ヴェートラ / 私のノルウェーの冬

民俗楽器とクラシック楽器の室内アンサンブルによるノルウェー民俗音楽の世界

「ヴェートラ」とはノルウェーのヴァルドレス方言で冬を意味する言葉で、このアルバムでは、ノルウェーの冬にまつわる民俗音楽を収録しています。ノルウェー各地の人里離れた村や小さなコミュニティで演奏され、歌われ、人から人へと直接受け継がれてきた曲や民謡のメロディーを「素材」とし、その過程で伝統音楽と呼べるスタイルに形作られたこれらの音楽は、その土地の自然や動物の生態、季節、人々などと密接に結びついています。演奏はノルウェーのミュージシャンによるもので、ヘムシングの弾くヴァイオリン状の民俗楽器「ハルダンゲル・フィドル」とヴァイオリンのほか、ツィター状の民俗楽器「ランゲレイク」が2名、トランペット1名、パーカッション1名、ヴィオラ1名、チェロ1名、コントラバス1名というユニークなアンサンブルで聴かせています。

Most of the ground on this release has been covered in the past by one performer or another. Norways Hardanger fiddle is not the obscurity it once was, and Norwegian performers and composers have long drawn deeply on the countrys folk heritage. Hardanger fiddler and violinist Ragnhild Hemsing uses electronic accompaniments on a few tracks, and the theme of winter in Scandinavia is hardly an unfamiliar one (Vetra is a term for winter in the dialect of Hemsings native Valdres region). However, what makes this album unique is that it weaves together all these precedents. Playing both Hardanger fiddle and a modern violin, Hemsing situates the album between the classical and folk worlds. The album is based on traditional materials collected in the 19th century by organist and folklorist Ludwig Mathias Lindeman, but Hemsing, looking appropriately priestess-like in the graphics, also contributes five new pieces of her own. There are no vocals, but some of the traditional pieces had religious significance, and the musics winter narrative touches lightly on Christmas themes. The result is that the music seems to have a hidden narrative that remains at a mystical level, just out of reach, and another result is that the album landed on classical best-seller lists in the late autumn of 2023; it certainly qualifies as a fresh and offbeat winter holiday release. ~ James Manheim