I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: BUKKENE BRUSE-The Loveliest Rose (2002).

I’m not entirely sure how I came to own this disc.  But I’m so glad I do.  This is a Christmas album from one of Norway’s traditional ensembles (pronounced: BUH-kayna BREW-sah).  They have been around since the 1990s and have toured extensively around the world.  This is their only Christmas album.  It was recorded in an Oslo church.

The album features four players on some great traditional instruments: Arve Moen Bergset – vocals, violin & Hardingfele; Annbjørg Lien – Hardingfele & nyckelharpa; Steinar Ofsdal – flute; Bjørn Ole Rasch – pipe organ.

The album is a wonderful collection of music.  I prefer the instrumentals, although Bergset does have a lovely singing voice.  What I found most interesting is that the sound of the music conveyed many non-Norwegian feelings.  I heard some Irish sounding traditional music and even some Native American (the flute in the final song).

The pipe organ sounds amazing and the fiddle, especially on “Father Fiddled on Christmas Eve” is fantastic.

Nine of the songs are traditional, the rest are written by the band, aside from St. Sunniva, the opening of which comes from ELP’s “Karn Evil 9, 3rd impression (I kid you not–it is quite stripped down here).

I really love this non-traditional traditional Christmas album.  I’m including the track listing mostly because I wanted to have all of this Norwegian in a post.

1.   A Child Is Born in Bethlehem «Eit barn er født i Betlehem» (3:18) [great flute and a surprisingly catchy hallelujah]
2.   Lullaby for Julie «Lullámus» (3:15) [great sound of the Hardanger fiddle which has two drone strings]
3.   Spirit of the Grove «Haugebonden» (5:14) [a gorgeous melody]
4.   Christmas Eve «Juleftan» (3:38) [unusual fiddle sounds and an unusual and captivating melody]
5.   My Heart is with Jesus «Mit Hjerte Altid Vanker» (6:32) [the pipe organ really elevates this song]
6.   St. Sunniva «St. Sunniva» (3:44) [organ and fiddle together in this Irish sounding song]
7.   A Little Child So Pleasant/In the Sweet Christmas Time «Et lidet barn saa lystelig / I denne søde juletid» (7:20) [beautiful flute and solo violin]
8.  Father Fiddled on Christmas Eve «Så spela far juleftan» (3:02) [that cool, unusual fiddle is back]
9.  The Loveliest Rose has Been Found «Den fagraste rosa er funni» (2:35) [the voice is really great on this one]
10.  Christmas Gangar «Romjulsgangar» (3:22) [beautiful fiddle and flute dance with some unusual sounds from both instruments]
11. For Such Generous Gifts «For saadan’ mildheds gaver» (2:53) [a New Year’s tune that is rather haunting, I must say]

[READ: December 14, 2014] Novocento

In continuing with my obsessive reading of all things Baricco, I had to interlibrary loan this book from Johns Hopkins.

Novocento is confusingly titled because that is the Italian title as well and although it is a number (which could be translated) in this book it actually refers to a person, which would not get translated–so look carefully for the English edition (done by Oberon) and wonderfully translated by Ann Goldtsein).  It was designed as a play (and this edition is the play).  However, it is a one man monologue (with music ion the performance), so it doesn’t “read” like a play.

The book is 56 pages long.  They have also made a movie out of it (called The Legend of 1900, not just 1900 which is a different movie).  Amazingly the movie is 170 minutes (Italian version) and 120 minutes (international).  That must be a lot of music.

The story is simple, Novocento, as he is called, was born on a ship–an ocean liner that transported people primarily from Europe to America in the early 20th century.  His parents were undoubtedly lower class and left him on the piano aboard the boat (we don’t hear their story at all).  One of the crew finds him and names him Danny Boodman T.D. Lemon Novocento.  Danny Boodman is the man who found him, T.D. Lemon was on the side of the box he was left in and Novocento was the year.

Novocento lived his entire life on this boat, never setting foot on land.  And when he was eight years old he somehow magically learned how to play the piano.  And he became a master.  People would go on the ocean liner just to hear him and when they landed they would talk about him more than anything else.

Word even made it to Jelly Roll Morton.  Jelly Roll heard about him and booked a voyage just to be able to challenge him to a piano duel.  It is described wonderfully (with Morton in his finery and Novocento being somewhat clueless about just what is expected of him).  It was a great moment in the story.  As is an earlier scene where he is “waltzing” the piano with the waves.  Baricco describes it perfectly and I can picture it so exactly that I wonder if it looks like I imagine in the film

The narrator of the story is Novocento’s friend and a fellow crew member.  I loved the way the story began in the middle with an amazing description of people on ships and how there is always one person who sees America first (it sounds obvious, but is so poetically described).  The narrator has a great, slightly incredulous tone that makes the story move briskly and stay somehow surprising.

The end of the story shifts perspective a little bit (I wonder how it looked in the theater) and we finally get to see what’s going on inside Novcento’s head.

There must be something in the way that Baricco can weave a story with so much information in such a short span of pages.  It’s not that he skimps on details or emotion, he is simply efficient and powerful in his writing (and Goldstein does a great job translating him).

There are three more Baricco books that have been translated into English which I have not read: Lands of Glass, Ocean Sea and City.  Each of them is longer than the ones I have already read and I am a little bit nervous to read his longer books because I think his shorter ones are just so damned good.  But I will press on.  There are some other books of his that have not been translated, and I rather hope they get the treatment as well.  Even the non-fiction.  I’m particularly curious about L’anima di Hegel e le mucche del Wisconsin (The soul of Hegel and the Cows of Wisconsin).