the context of a dramatic performance” (quoted in Benestad and Scheldrup-Ebbe 1988:194).14 When Baardson asks why it is all right for Italians to use the pyramids as a backdrop for their performances of Aida, but not for the Nor wegians to do so with Peer Gynt, the answer lies in the key word of context. One of Said’s (1993) main points is the necessity of interpreting various cultural expressions in relation to the imperial context in which they arose, that is, as products of a time when European countries conquered other land areas and dominated them politically and culturally. The purpose is to remove the veil of innocence that has surrounded artistic works, so that the underlying contextual tensions can emerge. In his analysis of Aida, Said himself demonstrates such an interpretive approach. Using the work’s origin in Egyptology as an argument, he asserts that it was the result of an ideological desire to represent and portray Egypt to the European imagination. In this way, he draws the conclusion that the opera as a whole supports an Orientalist ideology.15 Today’s productions of Aida in front of the Egyptian pyramids bear with them the history of the European imperial presence in Egypt. It was Europeans who led the expeditions and the archaeological excavations and presented the Egyptian treasures; it was also Europeans who brought this world to the stage and presented it through their perspective and their musical language. 116 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=97http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=97The textual material that forms the basis of Grieg’s Gynt music, however, has a completely different basis than the libretto for Verdi’s Aida and other 1870s Orienta list operas. Ibsen himself wrote in 1880: “Out of all my books, I find Peer Gynt to be the one least suited to be understood outside the Scandinavian countries” (quoted in Oxfeldt 2005:133). Ibsen’s Peer Gynt was a Norwegian self-reflection on the phenomenon of “the Nor wegian” and a critique of the Nor wegian’s and the European’s desire to place himself in the centre of the world. In this way, Ibsen’s text breaks with the discourse of Orientalism as described by Said.16 Where Aida bears witness of European dominance, Peer Gynt is to be understood as a critique of the same phenomenon. In combination with Ibsen’s critical text, Grieg’s music takes on a different character and ma kes it more complicated to conclude that this is an Orientalist expression, despite the fact that the music builds on the same, simplified forms of expression and the same stereotypical, categorical thinking that constituted the phenomenon of Musical Orientalism in the European context of the 1870s. The result is a collision or friction between the music and text, which we do not find in Aida. The text poses critical questions about the ideology which the music must be heard to support.17 It is precisely this friction that may lead us closer to the relationship between Norwegian national Romanticism and European Orientalism at the end of the nineteenth century. Nor wegian folklore and European Orientalism It is clear that the comparison of Peer Gynt and Aida highlights the importance of context. At this point I return to the World Exposition and the exhibited world order of 1867, where Nor way found itself in a different context than the great European powers. Like the Oriental countries, it was Nor way’s folkloristic elements, rather than development and production, which were displayed. Where other European countries glanced over at the exotic countries in the peripheral garden to define their own Western identity, the Nor wegian gaze was directed inward. The spotless peasant woman was still the most important “export article” and point of definition. One does not need to turn to the exoticism of the Orient when one has one’s own. At the same time, as we have seen, it was important to distinguish Norwegian folk lore from the filthy exotica of “the others”. 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1172011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=98http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=98It is likely that this paradoxical position has left its traces and created an enduring tendency in Norwegian music history. The tension between “European music” and “non-European music” has been replaced by a tension between “Norwegian music” and “non-Norwegian music”, between the Norwegian and the Continental. In his book on music and nationalism, Philip Bohlman (2004) discusses this as a distinction between “the first and the second Europe”, where “the first Europe” refers to the dominant nations, while “the second Europe” indicates the smaller or younger nations that nearly got trapped by their interest in national and folkloristic expression. In the tensions between Nor wegian versus Continental music and Western versus Oriental music, it is interesting to note how “typical” Norwegian and “typical” Oriental music have several common characteristics. “Morning Mood” can be a useful example of the relationship between the folkloristic and the exotic. These well-known phrases, an obligatory track on the album “Nor way in Music”, were originally intended to accompany the sunrise on the west coast of North Africa. The same music has been used in adverts for Freia milk chocolate – a traditional Nor wegian chocolate brand, advertised with the slogan “a little chunk of Nor way.” Grieg biographers Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe comment on “Morning Mood” in the following way: “In the play it is supposed to depict a sunrise on the coast of Africa, but with its pentatonic character it could just as well depict a Norwegian dawn” (1988:189). Benestad’s claim raises the question of what a connection between a pentatonic tonal language and a Nor wegian sunrise should be. What is certain is that both the typical Norwegian and the Oriental could be expressed musically through pentatonicism. This is also true for the featuring of flute and oboe, as well as the ornamented melodic lines and trills which Grieg used to accompany Peer’s enlightenment in the desert, and which for decades have inspired Norwegian school pupils to draw sunrises between Norwegian mountains.18 Another example of structural similarity between “Oriental” and “Norwegian” music is found in the meeting point between the Oriental dances (“Anitra’s Dance” and “Arabian Dance”) and the dance of the Woman in Green (“Dance of the Mountain King’s Daughter”). The latter was written as a parody of Nor wegian folk music (Benestad 1996:136). The dance is in D Lydian, with a constant emphasizing of the augmented fourth (Example 3.3). 118 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=99http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=99Example 3.3 Grieg, Peer Gynt: “Dans av Dovregubbens dat ter”. The Lydian augmented fourth is among the musical expressions of the Orient listed by Scott (1998), found for instance in Mozart’s portrayal of the Egyptian world in Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782). However, the dance of the (Norwegian) Woman in Green demonstrates several aspects of “Oriental” musical expressions. Here we find the open fifths in the bass, the rhythmic vamp, the syncopation (three against two), the featuring of percussion instruments in general and the triangle in particular. Towards the end of the dance, a solo oboe is heard. With its litt le trill, it sounds rhapsodic and improvised and was probably meant to represent lurs and cow-calls.19 The oboe playing a melismatic and improvised-sounding melody recurs in several of the many dances portraying Oriental women on European opera stages around the turn of the century. An example is “Bacchanale” from Samson et Dalila, which opens with the sound of a single oboe (Example 3.4). Example 3.4 Saint-Saëns, Samson et Dalila: “Bacchanale”. 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1192011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=100http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=100In “Dance of the Seven Veils” from Strauss’ Salome, the oboe solo appears four beats after the powerful percussion introduction (Example 3.5). Example 3.5 Strauss, Salome: “Tanz der sieben Schleier”. The oboe sound was probably associated with something exotic (such as the sound of the snake charmer’s flute) and something pastoral (such as the sound of the lur or bukkehorn).20 In addition, both the Orient and picturesque rural life were often presented using rhythmic ostinatos and open fifths, and linked together in the dream of another reality. Simplicity, including a simple formal structure, was another musical device used in portraying the Orient.21 Like “Bacchanale” and “Dance of the Seven Veils”, the dance of the Woman in Green is structured as a crescendo. It is as if in every case the primitive wildness ends up in a type of Dionysian climax. The dance could just as easily have accompanied the Oriental Anitra in the fourth act.22 We are virtually given a musical example of Peer’s “crossing” of Arabian and Dalesman’s blood. Thus, Grieg’s parody of Nor wegian folk music resulted in a musical expression very close to his own representations of the Oriental world. We see that structurally, expressions of exoticism are closely connected to the musical portrayal of “Norwegianness”. However, such expressions are also connected in their function. When transferred to an urban environment, folk music can be experienced as equally exotic as Orientalist expressions appropriated into a European art music context. Dag Østerberg describes this in his article on Grieg, his music and the Romantic philosophy: “Grieg’s ‘personal touch’ was to become his ‘Norwegianness’ – rhythms and sounds from dales of which the European concert audiences knew little or nothing, and which could give ample opportunity for absorption in the ‘exotic’” (1997:139). Folkloristic and exotic features can be said to have equivalent aesthetic functions: they are musically manifested in stereotypical portrayals of geographically close as well 120 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=101http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=101as distant milieus. Carl Dahlhaus points to this phenomenon in his book Nineteenth Century Music (1989:305). He emphasizes how the ethnological origin is less important than the difference from European art music. Dahlhaus expands: Regardless of the milieu being depicted, exoticism and folklorism almost invariably make do with the same technical devices: pentatonicism, the Dorian sixth and the Mixolydian seventh, the raised second and augmented fourth, non-functional chromatic coloration, and finally bass drones, ostinatos, and pedal points as central axes (1989:306). Here are several interesting parallels to the more recent phenomenon of “world music”, in which Western folk music and non-Western music often seem to fall within the same category by both being distinct from the broad categories of “classical music” and “popular music”. As Richard Nidel points out, it is easier to define what is not world music than what is (2005:2). The defining trait is its difference from the conventional. This reminds us again of how “the Other” arises and is constructed, but here the function of “the Other” is not to define “us”, but to define a “self” as “the Other”. Like the use of folkloristic elements in National Romantic currents at the end of the nineteenth century, “Otherness” is used almost strategically. Another point of similarity between an Orienta list discourse as described by Said and the embrace of folk culture by National Romanticism is the significance of authenticity. In Verdi’s Aida, Egyptology offered a veneer of authenticity in regard to the representations and served to legitimize the colonial roles that were presented in the opera, such as the selfless Aida, the cruel Ramfis and the rigid Egyptian theocracy. Due to this focus on authentic depictions, supported by the ever-expanding research on the Oriental world at that time, confusions between the representations on the opera stage and the actual Orient could hardly be avoided. Art historian Linda Nochlin describes something similar in the area of visual art. Part of the strategy of Orientalist painters was to get the viewer to forget that there was any amount of “bringing into being”, by concealing this process behind the visual representations of the Orient (1989:37). This was achieved by aligning oneself with scientific studies of the Oriental world. The images were to express the authentic, a pregiven Oriental reality, and a world that merely lay there waiting to be documented by Western eyes. 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1212011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=102http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=102The Grieg quote above (“I think this piece will be effective …”) reflects his desire to create an authentic impression of the Arabian world. At the same time, the need for authenticity was no less when it came to recreating Nor wegian milieus. The composer stated the following about his representation of the folk dances “Halling” and “Springdans” in the first act: “Both dances must be played in perfect accord with folk-dance traditions, with sharp accents against the beats and powerful strokes, so as to make the image credible and authentic” (quoted in Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1988:184, emphasis added). Like the Oriental world, the quintessentially Nor wegian world was to be presented as authentic and timeless, based on research and gathered data that gave the representations a measure of authority. Grieg’s statements about his own music for Peer Gynt are therefore evidence of how the vertical and horizontal phases of nation building in Europe were linked to scientific investigations and an idea of the authentic. The impression of something authentic was crucial in the portrayal of “The Norwegian” as well as “the Other’s” culture. The very construction of identities, of a “them” versus an “us”, is dependent on a sense of authenticity. Only then will the image be credible and authentic. Summary and conclusion Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Norway found itself in a unique position as part of the European and Western world, yet situated in the periphery. Ibsen’s critique of the European colonial empire in Peer Gynt through irony, satire and portrayal of alternative positions of power can be understood as a result of this in-between position. As Oxfeldt shows in her postcolonial and contextual analysis of the work, Ibsen’s dramatic poem ma kes it difficult to distinguish between presumably fixed binary oppositions such as imagination and reality, “us” and “the Others”, man and troll, Orient and Occident. What, then, about Grieg’s music for this textual material? As music by a European composer in the 1870s, created to represent the Oriental world and structured on the same stereotypical devices as those used by his European colleagues to musically represent the Orient, this must be seen to be a part of the phenomenon of Musical Orientalism. In the verse play with incidental music Peer Gynt, a collision or tension therefore occurs between Ibsen’s text and Grieg’s music. Where Ibsen’s text criticizes and satirizes Nor wegian national Romanticism and European Orientalism, Grieg’s music participates 122 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=103http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=103in both phenomena and is evidence of a structural – but also functional – relationship between them. The functional relationship emerges if national Romantic and Orientalist expressions are seen as related ways of creating and maintaining positions of identity. Where elements of folk music were important in Norwegian nation building and led to a vertical way of constructing a Nor wegian identity, using musical expressions associated with the Oriental world was crucial in a European, horizontal identity construction. In both the vertical and the horizontal nation building strategies, music has had an important function as a social and political contributor by accentuating the distinction between “us” and “the Others”. Either this exoticism was used as a marker of identity against continental Europe – as exemplified by the use of elements of Nor wegian folk music – or else it was used to demarcate distance, in that way consolidating its own identity – just as Oriental music had been used to differentiate the Occident from the Orient. Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt exemplifies both of these uses and is therefore evidence of how both phases, the vertical and the horizontal, existed simultaneously in a Nor wegian context. Additionally, it reveals the processes of construction behind the demarcation of identity positions. Like the idea of the Orient, the idea of an independent Nor wegian folk culture was constructed in contrast to continental Europe. Both were created through a focus on difference. In sum, one may say that the proximity between the marginalized Nor wegian and Oriental in the European context of the 1870s surfaced textually – through Ibsen’s dramatic poem Peer Gynt, visually – in the structure of the World Exposition, and musically – through Grieg’s music for Ibsen’s text. There was a duality linked to Nor way’s position in the Europe of the 1870s. There is also a remarkable duality, or friction, in Peer Gynt as a musical, textual and theatrical work. According to Otto Hageberg, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt can be understood as “an exhibition of our national shame”; at the same time, he describes it as a definitive work of Nor wegian literature (1967:7). Peer Gynt is shame and pride hand in hand, an exhibition of the Nor wegian alongside the Oriental. With Grieg’s music, Peer Gynt became an exhibition with incidental music of the Nor wegian as a part of the European, but also positioned in the out-of-doors, exotic garden. In the Gynt performance in Giza, as a highlight in a long series of Nor wegian anniversary years, we find this remarkable combination of criticism and national pride, the Nor wegian and the Oriental, text and music, reset to 2006: to a world in which Nor way has taken on a new 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1232011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=104http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=104position and has the financial opportunity to actively use cultural export to build its reputation, but also a world in which the distinction between East and West, “us” and “the Others” still remains. What was wrong with the production of Peer Gynt in Cairo? In my view, there is not necessarily any thing wrong with using a large amount of resources on Nor wegian productions abroad – on the contrary. In this particular case, however, a similar friction occurred between text and production as can be experienced between Ibsen’s text and Grieg’s music. Nor wegian nation building, now termed “reputation building”, and European greatness, displayed in the form of project management and cultural means, collide with Ibsen’s critical text in the fourth act. Since it was precisely this act that was emphasized in front of the Sphinx, and since the whole production was linked to celebrations of Ibsen and Grieg as “two cultural giants”, the paradox and friction become particularly clear.23 The age of commemorations is upon us. 2008 was the Nor wegian Year of Cultural Diversity – as though the commemorations of 2005, 2006 and 2007, during which the Nor wegian giants were celebrated, needed compensation through a focus on “the Others”. In this way, the differences are maintained rather than dismantled. My hope is that in the future, Ibsen’s Peer Gynt will open up for a play with identities – nebulous and unstable positions – instead of supporting established and fixed dichotomies. Translated by Kjellfrid Reite Notes This article is an English translation of an article that first appeared in Studia Musicologica Norvegica volume 34 (2008), edited by Randi M. Selvik and published by Universitetsforlaget. 1 2 3 Examples include Rem (2008) and Rønning (2008). As the title of Benestad’s 1996 article describes them: “Peer Gynt: The Fruits of Collaboration Between Two Cultural Giants – Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg.” This is stated in the printed programme of the Giza performance (Ibsen 2006, 2006:49). 124 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=105http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1054 On the world expositions as visual representations of Orientalism, see Mitchell (1998). 5 See Skorgen’s (2006b) contribution in Aftenposten: “Ibsen og det norske ‘vi’” (“Ibsen and the Nor wegian ‘We’”) and Bjørneboe’s (2006) article in Klassekampen: “Orienta listisk Peer Gynt?” (“Orienta list Peer Gynt?”). 6 In this way, Ibsen plays on another well-known stereoty pe: that of the noble savage; see Ellingson (2001). 7 For a description of this phenomenon, see Hulme (1985). 8 As Oxfeldt also points out, this is reminiscent of Bhabha’s concept of mimicry in a colonial context (Bhabha 1994). This mimicry or parody is the colonial subject’s opportunity to undermine the established power structures. See also Skorgen’s Bakhtinian interpretation of Anitra as a subversive figure: “a remarkable exception to the scheme which Said describes as typical for Orientalism” (2006a:55). 9 In their articles in the special issue of the journal Agora titled “Ibsen og orienta lisme” (“Ibsen and Orientalism”), both Selnes (2007) and Jegerstedt (2007) go against Oxfeldt’s analysis of the Anitra figure, arguing for an interpretation of Ibsen’s fourth act as a more traditional expression of Orientalism. Jegersted contends that Anitra, by being compared with Solveig, functions as the Oriental, female “other” needed to give prominence to “Ibsen’s women”. She further claims that what could possibly have given Anitra a voice of her own is appropriated in Ibsen’s critique of “the Nor wegian”. I consider this a very interesting perspective. Jegerstedt draws parallels between Anitra and the character of Ber tha in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (1847). She refers to Spivak’s (1985) interpretation in “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism”, in which the colonial woman Ber tha becomes Jane’s “Other” and emphasizes the Western woman’s independence and development. I find the Bertha figure to be more ambiguous (Høgåsen-Hallesby 2007); in the same way, I support a more open and ambivalent interpretation of Anitra, as maintained by Oxfeldt through her reference to Bhabha’s concept of mimicry and by Skorgen through her use of Bakhtin. 10 “Nearly the whole of the fourth act is to be omitted. In its place I have imagined a large-scale tone picture suggesting Peer Gynt’s wandering throughout the world; American, English and French melodies might be interwoven, growing and fading one by one” (quoted in Benestad and Schjelderup-Ebbe 1988:175). 11 Perl (2000) also argues for finding stereotypical Turkish/Oriental features in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, both in musical expression and in the Don Giovanni character’s personality traits, which represented a threat to the established European order. Taylor (2007) describes the Alla Turca style in general, and Mozart’s operas in particular, in relation to the European cultural context of the eighteenth century. 12 See Robinson’s article “Is Aida an Orienta list Opera?” (1993). 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1252011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=106http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=10613 On the Orienta list narrative, see Parakilas (1994). 14 The fact that the incidental music for Peer Gynt was later released as a suite is a different – and likely a financial – part of the story. 15 Here, Robinson (1993) clearly has a point when in his critique of Said he states that the music is left out in Said’s focus on history and context. 16 To be sure, Selnes (2007) and Jegerstedt (2007) argue for the opposite: that Ibsen’s text is also an example of Orienta list expression. As mentioned, I lean more towards Oxfeldt’s argumentation (2005) on this point. Perhaps I agree the most with Helland who emphasizes the ambiguous: “[Ibsen’s text is] marked by dated, Orienta list clichés on the one hand, but it is also full of ironic exaggerations that mock and undermine these same clichés” (2007:100). 17 This collision can perhaps be explained with the point that Østerberg (1997) highlights: that Ibsen turned away from Romantic nationalism almost just as Grieg embraced it. De Figureido also points this out in his new Ibsen biography, in which he emphasizes how Grieg’s music paradoxically produces an ambiance of the very national Romanticism that Ibsen’s text originally satirized (2007:152). 18 These musical elements are highlighted as key characteristics of European musical portrayals of the Oriental world in Scott’s (1998) article “Orientalism and Musical Style”. 19 The lur is a lip-vibrated instrument from the late Nordic Bronze Age, played by herders and milkmaids up until the late nineteenth century, thus associated with the Nor wegian countryside and peasant culture. 20 The bukkehorn is also an ancient Nor wegian musical instrument used by cowherds in the mountains, made from the horn of a ram or a goat. Huebner also points out this connection between the oboe and pastoral instruments in his article on Aida (2002:167). 21 See McClary (1992:52). 22 An interesting point related to this comparison is that in psychological readings of Ibsen’s text, Anitra has been interpreted as the Woman in Green in another form (Oxfeldt 2005:139). 23 In his critique, Tore Rem also points out how Ibsen’s criticism of Nor wegian smugness paradoxically turned into an unreflective celebration of Norwegianness: “On the outside, Ibsen in Egypt was a citizen of the world, but deep inside he was a stock Nor wegian 2006’er” (2007:131). References Baardson, Bentein. 2006. “Duckerts dybdedykk.” Dagbladet 11 November. http://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/2006/11/11/482595.html, accessed 17 November 2010. 126 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=107http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=107Bellman, Jonathan. 1993. The Style Hongrois in the Music of Western Europe. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Benestad, Finn. 1996. “Peer Gynt: The Fruits of Collaboration between Two Cultural Giants – Henrik Ibsen and Edvard Grieg.” European Review 4(2):121–142. Benestad, Finn, and Dag Schjelderup-Ebbe. 1988. Edvard Grieg: The Man and the Artist. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Bhabha, Homi K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. Bjørneboe, Therese. 2006. “Orientalistisk Peer Gynt?” Klassekampen 30 October. http://www.klassekampen.no/artik ler/kultur_medier/40555/article/ item/null, accessed 17 November 2010. Bohlman, Philip V. 2004. The Music of European Nationalism: Cultural Identity and Modern History. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. Dahlhaus, Carl. 1989. Nineteenth-Century Music. Berkeley: University of California Press. Ellingson, Terry. 2001. The Myth of the Noble Savage. Berkeley: University of California Press. Figueiredo, Ivo de. 2006. Henrik Ibsen: Mennesket. Oslo: Aschehoug. Figueiredo, Ivo de. 2007. Henrik Ibsen: Masken. Oslo: Aschehoug. Gilman, Sander L. 1985. Difference and Pathology: Stereotypes of Sexuality, Race, and Madness. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. Hageberg, Otto. 1967. Omkring “Peer Gynt”: En antologi ved Otto Hageberg. Vårt nasjonaldrama i den litterære debatt og kritikk gjennom 100 år. Oslo: Gyldendal Norsk Forlag. Helland, Frode. 2007. “Ibsen mellom orient og oksident.” Agora 4:74–103. Huebner, Steven. 2002. “‘O Patria Mia’: Patriotism, Dream, Death.” Cambridge Opera Journal 14(1–2):161–175. Hulme, Peter. 1985. “Polytropic Man: Tropes of Sexuality and Mobility in Early Colonial Discourse.” In Europe and Its Others: Proceedings of the Essex Conference on the Sociology of Literature, July 1984, edited by Francis Barker et al., 17–31. Colchester: University of Essex. Hunter, Mary. 1998. “The Alla Turca Style in the Late Eighteenth Century: Race and Gender in the Symphony and the Seraglio.” In The Exotic in Western Music, edited by Jonathan Bellman, 43–73. Boston: Northeastern University Press. Høgåsen-Hallesby, Hedda. 2007. “Lyden av en gal kvinne.” Replikk 23:28–39. 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1272011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=108http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=108Ibsen, Henrik. 1998 [1867]. Peer Gynt: A Dramatic Poem. Translated by Christopher Fry and Johan Fillinger; with an Introduction by James Walter McFarlane. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Ibsen 2006. Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, Program Booklet. Ibsen 2006. Jegersted, Kari. 2007. “Anitras etterliv: ‘Ibsens kvinner’ i en postkolonial kontekst.” Agora 4:55–73. McClary, Susan. 1992. Georges Bizet: Carmen. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. McClintock, Anne. 1995. Imperial Leather: Race, Gender and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest. New York: Routledge. Mitchell, Timothy. 1998. “Orientalism and the Exhibitionary Order.” In The Visual Culture Reader, edited by Nicholas Mirzoeff, 495–505. London: Routledge. Nidel, Richard O. 2005. World Music: The Basics. New York: Routledge. Nochlin, Linda. 1989. “The Imaginary Orient.” In The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth-Century Art and Society, edited by Linda Nochlin, 33–59. New York: Harper & Row. Oxfeldt, Elisabeth. 2005. Nordic Orientalism: Paris and the Cosmopolitan Imagination 1800–1900. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press. Parakilas, James. 1994. “The Soldier and the Exotic: Operatic Variations on a Theme of Racial Encounter.” Opera Quarterly 10(2):33–56. Perl, Benjamin. 2000. “Mozart in Turkey.” Cambridge Opera Journal 12(3):219– 235. Rem, Tore. 2007. “Ute av kontroll: Ibsen-året i skyggen av pyramidene.” Samtiden 1:128–141. Rem, Tore. 2008. “Mer egyptisk dessert.” Aftenposten 29 January. http://www. aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/article2224543.ece, accessed 28 March 2008. Robinson, Paul A. 1993. “Is Aida an Orientalist Opera?” Cambridge Opera Journal 5(2):133–140. Rønning, Helge. 2008. “Ibsenårets mangfold.” Aftenposten 26 January. http:// www.aftenposten.no/meninger/debatt/article2219295.ece, accessed 28 March 2008. Said, Edward W. 1978. Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books. Said, Edward W. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 128 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=109http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=109Scott, Derek. 1998. “Orientalism and Musical Style.” Musical Quarterly 82(2):309–335. Selnes, Gisle. 2007. “Ibsens orientalisme: En hegeliansk historie.” Agora 4:5– 30. Skorgen, Torgeir. 2006a. “Fra multikulturalisme til interkulturell dialogisme: Herder, Ibsen og Bakhtin.” In Dialogens tenker: Nordiske perspektiver på Bakhtin, edited by Helge Vidar and Torgeir Skorgen Holm, 27–74. Oslo: Scandinavian Academic Press. Skorgen, Torgeir. 2006b. “Ibsen og det norske ‘vi.’” Aftenposten 2 January. http://www.aftenposten.no/me nin ger/kronik ker/article1188494.ece, accessed 17 November 2010. Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty. 1985. “Three Women’s Texts and a Critique of Imperialism.” Critical Inquiry 12(1):243–261. Taylor, Timothy D. 2007. Beyond Exoticism: Western Music and the World. Durham: Duke University Press. Østerberg, Dag. 1997. “Edvard Grieg: Hans musikk og den romantiske filosofi.” In his Fortolkende sosiologi II: Kultursosiologiske emner, 131–145. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget. Discography Grieg: Peer Gynt, Sigurd Jorsalfar. Complete Recordings. Deutsche Grammofon 423 079-2, 1987. [CD.] Norway in Music. Naxos 8.503100/N, 2002. [CD.] Peer Gynt i Kairo. Ibsen 2006, 2006. [DVD.] 3 Who Are You, Peer? 1292011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=110http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1102011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=111http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=111… and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=112http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1122011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=113http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1136 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite Erik Steinskog To the castle west of the moon, and the castle east of the sun, to Soria-Moria Castle the road ran both high and low. (Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt)1 In 1960 Duke Elling ton’s Selections from Peer Gynt Suites hit Norway. The piece is Elling ton’s version of movements from Edward Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite No. 1 (from 1888) and Peer Gynt Suite No. 2 (from 1892), suites Grieg composed based on his incidental music to Henrik Ibsen’s play Peer Gynt (from 1867, first performed in 1876). Elling ton’s music became deeply controversial in Norway, being in all practical senses banned from airplay.2 This music was playing with the Nor wegian “soul” or the Norwegian national identity. Peer Gynt has become a kind of national epos, illustrating Norwegianness. But the play has simultaneously travelled the world, and seems to be adaptable to settings quite different from the ur-Nor wegian. Why did Elling ton’s music become so controversial? What was it about his versions that felt threatening? There can hardly be any doubt that Grieg’s music has been heard as some kind of sound track for Norwegian identity. The Norwegian landscape is, so to speak, given its sound. One reason for this is the established trope that Grieg employed elements of folk music in his composition, and thus transformed a continental musical tradition into something recognizably Norwegian (see McClary in this volume). But with Elling ton this changes, and there are several reasons for this. By discussing some of the dimensions of El ling- 1672011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=114http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=114ton’s music, I hope in this article to throw some light on questions related to identity and nationality, and to otherness and difference, by way of highlighting dimensions of musical genres, of music travelling between different destinations, and of music deemed high and low, where racial difference is one key dimension. Elling ton’s music was seen as “black” within a culture having prejudices against “low”, “black” popular music. But what does this mean in the concrete setting of the different suites based on Peer Gynt? Given that everyone can hear that the melodic material is the same in Elling ton’s version as in Grieg’s original, it cannot be melody alone that becomes problematic. It has to be some other dimensions of the musical material. And the most obvious answers would then be harmony and rhythm. Harmony has been an important dimension in deeming some music art, and developments of harmonic language have been central to the common history of musical development. Harmony is, so to speak, the place where musical reason plays itself out. The idea of harmony has a long-standing tradition within the Western philosophy of music. The concept itself stems from Greek philosophy, and is within the history of musical aesthetics commonly traced back to Pythagoras. The term, however, is not simply a musical term; it has cosmological dimensions as well. And, importantly in the present context, it has political implications. “Living in harmony” is, or so we are told, a good thing, a thing to strive towards. It is, if we want to follow another thread of Greek philosophical thinking, what humans strive towards as humans. A human being is a social animal, and for this sociality to work we are to live in harmony. Or, with a somewhat different vocabulary, quoting Paul McCartney’s “Ebony and Ivory”: “Ebony and ivory / live together in perfect harmony / side by side on my piano keyboard / Oh Lord why don’t we?”3 Here, then, with the metaphors taken from the piano keyboard, we approach the dualism of black and white, of racial identity, and, perhaps, the question of whether Michael Jackson was wrong in claiming that “it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white.”4 Even the piano itself as a musical instrument – or, better perhaps, as “a piece of bourgeois furniture” (Adorno 2002:273) – seems dependent upon quite a different dimension of the history of Europe and her others. Where, that is, do ebony and ivory come from? And what do they signify, firstly as materiality, but secondly as metaphors, including the black and white of the piano keyboard, which might well be side by side, but where hierarchies still seem to be built 168 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=115http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=115into the musico-theoretical discourse? This follows up discussions of the piano as related to both the bourgeoisie as well as the domestic and feminine (cf. Leppert 1995). Here the domesticity becomes European instead, and the feminine is in one sense transformed to the foreign or African, as the land of origin for the materiality of the piano keyboard, even if both the black and the white originate in Africa. Dialectic of ensoniment One way to go about answering the question of whether it does matter if you are black or white is to introduce a kind of counter-history of modernity, or, perhaps better, a counter-history of the dialectics of enlightenment. The reference to Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer’s famous diagnosis of modernity and rationality in Dialectic of Enlightenment (1997 [1947]) simultaneously brings out the not-so-hidden reference to light (en-light-enment), and thus arguably to whiteness, at the core of European thinking. But with the dialectical dimension of Adorno and Horkheimer, the flip side, a certain dark ness, is also found in the story they tell. These “obscurities of the enlightenment” (cf. Morgan 2000) point to a dark ness hidden under the surface of the official history of European thinking. To bring this dark ness for ward – even if not necessarily bringing it to light – a counter-history might be necessary. Several such attempts have been made, and one crucial for my argument is found in Paul Gilroy’s seminal The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness (1993). What Gilroy calls “the Black Atlantic” is a counter-history of the enlightenment, and one with important consequences for the argument of the present article. Taking the At lantic as the field between Africa, America, and Europe, the routes and movements across the ocean become crucial for a reinterpretation of modernity. While reminding the reader about the crimes and atrocities of the Middle Passage, Gilroy simultaneously shows that there is rich potential for cultural analysis along the same routes. In his arguments there are important references to sound. The ships crossing the Atlantic are important media of communication and transportation, and Gilroy quotes Peter Linebaugh about the ships remaining “the most important conduit of pan-African communication before the appearance of the longplaying record” (Linebaugh 1982:119). In both Linebaugh and Gilroy this is played out along historical lines where the different forms of communication 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1692011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=116http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=116across the Atlantic become important in reading (or rereading) the history of the modern world. In addition, the reference to the long-playing record can be used to point to the importance of sound – and music – for the history of modernity. It has been common to understand the Enlightenment as in one way or another bound up with the sense of vision. Such a history, as Martin Jay shows in the opening chapters of his book Downcast Eyes (1993), is bound up with the very concepts used for knowledge: theory (from Greek theoria), insight, enlightenment, and so on; these concepts all have a metaphorical connection to light and the sense of vision. Hearing, on the other hand, is “the second sense”, and can as such be used to bring out different kinds of counter-histories of modernity, for example in the way Slavoj Žižek, in Interrogating the Real, argues for the history of music as “a kind of counter-history to the Derridean history of Western metaphysics as the domination of voice over writing” (Žižek 2005:214). Reading this history – or listening to sound’s contribution to history – Alexander Weheliye’s concept of “the Ensoniment” comes in handy. This is, so to speak, the sonic version of the “En-light-enment”, and characterizes how music becomes crucial for telling the history of the Western world (Weheliye 2005:10). Thus, to sum up these remarks of introduction: we have several intersecting dichotomies, related to light and dark ness, white and black, vision and sound, as well as different ways of reading the history of modernity, including some possible counter-histories. The whole thing about reading counter-histories is of course also related to questions of power. That is to say, to questions about who has written the “standard” histories, and how these standard histories partake in the construction of power relations in the world. The notion of harmony is then part of how music has been used to establish power relations between harmonic music – being understood as something good – and disharmonic music – being understood as something bad. The whole notion of disharmonic clearly testifies to a value judgment, and it is those with the power to impose their values that have made harmony into such an important category in distinguishing different kinds of music. Related to this question is also a question of humanism, about what defines “the human” (cf. Chambers 2001). There is an important history to be told here related to so-called “classical” or “art” music, and it could take as a point of departure the critique of disharmonic music found more or less throughout the history of music. However, this way of thinking got an upswing in the twentieth century, first 170 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=117http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=117with the critique of (so-called) atonality, and second with the more political critique of entartede Musik (“degenerated music”) as the Nazis called it. There is, however, some kind of correspondence between these two critiques, even if I would not be the one to claim that the defenders of the classical – and harmonic – tradition by necessity were closet-fascists. But, inspired by Gilroy’s idea of “the Black Atlantic”, I want to go to another example, and one that might be described as somewhat more marginal: Duke Elling ton’s version of Edward Grieg’s music for Peer Gynt. This then, is also – to make a short-cut – about the impact of “jazz” for the history (and thinking) of music in the twentieth century. But jazz’s entry into Europe was not without its downsides. Within German musical aesthetics already in the 1920s, jazz became “the acoustic sign of a foreign, low-class (and, by implication, racial) threat to Germany’s exclusive purity” (Weiner 1993:67). And this was not only the case with jazz. “Jewish” music had the same connotations in many an imagination, and for me this also shows how the implication of a European – and, by implication, “white” – aesthetics (and mythology) has been of great importance for developments in music within the twentieth century. And lest we forget it, the “Jews” too were (and are) “black” in the imagination of the anti-Semite.5 Within the European context – and here I am in particular referring to the German context of the 1920s – American jazz also “became the acoustic sign of the transplanted black,” as Marc Weiner writes, “and this could refer both to America as the foreign and victorious New World divorced from European traditions, and at the same time to Africa as the purportedly uncivilized Dark Continent from which the feared black was seen to challenge Europe’s racial and rational hegemony” (Weiner 1993:123f). This is not simply a discursive understanding of jazz as “other”; it is very much a discourse of power and hegemony. And with the European “classical tradition” fighting for its hegemony, the disharmonic or cacophonic dimensions heard in “jazz” were underlined. But in being both American, and thus disconnected from the European tradition, and simultaneously African, and thus “primitive”, not yet civilized, the otherness of this music becomes ambivalent or double. It is both modern and primitive simultaneously, which becomes important in the European reception of jazz. 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1712011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=118http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=118Three Edwards A concrete example of the arrival of jazz in Europe is found in Elling ton’s re-composition of Grieg. Not that Elling ton was too keen on the term “jazz”, and not that jazz was any thing new in Europe in the 1960s, but there is still a kind of conflict of different musical genres or styles here. This is music that has travelled across the Atlantic, not just once, but at least twice. And so, the question becomes what happens when two Edwards meet, a question alluding to the title of the first recording of this music: “Swinging Suites by Edward E. & Edward G.” (Figure 6.1), a clear reference to the full names of Edward “Duke” Elling ton and Edward Grieg. Transplanting Ibsen’s play outside of the European tradition has definitely been easier than it seems to have been with Grieg’s music, and one of my hypotheses is that this is due to dimensions of musical language, in particular related to harmony and to the discourse of harmony and the hierarchy of musical parameters. Another hypothesis I will allude to is that this is equally well related to understandings of identity, both European and national, and both of these in contrast to different versions of the “barbaric” “other”. Reading how this dualism comes about, it might be fruitful to employ what Edward Said – the third Edward in this mix – has in Culture and Imperialism termed a contrapuntal analysis as a way to see or hear the previously unnoticed. In this one could find features in an almost hidden dimension of history. Contrapuntal analysis implies “looking at different experiences” which are “making up a set of … intertwined and overlapping histories” (Said 1994:18), thus again pointing to the possibilities of counter-histories. And even if at some times it seems like Said’s own taste when it comes to music – as well as to literature – might be for the “high art” side, his method might fruitfully be used to approach the different intertwinings and overlapping dimensions of the history of modernity. Said explicitly relates the notion of contrapuntal to comparative; at the same time it is obvious that the contrapuntal implies more than the comparative (Said 1994:32).6 But here it is not at all obvious how to approach the phenomena. The terms of comparison are not given; they must be established, and they are established in the intertwinement and overlap. And at least potentially, there should be no pre-established hierarchy found here. But the arguably most interesting of Said’s uses of this metaphor occurs when he claims that “As we look back at the cultural archive, we begin to reread it not univocally but contrapuntally, with a simultaneous awareness 172 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=119http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=119Figure 6.1 Front cover of Duke Elling ton’s version of the Peer Gynt Suites. both of the metropolitan history that is narrated and of those other histories against which (and together with which) the dominating discourse acts” (Said 1994:51, emphasis in original). History is not univocal – it does not figure in one voice; “there are so many kinds of voices in the world,” as St. Paul said, “and none of them is without signification” 1 Corinthians (14:10). But then it becomes, not simply a question of the different intertwining histories, but also about listening to the past voices, including the voices of the dead.7 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1732011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=120http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=120Peer Gynt as trickster Duke Elling ton’s version of Peer Gynt is not identical to Grieg’s. Where Grieg edited two suites – Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, op. 46 and Peer Gynt Suite No. 2, op. 55 – consisting of a total of eight movements, Elling ton chose five of those movements and composed a new suite with them, arranging them also in a somewhat different order. Both Grieg’s version and Elling ton’s version open with “Morning Mood”, but from there the versions are different. Even if Elling ton recomposes the whole of Suite No. 1, he moves “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from the final position to piece number 2 (after “Morning Mood”), and then inserts “Solvejg’s Song”, from Grieg’s Suite No. 2, as the third and middle piece of his version. Then Elling ton ends with “Ase’s Death”8 and “Anitra’s Dance”. An interesting dimension of this narrative is that three different women are presented in the last three pieces, even if, of course, it is more of a funeral piece for Åse. “Solvejg’s Song” and “Anitra’s Dance,” on the other hand, demonstrate different possibilities for the musicalization of femininity. Elling ton’s version constructs a narrative, but it is different from Grieg’s. This is not least the case in that “Solvejg’s Song” is placed earlier than both “Ase’s Death” and “Anitra’s Dance”. Ending with Anitra, and thus in North Africa, ma kes Elling ton’s suite very different. At the same time, this makes perfect sense within the “Africanization” of the music arguably heard throughout the piece. One can approach Elling ton’s version from several angles. One possibility is to see it as a “whiteface” performance, in some kind of contrast to the “blackface” performances of minstrel culture. It is also a way “in which black subjects […] ‘answer back’” (Middleton 2006:78), a performance of doubling, a “double consciousness” or a practice of “Signifyin(g)”. These different dimensions are clearly heard throughout the music of Duke Elling ton, and not simply in his version of Peer Gynt. Elling ton’s music is a hybridization, not only of “jazz” (whatever that is), but of different forms of American and European music.9 The dialogue between different kinds of music, the always already polyphonic structure found therein, simultaneously “hides as it reveals, displays and displaces, seeks and secretes,” and is simultaneously “an aesthetics of mask and mimicry” (Middleton 2006:81). This, then, in other words, is consistent with the process of signifyin(g), which Henry Louis Gates Jr. defines, in The Signifying Monkey, as a “repetition and revision, or repetition with a signal difference” (Gates 1989:xxiv).10 Or, in accordance with 174 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=121http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=121Homi Bhabha’s discussion in The Location of Culture, almost “the same but not quite” and “the same but not white” (Bhabha 1994:89). In one sense, then, Peer Gynt becomes a trickster-figure – like the signifying monkey character within the African-American oral tradition Gates discusses – but some of these dimensions need Elling ton’s version to become audible. “Morning Mood” opens with long chords before Harry Carney on the baritone saxophone takes over with the melody being echoed by clarinets. The brass becomes a carpet around the woodwinds, while simultaneously alluding to a call-and-response structure between the different instruments. Still there can be no doubt that the baritone sax is the main instrument, and that the melodic representation of sunrise is fundamental. But then the ensemble comes in with “In the Hall of the Mountain King.” The sound of the instruments replays what for the early Duke Elling ton – that is, in the 1920s and 30s – was known as the “jungle sound” (Lock 1999:80ff). The term, of course, does not sound politically correct in any way. However, it is the sound that characterized much of Elling ton’s music at the Cotton Club in Harlem in the late 1920s. Here, a negotiation of stereoty pes is clearly at stake. The “jungle” is related to the image of the African-American musician, and it is also related to the historicity of this image – that is to say, how this image has travelled throughout discourse to become an image of the African-American. The “jungle sound” was not least a result of “wailing, growling brass” instruments, a sound jazz historian Marshall Stearns in 1956 described as “obscene”, but also, and simultaneously, as depicting “Africa” (cf. Lock 1999:80). “In the Hall of the Mountain King” is energetic, with the swinging hi-hat driving the movement. The saxophones initially present the theme before the brass comes in leading to a call-and-response between “pure” brass sound and the muted or plunged versions. The tones are not “clean”, but underscore what could be called the “jungle grain”. A similar duality is found in the piano solo, where Elling ton moves between blues phrases and themes built on an ordinary, diatonic scale. The “jungle sound”, however, has its roots, and some of these roots are, interestingly enough, European. In his book Pyramids at the Louvre, Glenn Watkins claims that Ellington “was not unaware of the critical reactions to Sidney Becket and Josephine Baker in the Revue nègre,” and argues that the “jungle numbers” in the Cotton Club from 1927 on testify to this (Watkins 1994:187). The first “jungle numbers” – “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” and “Black and Tan 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1752011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=122http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=122Fantasy” – were recorded in the spring of 1927, that is, before Ellington began playing at the Cotton Club. “Black and Tan Fantasy” is particularly interesting as an example of hybridity in music. It contains the cry, the field-holler, the Easter church piece “Holy City” played in the minor mode, and quotes Chopin’s “Funeral March” in its coda.11 Here, then, so-called “classical” music is used within the jungle-sound, thus arguably making it less strange that Ellington would, some 33 years later, apply a similar technique to Grieg’s music. Watkins further argues that Elling ton’s “jungle numbers” “were less an obligatory response to white racial stereotyping or a simple sop to Harlem tourism than a perpetuation of attitudes subtly balanced in the history of American minstrelsy, black music theater, and revues” (Watkins 1994:189). As such they also become, in Watkins’ view, “a reflection of the more recent phenomenon of the French-sponsored Revue négre aimed at Parisian high society” (ibid.). Here, then, we again find expressions travelling across the Atlantic. Dimensions of African-American culture were transferred to Paris, and came into vogue for the elite culture, whereupon they were transferred back to the USA, but this time with a difference. The jungles of modernity One key source on Elling ton at the Cotton Club is Marshall Stearns, who, in his The Story of Jazz (from 1956), describes what he saw and heard: I recall one where a light-skinned and magnificently muscled Negro burst through a papier-mâché jungle onto the dance floor, clad in an aviator’s helmet, goggles, and shorts. He had obviously been “forced down in darkest Africa,” and in the center of the floor he came upon a “white” goddess clad in long golden tresses and being worshipped by a circle of cringing “blacks”. Producing a bull whip from heaven knows where, the aviator rescued the blonde and they did an erotic dance. In the background, Bubber Miley, Tricky Sam Nanton, and other members of the Ellington band growled, wheezed, and snorted obscenely (Stearns, quoted in Watkins 1994:188). Graham Lock, quoting the same passage from Stearns, points to how “such depictions of ‘Africa’ were by no means new to American culture,” and mentions examples going back to the “Nubian Jungle Dance” of nineteenth-cen- 176 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=123http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=123tury minstrel shows, Bert Williams’s and George Walker’s In Dahomey (1902) and In Abyssinia (1906), as well as African-American musical revues of the 1920s (Lock 1999:80). This then, is the African-American context of the “jungle style”. But, as Watkins argued, there is also the possibility for a European inspiration, particularly the Parisian scene. With this historical context, the “jungle style” becomes more ambivalent. Petrine Archer-Straw argues, in her book Negrophilia, that the Parisian attitude towards these cultural expressions existed in intersections of “the primitive” and “the modern”, or, more exactly, that “primitivism” here became a sign of the modern (Archer-Straw 2000:51). The colonial history is clearly present, and it is difficult not to see a colonial fetishism at play. At the same time, things change when the depicted speak back. The historical backdrop is, among other things, the First World War, and a change in the 1920s self-understanding of modernity. As Archer-Straw writes: Jazz represented the pulse beat of modernity, in particular its speed and urban sense of every thing happening at the same time. Jazz thus mirrored modern life’s simultaneity, which obliterated a linear sense of time and space (Archer-Straw 2000:109). This intersection of the “primitive” and the “modern” was not solely a dimension of a more popular scene. One key musical work, linking the négrophilie to “classical” or “art” music, is the ballet Le Création du monde (The Creation of the World, 1923), with music composed by Darius Milhaud. And in more than one sense this work leads directly to La Revue nègre at the Théâtre Champs-Élysées in 1925, where Josephine Baker was introduced to the Parisian audience. The real Josephine Ba ker was a young Harlem-based dancer who developed her dancing techniques from mimicking the vaudeville act of “Bert and Bennie” at the Cotton Club. She was “street-smart” to the ways of Americans, but ill-prepared for the complex adoration of the French. Her willingness to pose naked for [French artist Paul] Colin and to dance topless on stage, however, transformed her into a mythical “black Venus”. On her début, when she was dressed solely in a ring of ba nana’s [sic] belted across her hip, her expressive dancing, combined with jazz, roused the audience (Archer-Straw 2000:117f). 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1772011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=124http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=124The famous depictions of Josephine Ba ker and the context of primitivism as the frame of interpretation are obvious. But this is not the whole story. As Watkins argues, this is also about a renegotiation of some of the basic categories for dividing cultural expressions, not least the division of “high” and “low” (Watkins 1994:102). Jazz and other vernacular styles of music became a part of “high art” and continued to be throughout the 1920s. But more than decadence or entertainment, this also testifies to how understandings of “high” and “low” were changing and in constant negotiation, not least as a way to depict “modern life”. These sounds, then, are not simply an image of “primitive” music; they are also highly modern, and are a result of different ideals of “sound” in a more abstract sense (cf. Middleton 2006:79ff).12 The “modernity” (or “modernism”) of the “jungle style” makes it necessary for us to re-interpret also the sounds of Elling ton. This music exists in the intersection between “primitivism” and “modernism” – perhaps these two even are, in a sense, “the same” – and as such might echo dimensions of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. It is, in a particular sense, what Miriam Bratu Hansen terms a “vernacular modernism” (Hansen 1999). The fact that the audience, in Europe and the USA alike, would rather hear the “primitivism” of “Africa” is not an argument against the “modern” side. The comparison to Stravinsky is not new; as early as 1931 journalists were comparing Elling ton with Stravinsky and Ravel (cf. Gioia 1997:201). And in a way similar to how it is almost impossible today to comprehend the scandalous effects The Rite of Spring had when it was first performed, it is similarly difficult to comprehend the radical nature of Elling ton’s Peer Gynt. But this is a modernization of Grieg. This is Grieg after the first generation of “modernist” composers. And so, contrary to the image of Elling ton barbarizing Peer Gynt, this is a modernization of the work. Sophisticated lady? “Solvejg’s Song” opens with a haunting clarinet before Lawrence Brown on the trombone takes over, bending and plunging the melody. This is Solvejg, and she sings – as the trombone clearly demonstrates – in a low register, with a bluesy feel to it. When the clarinet re-enters, the brass again references some “jungle” dimensions. But it is clearly the trombone taking the cues of “jungle style” into this song. What does this say about Solvejg? Here too Elling ton is 178 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=125http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=125signifyin(g), including references to his own work. The trombone as a solo instrument is within his oeuvre not least known from his “Sophisticated Lady”. In that song the trombone is used, in an almost cello-like manner, to represent “the Lady”. But Solvejg is perhaps not as sophisticated? Here too, the “jungle sound”, recognizable by the use of mutes, not least the plunger mute, is heard, and the song comes across as much more bluesy than Grieg could ever have imagined it. When Lawrence Brown did his version of “Sophisticated Lady”, it became controversial in the US; it was, as John Hammond wrote in 1935, “un-negroid” (cf. Lock 1999:121ff). Thus, Elling ton and his musicians didn’t live up to the expectations of the “Negroid” musician, whereas, it would seem, the “jungle sounds” did. Here too, then, we relate to important dimensions of how the history of music in the twentieth century is in desperate need of re-writing. But at the same time we also see dimensions pointing out why Elling ton’s Grieg could become controversial in Nor way. The two last movements of Elling ton’s suite are “Ase’s Death” and “Anitra’s Dance”. In “Ase’s Death” some elements of jungle style are heard, but it is first and foremost a dirge, resembling most of all some of the classic New Orleans funeral music scenes. It is not at all difficult to hear this as funeral music, but as funeral music it is not too farfetched to say that this too can be heard as a reference to “Black and Tan Fantasy”, with its reference to Chopin in the coda. Then the suite ends with “Anitra’s Dance”, which again is a swing number. Compared to the other movements of the suite, it has little presence of jungle style. Jonny Hodges’s saxophone sounds more subtle and sophisticated. Both the brass swells and the clarinet contain echoes of the earlier movements, but the presence of orientalism or primitivism is much less than one would expect given the context of this dance within the Ibsen/Grieg story.13 The presence of jungle style is, as I hope to have demonstrated in my discussion, ambivalent at best. There are no clear signs that jungle style should be taken at face value as an “authentic” sign of “the primitive”. Rather, Elling ton seems to play with the audience, or, perhaps more accurately, with some of his audience. At the Cotton Club, the audience was predominately white. Could they read Elling ton’s signifying? When Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses signifyin(g) as a practice of repetition and revision, he mentions the album Duke Elling ton and John Coltrane did together in 1962 (that is, two years after Elling ton’s Grieg-versions). This form of the double-voiced, he claims, “implies unity and resemblance rather than critique and difference” (Gates 1989:xxvii). The same 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1792011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=126http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=126can hardly be said about the Peer Gynt music. At the same time, the obvious differences between Elling ton’s and Grieg’s Peer Gynt’s do not necessarily lead to a “critique”. On the shores of the Atlantic When Peer Gynt finds himself on the southwest coast of Morocco, Monsieur Ballon asks: “You are Norwegian?”14 The first part of his answer is well known: by birth, yes, he is a Norwegian, but Peer then adds: “but cosmopolitan in spirit. For fortune such as I’ve enjoyed I have to thank America.”15 He continues naming countries and people – Germany, France, England, the Jew, Italy, and Sweden – a pretty global, even if European, scenario. But as quoted, the things that have brought him most happiness, he claims he has gotten from America. He is, remember, sitting in Morocco, and – as Homi Bhabha has written about Moroccan bars, whether in Tangiers or Casablanca – here time is of the essence (Bhabha 1994:182). As time goes by, what is important is repetition. Play it again. And this is what Duke Elling ton does with the music of Peer Gynt. Traveling across the At lantic, not once, but twice, this music reaches Norwegian airwaves, and the Nor wegians do not want to recognize it. It is, that is to say, strange music, an “other” music, or music of too much otherness. But for the history and aesthetics of musicology today, such other music – as well as how it resounds throughout the airwaves and around people – are what is all around. Play it again, and let the re-play fill the air. Like the many voices of St. Paul, none of these different kinds of music are without signification, and it is the task of future musicology to attempt to get to grips with this, leaving harmony and unisonance behind, and affirming the polyphony of the multitude. “The temporality of Tangiers,” Bhabha writes, “is a lesson in reading the agency of the social text as ambivalent and catachrestic” (Bhabha 1994:183). And this ambivalence is a result of noise that simultaneously makes the vocal the struggle for agency. The black noise of Elling ton’s orchestra challenges the presumed purity of Grieg’s music. But at the same time it brings out some of the cosmopolitan potential of this music. Between high and low – on both accounts – this repetition and revision keep the music alive as a challenge. No identity, but identity in difference, identity as a constant renegotiation. 180 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=127http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=127Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 “Til slottet vestenfor måne og slottet østenfor sol, til Soria-Moria-slottet gikk veien både høyt og lavt.” Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt (Ibsen 2005 [1867]:67). See Geir Rege, “Forbidden Love” (2007). Paul McCartney, “Ebony and Ivory” from Tug of War (1982); the song was a duet with Stevie Wonder. Michael Jackson, “Black or White” from Dangerous (1991). Cf. Mark Weiner 1997, in particular p. 251ff. and p. 324f, as well as Sander Gilman’s many contributions to this topic, not least Gilman 1985. This notion of comparative might also lead back to the “origins” of musicology, not least the “comparative musicology” (vergleichende Musikwissenschaft) of the early German version of musicology, a version that might interestingly be inserted into today’s different musicological debates (cf. Tomlinson 2003). There are similarities here to the discussions of history in the work of both Walter Benjamin (“On the Concept of History,” 2003 [1940]) and Stephen Greenblatt (Shakespearean Negotiations, 1988). In both, “the voices of the dead” are important historical sources. The character Å or Aa of the Nor wegian or Danish spelling of Åse/Aase, indicating a phonetic /o/, is changed to an English A in the title Elling ton used. As for the term “jazz”, it was never one Elling ton himself liked. He preferred to speak of his music as “American” music, but always with a strong identification to the black experience as part of the music. One could contemplate pluralizing the term “music” here, and writing instead musics, but I have chosen not to. Still, the references to music should be understood broadly. For the discussion of “Signifyin(g)” within a context of music, I am indebted to Tomlinson (1991). See Metzer (1997) for more on Elling ton’s quotes and references in “Black and Tan Fantasy”. See in this context also Middleton (2000), who with reference to Gilroy discusses what he calls the “Low-Other”. Analyzing the female figures in Peer Gynt, and not least the orientalism found there, is an intriguing project. See Jegersted (2007) and Høgåsen-Hallesby (2008 and in this volume) for interesting contributions. Monsieur Ballon: “De er jo norsk” (Ibsen 2006 [1867]:79). Peer Gynt: “Av fødsel, ja. Men verdensborger av gemytt. For hva jeg har av lyk ken nytt, jeg tak ke kan Amerika” (Ibsen 2006 [1867]:79). 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1812011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=128http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=128References Adorno, Theodor W. 2002. Essays on Music. Berkeley: University of Ca lifornia Press. Adorno, Theodor W. and Max Horkheimer. 1997 [1947]. Dialectic of Enlightenment. London: Verso. Archer-Straw, Petrine. 2000. Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s. London: Thames & Hudson. Benjamin, Walter. 2003 [1940]. “On the Concept of History.” In Walter Benjamin, Selected Writings, Volume 4 – 1938–1940. Cambridge, MA: Har vard University Press. Bhabha, Homi. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge. Chambers, Iain. 2001. 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London: Continuum. 6 Hunting High and Low: Duke Ellington’s Peer Gynt Suite 1832011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=130http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=130Discography Elling ton, Duke. Early Elling ton: The Original American Decca Recordings. MCA GRP 36402, 1994. [CD.] [Includes “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo” and “Black and Tan Fantasy,” both originally released in 1927.] Ellington, Duke. Swinging Suites by Edward E. & Edward G. Grieg: Peer Gynt Suites Nos. 1 & 2; Ellington/Strayhorn: Suite Thursday. Columbia CS 8397, 1960 [LP.] Reissued on CD Sony Music Col 472364-2, 1980. Jackson, Michael. Dangerous. Epic 465802 2, 1991. [CD.] [Includes “Black or White.”] McCartney, Paul. Tug of War. Columbia TC 37462, 1982. [LP.] [Includes “Ebony and Ivory,” duet with Stevie Wonder.] 184 Music and Identity in Norway and Beyond2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=131http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=1312011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=132http://capellamedia.ipapercms.dk/Fagbokforlaget/FagbokforlagetA/2011/MusicandIdentityinNorwayandBeyond/?Page=132The papers in this interdisciplinary volume explore the theme of music and identity from the perspectives of ethnomusicology, musicology, sociology, performance and music therapy in case studies employing approaches focused through the specific lenses of nation, race, religion, gender, diaspora, and health. The contents are organized in two sections. The first section critiques various ways in which the music of Edvard Grieg has been appropriated in projects of national identity construction in Norway. This perspective is extended beyond Norway in the second section into studies of racial, religious and diasporic musical identities. The premise that identity is not an essence carried within people’s bodies or within musical sounds constitutes a common point of departure for the argument that identity is instead socially, historically and culturally imagined, constructed, performed, experienced, contested and negotiated. The contributors draw on a wide range of contemporary social and cultural theory, with a particular emphasis on postcolonial theory, in explorations of the ways in which music serves as a powerful resource for identity work and the means by which people attribute meaning to musical sounds in particular cultural and historical contexts. Thomas Solomon is Associate Professor (ethnomusicology) at the Grieg Academy − Department of Music at the University of Bergen. www.fagbokforlaget.no ISBN 978-82-450-1112-8 ,!7II2E5-abbbci!2011-04-07T12:17:34+02:00