First concert exam, mock shooting and my very real fear
So, that was January 2011. I can’t believe it’s gone so quickly. I cannot believe it’s 25 years since the ‘Challenger’ space shuttle disaster. Time just keeps on moving. Which is why, I guess, if you want to learn something, it pays to be patient and focused and just keep on plodding.
So, with that in mind, I’m going to finish this cup of tea, see if I can get my fiddle fixed by a local mender and practise for my first exam concert on Thursday evening. Eeek. I actually feel quite nervous about it.
The aim of my study is to work on my own ‘voice’. Obviously, I am and always will be a Scottish fiddler. But, I feel very at home on the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle and want to learn more about the instrument and how best to play it. The best way to learn the instrument is, I believe, to learn the music created specially for it. But, me playing Norwegian Hardanger fiddle music sounds not dissimilar to me speaking Norwegian!
So, on Thursday, I have to play, for the first time, Norwegian folk music on the Hardanger fiddle in front of an audience. The Hardanger is a polyphonic instrument, in comparison to the fiddle. So, double the work! Fingers proverbially (and, hopefully, only proverbially) crossed.
But, the thing that I’m most nervous about, actually, is doing a free improvisation with the wonderful double bass player, Bjørn Kjellemyr. The starting point for the improvisation is a Gaelic air, The Song of Death. I’m definitely not a skilled improviser, having only had 4 lessons! Oh well, it should be fun for me, if nothing (should that read ‘no-one’?) else.
On Saturday, I’ll be taking one of the world’s most beautiful train trips as I go from Oslo to Bergen. I’m playing at Columi Egg in Bergen on Monday evening and decided to go a few days early and maybe visit some folk. Apparently, Finn Vabø lives on a nearby island. My teacher has been teaching me a lot of tunes he learnt from Finn, so I really hope we can meet. I hope my Norwegian is up to it!
Speaking of which, I’m starting Norwegian evening classes this evening. I think it’s going to be pretty intense. Two evenings and five hours a week, plus homework, on top of my full-time studies. But, it’s necessary. At the moment, whenever I speak, people laugh or smile at me, as if I’m the cutest (er, weirdest) little alien they’ve ever seen. It’s a little bit like speaking with a Scottish accent in the States…
I don’t know why mentioning the States reminds me of guns, but I’m ashamed to say it does. Yesterday, as we were walking from our weekly flea market visit, we saw what I guess were some film students. One was filming a moving, white van, the side door of which was open, revealing a man with a mock gun, pretending to shoot at the buildings and the passersby. I’m glad to say, I didn’t get ‘shot at’.
Whilst this may have been pretend, the event I saw a couple of weeks ago most certainly wasn’t. Juhani and I were walking home through the snow from a Sacred Harp gig. In the middle of the inevitable post-gig analysis, we saw (and heard) a car repeatedly speeding at someone, trying to hit him. I ended up screaming “NO! NO! NOOOO!”. The man slid off the bonnet, clambered to the pavement, someone who had been shouting at us bystanders jumped into the car, and it sped off. My mind had shut down through sheer terror for this man, so it didn’t register that the car had gone (although I had watched it go) and I was left still screaming “NO!”. I only realised I was screaming when Juhani asked me to stop, at which point I noticed that everyone was now staring at me! I don’t know what someone can have done for others to believe he ‘deserved’ to be potentially killed and I don’t care to imagine either.
It’s a funny thing; Oslo really feels like a safe, calm place, where displays of anger on the street are almost non-existent. But, I have now seen two disturbing events in only 5 months of being here. My reaction to the second was interesting. The people involved were non-Caucasian. I know it’s a terrible thing to confess, but for a few days afterwards, I realised my sub-conscience was associating all non-Caucasians with the terror I had felt. Ridiculous, I know, but it was an interesting insight into how terror, racism, and terror-based politics can work. All is calm again inside, thankfully.
Speaking of different nationalities / backgrounds, I have a close friend in Scotland who’s just been told that her work-sponsored visa is coming to an end, due to the government having changed the requirements for work-sponsored visas. Her employers have been given one month’s notice to stop employing her, or they will be heavily penalised. They desperately need her skills and do not have time to find a suitable replacement. My friend has one month to get out of the country. She has to give 2 months notice for her lease, but the government can give her only one month’s notice to leave her home, job and the continent. I’m shocked.
Well, this is definitely a more serious blog. But, it’s a serious world…
Sarah-Jane
PS Did you know that the word, ‘clamber’, possibly comes from the Middle English, ‘clamb’, past participle of ‘climb’?
Posted by Sarah-Jane on February 1st, 2011.
Har du det bra?
Sounds mighty real. Hows the Norwegian classes going?
Wil du spele file en Stavanger Tall Skips en Juli?
Am in Shetland then and looking to stowaway across the water.
C
Hi! Really wierd that I came across your blog – I was looking for funding to come to Oslo myself – May25th-June 7th as all funding seems to be disappearing here in the UK due to the cuts. Then I read about you studying the hardanger fiddle & thought to myself, I wonder if she can help me out…do you know of anywhere I can hire a room for the above dates quite cheaply? Anywhere at all? I’m coming to the NIME Conference & another Electronic Conference. I’m a composer coming to work at NOTAM & work with instrumentalists from the Conservatory to create a new work for the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival & Visionas Sonoras, Mexico…it’s getting tough to focus due to money pressures..so if you have any ideas at all..I don’t mean a hotel room either – I probably have about £300 tops for the 13 days..for accommodation..
I would love to hear you playing hardanger fiddle. I’m seen as a a bit wierd for an electronic composer as I love the accordian & am am a huge fan of Frode Haltli who I hope to write for one day. I’m hoping during this trip to work a little closer to this great goal.
you can check me out on the CERENEM pages of University of Huddersfield / i’m legit..!!
With the very best of wishes, Rose