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Great Performances S53E16
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00:04I'm Scott Yu, coming up on Great Performances.
00:09Iceland. It's so incredible here.
00:12It is.
00:13With a tiny population.
00:15There are 400,000 people here.
00:17400,000, we just hit.
00:18Just hit.
00:19Yeah.
00:19Iceland produces some of the best music and composers in the world.
00:23Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
00:25How do they do it?
00:29I'd explore Iceland's amazing landscapes.
00:32So this is the cone of a volcano that went off.
00:37Wow.
00:39And modern architecture.
00:43And traditions.
00:45This is the center place of Icelandic culture through centuries.
00:49It's really small in here.
00:52And, of course, food.
00:54Oh, my God.
00:58To find out how this brilliant, sunlit,
01:03rainy,
01:05volcanic land of extremes
01:07creates a people overflowing with music.
01:11Come with me on the next Now Hear This
01:14to unravel the mystery of the Iceland sound.
01:22Major funding for Great Performances is provided by...
01:30And by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.
01:39I went to Iceland to find out why this tiny country is so prolific in music.
01:45But I began with a trip down into a volcano.
01:51To get there, I had to cross a long lava field with the Cantok Chorus and our guide, Jonas Birgeson.
01:58First stop, a cabin at base camp.
02:08Why is Iceland such fertile ground for art and culture?
02:13I mean, per capita, it's got to be a world leader, right?
02:17I mean, Iceland, I'm told, released about 500 albums last year, which is quite a bit for the country.
02:23Almost two a day.
02:24Yeah.
02:25There are 400,000 people here.
02:26400,000.
02:27Just hit.
02:28Just hit.
02:28Yeah.
02:29That's one every 800 people per year.
02:32Yeah.
02:33So is everybody an artist here?
02:35I mean, that seems like it's almost normal here.
02:37I like to believe kinda.
02:40Yeah.
02:41I mean, if you look at Iceland's history, Iceland has always been riddled with music, singing, performances.
02:47Nobody visited us for centuries.
02:49Yeah.
02:50So we were basically just trying to, yeah, entertain ourselves over long winters and dark nights.
02:56In my opinion as well, I mean, Iceland having, being a very kind of small, close-knit society,
03:00if you want to release a single, if you want to make an album.
03:05You kind of have the feeling that you can always call someone.
03:08You are always one phone call away from someone to work with you.
03:11To help you and help you out.
03:12And everybody also believes that they can.
03:15It's not a passive waiting until something works out.
03:17It's a, it's a, do the first thing that comes to mind and it'll work out somehow.
03:21Yeah.
03:21We are doers.
03:22It's awesome.
03:23We're doers in Iceland.
03:24Yeah.
03:25Are you guys going to sing something?
03:26Yeah, we could do that.
03:27Since we're going to be going underground, we could sing a song about a man who's already underground.
03:32He's in the grave.
03:33It's called in Icelandic grafskrift, which means epitaph.
03:37And it says here in the ground lies Simon du Clemensson and it's talking about...
03:41When he was born, who he was married to.
03:44And then his dream, right, of becoming a knight.
03:47He was not a knight.
03:49He was a farmer.
03:51But he wanted to be a knight.
03:52He had big dreams.
03:53Yeah.
03:54Typical Icelandic way of going for it.
03:56It was, it was, was farmer or knight on, on his tombstone?
04:00Yeah.
04:01Knight, right?
04:03So he lived a farmer, but he died a knight.
04:04Yeah.
04:05Let's hear it.
04:05So let's, let's honor his memory.
04:07Yeah.
04:08Dean Gordon, Let's hear it.
04:31That's now
04:46We'll get back to the volcano.
04:48For now, I wanted to take in more of Iceland's legendary landscapes.
04:52So I went to the south coast where Efi Ejolfsson builds instruments of an unusual material.
04:58So this was a lava flow.
05:00Yeah.
05:01And it ends here because it hit the water.
05:03Yeah.
05:17With us was Jofrider Akastotter, but her artist name is easier for me to say, J.F.D.R.
05:29So Efi, here's your driftwood.
05:32Yes.
05:32This is what we've been looking for.
05:35This one has nails in it.
05:37Yeah.
05:37Makes it a little more interesting, doesn't it?
05:40Wood with history.
05:42Where is it from, you think?
05:44Well, typically driftwood comes from Siberia.
05:48Really?
05:48All the way from there, yeah.
05:50So why were they making the instruments out of driftwood?
05:54Why weren't they making them out of just native wood?
05:57Most of settled history, we didn't have any forests.
06:01I mean, when the Vikings came, the accounts say that 40% of the country apparently was birch
06:08trees.
06:09But they soon disappeared.
06:12They used it for houses, firewood, et cetera.
06:14So driftwood has been a very important source of material.
06:21Should we bring it up there?
06:22Yeah, let's do it.
06:23Cool.
06:38So this is a longspiel.
06:40Yes, this is it.
06:42Longspiel is the traditional instrument of Iceland.
06:45This is what I like about the longspiel is because not so much is known about how exactly
06:50it looked.
06:51So you're quite free to interpret it.
06:53Exactly.
06:53It's very much in tune with folk traditions, but still it's a part of a big family of drone
07:00zithers.
07:01I would say the American equivalent is the dulcimer, Appalachian dulcimer.
07:06And therefore, the most famous longspiel player in the world is Dolly Parton.
07:11She plays the dulcimer very well.
07:13So you have the bows out.
07:16How do you play one of those?
07:17Yes, in Iceland we played with bow traditionally.
07:19So you might just like play the drone strings first, and then you pick up the melody string.
07:36Like that.
07:38But you can also pluck it, which is quite nice.
07:51And also, if you would drone with me, you have these…
08:00Exactly.
08:01Yeah, very nice.
08:02And then you can also hammer it like this.
08:14But traditionally they would be used for accompaniment.
08:17Accompaniment of?
08:18Singing.
08:19Nice.
08:19Yeah.
08:20So can you play something on the longspiel so I can hear a piece?
08:25Yeah, yeah, yeah.
08:26Would you mind playing with me a bit?
08:28Sure, the drone.
08:30Sorry.
08:42To know.
09:00Böndir, blán, sól, salí, söðlux upp í lignum dalí.
09:07Böndir, fólkið hafa hana að galið, fyrsta skemmdun bænum á.
09:13Fagur galaði fuglins á.
09:17Og það fleiri fugla galið fríðum sumar stundi.
09:23Lista maðurinn lengi þar við um til.
09:37Það fleiri fuglins á.
09:43Unn ásblán úr öllum maktum.
09:47Hefði sætum yngga maktum.
09:51Svingi bara í grasa gáttum.
09:53Gjörði tíð á enda klár.
09:56Fagur galaði fuglins á.
10:00Skjópa líði langtjana báttum.
10:02Lægst þar allt í blundi.
10:06Lista maðurinn lengi þar við um til.
10:08Það fleirið á.
10:28Það fleirið á.
10:32an old Lutheran church in the center of Reykjavik to meet musicologist, author, and historian
10:38Arne Hamer Ingolfsson.
10:40I guess you could say that for most of Icelandic music history, Iceland was kind of stuck in
10:45the Middle Ages.
10:46Iceland was settled by Norwegians in the 9th century, but the earliest music that we have
10:51here is church music because Iceland was Christianized around the year 1000.
10:56And so for a very long time, the only music that Icelanders were singing and performing
11:01was folk music and music for the church.
11:05And there are a few different types of Icelandic folk songs, but one of the unusual, I would
11:11say probably for people outside Iceland, is a type of singing called Tvírsöngur, which
11:16really just means singing in two parts.
11:18Okay.
11:19Well, that's pretty common.
11:20That's pretty common.
11:21The interesting thing is that the intervals between the two lines that are being sung are
11:27always parallel fifths.
11:29Like all the time?
11:30All the time.
11:31Really?
11:32And parallel fifths, as we know, are forbidden in classical music.
11:37I mean, that's one of the first rules that you learn when you take a beginning theory
11:40class.
11:41Sure, sure.
11:41Is no parallel fifth.
11:43Sure.
11:43And it sounds to us really quite strange.
11:47Yeah, you know.
11:56It sounds quite archaic and a bit sort of grim, but these parallel fifths are part of what
12:02makes Icelandic music really unusual.
12:07At Hallgrimskyrkja, Iceland's great cathedral, their choir was ready to give me an example.
12:23The first half of the year, who says, is the name of the Lord, their choir is the name of
12:36the Lord, their choir is the name of the Lord, their choir.
12:57These harmonies may be unique to Icelandic music, but they sound pretty great to me.
13:08So Icelanders sang like this for a very long time, and we have a whole repertory of songs.
13:12So when did everything change?
13:14Everything started to change in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, partly
13:19because this is a time when Iceland is starting its push towards independence.
13:23Iceland was part of the Danish kingdom, and there's a sense that if we want to become
13:28a nation among nations, then we need a national theatre, a national gallery, a symphony orchestra,
13:35a music school.
13:36The infrastructure had to be there.
13:38That's a very sort of enlightened leadership.
13:42Yes, yes, exactly.
13:44So out of this movement, were there some good composers that came out of it?
13:48Absolutely.
13:49One of the first Icelandic composers to really have a strong impact was Jon Leifs.
13:56Leifs.
13:56Leifs.
13:57He was very occupied with this idea of what does Iceland sound like?
14:03And creating a broader style that was based on the elements.
14:07You know, you have this vast wilderness and you have these expanses of very quiet, calm,
14:13but then also this unpredictable nature that can often be quite violent as well.
14:19So this idea of really trying to recreate Iceland musically.
14:31I wanted to ask one of Iceland's best contemporary composers, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, how she interprets
14:38Iceland in her music.
14:39We're going into a bit darker space, there's a, there's a nice big space we're gonna rehearse
14:44in.
14:45Okay.
14:59My friend, the cellist Johannes Moser, was here to perform her new concerto.
15:11Yeah.
15:12Yeah.
15:13Wonderful.
15:13And I love how you, how you start on the C string.
15:17It really kind of manifests this dark opening.
15:22So actually, Anna, I had a question about, you ask for some special effects and you ask
15:29for, um, non-pitched notes, so they're not like, but they're actually more like scratchy sounds.
15:37For example, we have something like, or we have some pitchless sounds like, so I'm trying
15:45to see what you had in mind, actually.
15:48I do think about them like any other melody.
15:51For me, it is about the musical, um, material.
15:56It's like you get a shadow of a pitch.
15:59So it's something very simple, like...
16:08Can be really musical without being really, you can almost not even hear the pitches.
16:14You know, Anna, your music has so much texture in it and so much space.
16:20And I'm wondering if the geography of Iceland somehow has informed your creation.
16:27It's not unlikely because, I mean, I grew up here in Iceland.
16:32My roots are here.
16:34And even though I've lived abroad for many, many years, it lives with me in my music.
16:39The sense of space and the sense of the wind is almost always blowing and you have all
16:46these sounds connected to that.
16:48It's not that I'm trying to take a natural element and put it into music.
16:53It's more that it becomes an inspiration and manifests as a, as this combination of textures
16:59and lyricism and harmonies.
17:01It's, yeah.
17:10Their rehearsal was happening in Harpa, the magnificent concert hall that's also an interpretation
17:16of Iceland.
17:18I talked to CEO Svanhildr Konradsdottir.
17:24What motivated the design of this building?
17:28I mean, it's so unique.
17:30Icelandic nature.
17:31And the architects, they, they actually did travel to the highlands of Iceland to get inspiration.
17:36So it's, it's very direct.
17:38You can see it in the facade of the building where you have the formation of the basalt columns
17:43you find in Icelandic nature.
17:45You see it in the black color of the walls and the floor, which are the black sands.
17:50You see it in the cascading staircases, you know, that are the waterfalls of Iceland.
17:55And you see it, of course, in Eldborg, which is our main concert hall.
17:59And that is the volcanic, fiery heart of Harpa.
18:07What makes Iceland absolutely unique is the light.
18:13And this building could only have been made in Iceland.
18:18Wow.
18:23Icelandic nature is full of contrasts.
18:27I mean, we have these magnificent mountains.
18:30You have these empty spaces up in the highlands.
18:33You know, the black lava, the fire in the volcanoes, geothermal energy.
18:39So it's, it's full of energy and full of life.
18:42So it, it really seeps into the expression of artists.
18:48And I guess, all of us.
18:52In the basement of Harpa is the percussion room where Eckert Pahls and Stefan Osterhut showed me some instruments made.
19:00For that Iceland sound.
19:02Jan Leifs.
19:03Jan Leifs.
19:03I know him.
19:04You've heard of him.
19:04Of course.
19:05He's famous here.
19:06Oh, yes, he is, actually.
19:07And what does Hekla mean?
19:09Hekla is a volcano.
19:10Probably one of our most renowned volcanoes.
19:13So this is a big piece.
19:15It is a very big piece.
19:17It was nominated at some point to be the loudest pieces ever written.
19:22Oh, really?
19:23It requires a big orchestra, 18 or 19 percussionists.
19:28God, that's like more percussionists than first violinists.
19:32With everything ranging from snare drums to cannons and chains.
19:38Chains too?
19:38Chains, yes.
19:39Are these the chains?
19:40These are actually the chains.
19:42You just pull it to play it?
19:44Steve, would you do me the honors?
19:46One, two, three, four.
19:54This is probably not for the softer parts of it.
19:57Right.
19:59Does this show up in Hekla as well?
20:01This is there as well.
20:02This is not very subtle.
20:04Not really, no.
20:05No.
20:05He writes for Big Hammer, played on wood, any wood.
20:10I can give you a demonstration.
20:12Okay.
20:14Oh, God!
20:19This is mezzo piano.
20:20Whoa!
20:22And what is this made out of?
20:24This is made from a piece of driftwood.
20:26No kidding.
20:27Which, yeah, there's a lot of driftwood in Iceland.
20:29It's beautiful.
20:31It is very nice.
20:31It's an instrument.
20:32It's beautiful.
20:33Yeah.
20:33The instrument should look nice.
20:35Yeah, it does.
20:35It's really nice.
20:36Hey, what are these cymbal-looking things here?
20:39These are the scudi.
20:40They are shields, musical shields.
20:44Can I try this one?
20:45Absolutely.
20:46All right.
20:46Let's see.
20:48Okay, so.
20:52I probably don't have your technique.
20:54You're hired.
20:54You're hired.
20:55Wow.
20:56Excellent.
20:56So, does this show up in a Leif's piece as well?
20:59Yes.
21:00Several.
21:01Really?
21:01Several.
21:02We premiere these pieces.
21:04Can I hear some Leif's just with some of these percussion instruments to sort of understand
21:10the sound?
21:11Yeah.
21:11We'll call the team in.
21:28Sorry of fünf, confidential, help, maybe.
21:30My mouth will also be a family member then, because she's to the music singer.
21:30We're taking Ott.
21:48Help me as crazy.
21:48Well, that's the sound Network.
21:49Amazing to play football.
21:49No way, no more.
21:49Jar, beaming.
21:50Enjoy.
21:50Bye!
21:56Hey, pa Jahre!
22:12Speaking of volcanoes, it was time for me to go down into this one.
22:37You're going to descend about 400 feet all the way down to the bottom.
22:41If you look down on that side there, you're going to see all the way down to the bottom.
22:45So this is the cone of a volcano that went off 4,000 years ago.
22:51About 4,500 years ago, you would be swimming in lava right now.
22:55But you're going to go through the same way that the lava came out.
22:59Everything that you see around here was made in the eruption itself.
23:03The only way you have land in Iceland is erupting volcanoes.
23:07And so, I mean, Iceland forever has lived with the reality of eruptions.
23:12Iceland erupts on average every four to five years.
23:15It's getting colder.
23:16It is.
23:17If it feels a whole lot warmer very quickly, let us know.
23:28Inside a volcano seemed like a fitting place for another traditional Icelandic song.
23:34And inovible kalاشs, it's getting colder.
23:42It's getting likely in person's hair already.
23:48Then when it opens the sun and comes back.
23:58It's such a 탄pile as human as the sun is now.
24:03En ny så värdig fri
24:08Och heimur vi veit var
24:13Växend och skål i sig
24:18Älgjast liv vid mig helvig
24:24Av er falsk var ju dit
24:34A more recent eruption happened
24:37On Iceland's Westman Islands
25:03The entire town had to be evacuated
25:07To the mainland
25:14At their Eltheimer Volcano Museum
25:16I saw firsthand
25:18How Iceland's volcanoes
25:20Shaped their lives
25:21With director Christine Johansdotter
25:24So this house was excavated
25:27And then they built the museum around it
25:30Yeah, that's right
25:31This house is one of 350 houses
25:36That were destroyed
25:37In the Vulcan eruption 1973
25:39It was not only lava
25:42Also millions, billions of tons of ash
25:45Ash
25:46This volcano ash
25:46There were around 60 meters
25:49On the top of this
25:50You know, it's really
25:51I mean, it's incredible
25:53You see ash and lava
25:56But it's also kind of personal
25:59And poignant to see
26:01Like a spoon or a light bulb
26:03Or a piece of jewelry
26:05Or a piece of clothing
26:06You have to keep in mind
26:08We didn't have any warning
26:09And it was just
26:11You have to leave now
26:12So they just took
26:14The very most important things
26:17And then they left
26:18Many of the people
26:20Did lose everything that night
26:22But we had a lot of luck
26:24We can say that
26:25Because there were a lot of damage
26:26But nobody died
26:29Were you actually here on the island that night?
26:34Yes
26:34What happened?
26:36My father did wake me up
26:37And my brothers
26:38We were all sleeping
26:40And he was kind of upset
26:44I did hear him saying many times
26:47Oh my God
26:47Oh my God
26:48We did look out of our windows
26:52And we saw it was like a wall of fire
26:55Like the east part of the island were burning
26:58We were told that
27:00We should go to the harbor
27:02And leave
27:04So our father
27:06He did bring me and my brothers
27:07To one of the fishing boats
27:10And he did stay
27:12He stayed here all the time
27:13And he was joining the rescue teams
27:16And that was not undangerous
27:18Because nobody knows
27:20What vulcuna was going to do
27:22So this is a pretty common thing in Iceland
27:24A volcanic eruption
27:26Something will just completely change somebody's life
27:29Change a family's life
27:31Change a town's life
27:32The guests ask how can you live here?
27:35Aren't you afraid of the next volcano?
27:38And then they say no, I'm not
27:39We can deal with the nature
27:41We are quite sure about that
27:42Nature can change our life of course
27:45But we have to live with that in Iceland
28:09Lava from the volcano
28:11Flowing into the sea
28:12Added more than four square miles
28:14To the island
28:15Something that Westman Shep Giesley Matt
28:18Uses to his advantage
28:20So here we're walking on new land
28:24There was nothing
28:25We were just at the sea here
28:27Like around 50 years ago
28:29Really?
28:30Yeah
28:31So Giesley, what are we looking for here?
28:34So we're looking for oyster leaves
28:36Okay
28:36And the amazing thing about it
28:39It has a slight flavor of oysters
28:42Oh really?
28:43Just raw oysters
28:44Really?
28:45Definitely not the texture of an oyster
28:47But the taste is there
28:50So here it is
28:51Okay
28:51I was once working at a restaurant
28:53Called Elevnansom Park
28:55This is in New York
28:57Oh sure, it's very famous
28:58Very famous
28:59I was doing like an internship
29:02And I was asked to cook a dish
29:04And I only had 30 minutes to do so
29:07And they told me I could use everything in the kitchen
29:10Except for foie gras, truffles and oyster leaves
29:14And back then I had never heard of oyster leaves
29:16They were importing them fresh from Alaska
29:19And paying one dollar per leaf
29:23And there I was standing just like
29:26I've seen this before
29:29You grew up with this
29:30Yes
29:30But like nobody kind of knew
29:33That it's quite a special herb
29:37So if you want to taste it
29:39It has like
29:41Like a brindiness
29:43But it grows wild all over
29:46Here in Iceland
29:47And all over the beaches
29:48For you, it's free
29:48It's free?
29:49Yeah
29:53Yeah, and like
29:54All these herbs can't be used
29:56It's just sea sandworts
29:59Mountain soil
30:00Some lime grass up there
30:05It's actually quite high tide now
30:08But there is still a lot of seaweed that we can find
30:11Okay
30:12We use around 12 types of seaweeds at the restaurant
30:17This is the most commonly used in Iceland
30:20It's called dulls
30:21Okay
30:22When it's dried
30:23It has almost like a licorice-y
30:25Like quite dark flavors
30:27Okay
30:28But then when you're foraging all the time
30:31You get curious about all the different varieties
30:35This is called pepperdolls
30:38Okay
30:39Then this is one of my favorites here
30:44It's called sea lettuce
30:46Sea lettuce, nice
30:47It's so fragile
30:49You can just eat it in a salad
30:52Just lightly dressed
30:55We use this quite a lot
30:57This is sugar kelp
30:59It's amazing to use for broths
31:01So I think we should just take that back to the restaurant
31:05And cook some food
31:06Awesome
31:07Amazing
31:08Okay
31:11Fifteen years ago
31:12Giesli and his family opened this restaurant
31:15Drying foodies and food writers from around the world
31:18To his little corner of Iceland
31:23All right
31:24Okay
31:26So this is a sugar kelp seaweed broth
31:29With a cracker that's made from nori seaweed
31:32And I recognize that
31:33Yeah
31:34The oyster leaf
31:34Nice
31:35And some seaweed capers
31:37And then here is cod skin
31:39That we've salted, dried, and puffed
31:42Wow
31:42Very, very impressive
31:45Mmm
31:47Oh my god
31:52Mmm
31:53Mmm
31:55That is laughably good
31:58Whoa
31:59Lots of stuff
32:01This is a seertin
32:02And here you have the cured halibut
32:05Which is cured with the arctic thyme
32:07And then here
32:08You have our cod wing
32:10We love filling the table with food
32:13Wow
32:14Wow, that is outrageous
32:16Oh
32:18Mmm
32:19Wow
32:20Everything been all right so far?
32:21That is a world-beating uni
32:23Beautiful
32:24That's the world's best uni
32:25Amazing
32:26Amazing
32:26You know, you can only have this meal
32:29Not just in Iceland
32:30But only on this island
32:32Have this
32:33Hopefully
32:34What makes it special
32:35Is that
32:36You can only get it here
32:39It seems all of Iceland's arts
32:41Are profoundly shaped
32:43By this unique environment
32:44Back at Harpa
32:46Conductor Eva Olekainen
32:48Ran the Iceland Symphony Orchestra
32:50Through Anna's Cello Concerto
33:11Second to a little more
33:20Second to a little more
33:46First clarinet, bass clarinet, bassoons
33:49I think some of you tried to play a little bit short
33:51Those notes
33:52But really
33:53Jam-pum-pum-pum-pum
33:55It is a
33:56Quintuplets
33:57What else, Johannes?
33:59Eh, Eva
33:59It's a bit too fast for me
34:00I need a little bit more space
34:02To make it speak
34:04Yeah, yeah, sure
34:06Just to hear the notes a little bit more
34:09Eva
34:11Okay
34:13So I was wondering with the second part
34:16Because it's so completely different
34:18From the first part
34:20That it would be nice to have the atmosphere
34:24Be kind of laid back a little bit
34:27So he draws you in
34:28Like with the glissandi and the strings
34:30He's drawing you in there
34:31With that
34:32Okay
34:33And I like
34:33Feels a bit driven still, right?
34:35Yeah
34:35So felt a little bit driven
34:36And this is only for kind of inspiration
34:38Yeah, it's a little bit more meditative
34:41Somehow the second part
34:42Yeah, yeah, absolutely
34:43Absolutely
34:44Yeah, we can do that
34:45Yeah
34:45Okay, so
34:46Letter J, please
35:20Let's move on
35:59Every Icelandic musician in this orchestra is a product of their superb school music program.
36:05To learn more, Jov took me back to her grade school to meet her old friend Birker Hafsteinsson.
36:12And so do you teach music here, like music class here? What do you teach?
36:16I teach clarinet here. So they have private lessons two times a week for each student.
36:21So for us, we're lucky if we have a music budget at all. I mean, you teach private lessons?
36:28I mean, it's pretty integrated into the school system and it's across the country.
36:33It's quite common that you have access to band and also private lessons.
36:38Boy, lucky Icelanders, huh?
36:40No, I know.
36:41That's fantastic.
36:41And you don't realize how lucky we are. I mean, I started when I was seven with a private teacher.
36:47I was eight in that room.
36:49This room?
36:49Yeah.
36:50Nice.
36:51Nice.
36:51It's why we have so much music here. It's because it's not an elitist thing. It's not a class thing.
36:55It's like a, it's a community thing.
36:58And this is what we do to socialize. We play in bands. We play in our classical environment or in
37:03jazz or choirs. A lot of culture for singing in choirs.
37:06And it is to meet and to, to socialize and to play together.
37:10So I have 55 students that meet me two times a week, which is awesome. And I'm also conducting clarinet
37:17choir.
37:18Clarinet choir. I've never heard of that.
37:19And this is how we met, you know, 10, 12 years ago when we were together in music school. I
37:24was studying the classical clarinet.
37:26And now Birgit is the conductor of the same choir.
37:29That's really neat. And do you ever sing with the clarinet choir?
37:32So we have this one particular song that we did, yeah, together, where I arranged one of my songs for
37:39a clarinet choir.
37:46So let me wait, slightly breathing, touched its glistening, dear.
37:58Only one dream away from our perfect birth, one promise away from birth, one secret away from, one promise away
38:14from, one dream of, one kiss away from life, from a life, from another life.
38:27From another life, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
39:29Finally, to see how Iceland's traditional culture and folklore shapes its music, I went for a drive with composer and
39:36conductor Daniel Bjartesson.
39:46So here we are next to a famous rock that is named after the elf that lives inside of it.
39:53His name is Stöjpastit.
39:54This is his home.
39:55This is his home.
39:55And for those who can see him, and there are quite a lot of people in Iceland who can still
40:01see the elves and the hidden people, they say he's quite friendly.
40:05Somebody left an apple for him.
40:06I'm sure he will be very happy.
40:09Let's walk up here and we'll get a great view of the fjord.
40:11Okay.
40:19Wow.
40:22Pretty cool.
40:24So this is Kalfjordr, which means whale fjord.
40:28The name is thought to have arrived from an old legend about a man who fell in love with an
40:35elvish woman and they had a child together, but he did not want to recognize that he had this child.
40:42And she became very angry with him and turned him into a whale with a red head.
40:48And it was called the red head and banished him to the oceans where he would terrorize and plague the
40:54fishermen for many, many years until eventually an old priest who had lost two of his sons to the red
41:00head whale through some sorcery was able to drag him onto land where he actually exploded.
41:07So that was the end of the red head.
41:09And that's where the name probably comes from.
41:12Icelanders have a, they have an imagination here.
41:15Yeah.
41:16We have a lot of fun stories like that.
41:19Folk traditions have influenced classical composers here as they do elsewhere.
41:24I met Arnie again at the Reykjavik church.
41:27Jon Leifs actually collected Icelandic folk songs.
41:30So he went around the country with a little cylinder recording device and he recorded farmers and fishermen and people
41:39all over the country because he was really interested in, you know, what was, what was the original sound.
41:44That he could use for, for his music.
41:47And because we were talking about the parallel fifth singing earlier, one of the other types of traditional Icelandic folk
41:55singing is also quite unusual.
41:57It's called Rimr.
41:58And the unusual thing about that is the rhythmic structure because they're reflecting the metric pattern and the syllable count
42:06of the poetry.
42:08So every syllable gets one note, basically.
42:11Oh, I see.
42:12It's a bit unpredictable, I guess, if you're hearing it for the first time.
42:15But once you understand the way it comes from the poetry, it all makes sense because it's just reflecting the
42:20way the poetry is structured.
42:21Can I hear it?
42:22Yes, absolutely.
42:24So you have...
42:32I'm already lost.
42:33Okay, okay.
42:33So let's see.
42:34What did he do here?
42:36Um...
42:37So you have...
42:37Oh, so that's how he notated it.
42:39Four, four, two, four, three, four.
42:41Exactly.
42:42And he can just kind of choose.
42:43Exactly.
42:44Can you play that again?
42:45Yeah.
42:45Yeah.
42:46Yeah.
42:57That's cool.
43:25The Atlantic climate shaped their traditional houses,
43:28which shaped their culture.
43:31Many lived in compounds like this, well into the 20th century.
43:35I went there with Afi, Jof, and her sister, Osthildr.
43:42Turf houses would always be built according to the winds and the sun.
43:47So the main side, of course, is on the south side.
43:52And you see the black house there.
43:54This is the kitchen, the same type of kitchen people have been using since medieval times.
44:01And the walls are very, very thick, made of turf and rocks.
44:05Like what?
44:06Like this?
44:06Oh, no, probably like this at least, you know.
44:08So that's a lot of insulation.
44:10Yes.
44:10And that's why people were able to, you know, survive the winters.
44:15You know, they might look a bit rustic, but they're very functional and there's a reason why they have lasted
44:20for so long.
44:22Can we see the inside of one of these?
44:23Of course.
44:24Yeah.
44:25Come on.
44:25Come along.
44:32It's really small in here.
44:35I mean, it looks bigger from the outside, but it's small.
44:39So this is the center room.
44:41And this is also the center place of I study culture through centuries.
44:46How many people lived in here?
44:47How many beds are here?
44:49Five.
44:49Five.
44:50So calculate that with two, you will have the number of people.
44:54So everybody shared.
44:55Yeah.
44:56The only source of heating were the bodies themselves.
45:00Oh, really?
45:01Exactly.
45:01And if a bed would be empty, they would bring in an animal, sheep for a calf, to put in
45:10the bed so they wouldn't lose the heating.
45:14So this is before electricity, before the internet.
45:19What would people do in a house like this?
45:21Yeah, there's storytelling, there's chanting, rimur, and there would be traveling musician performers that would go from farm to farm
45:31and entertain the people.
45:33Literacy was very common.
45:35This was the sole light in the Baustoa.
45:38And the ruler of light was the head of the household and would decide what was being read.
45:45And it also gives us this important notion of the darkness in this room and where folklore was created.
45:56And it was dark a lot.
45:58Yeah.
45:58We live like in darkness a big part of the year in Iceland.
46:03It certainly influences your behavior and what you spend your time doing.
46:09Do you write more songs during the winter months?
46:13Writing songs is the perfect thing to do when you're inside in a small room.
46:17And I think it kind of, maybe even architecture, spending time indoors in small rooms can influence the sound.
46:25Are the songs more intimate? Are your voice more intimate?
46:28In Iceland we work a lot on headphones.
46:30We have a great connection to details.
46:33A lot of people say Icelandic music is textural.
46:36But maybe it's also just because in Iceland it is silent.
46:39It is very quiet.
46:50We should have left our hearts in the forest where they first met.
46:58We take them back and now they are broken.
47:03And start to slowly forget.
47:22And if I don't see you know I'll see you another year.
47:27We will be reunited someday, some way.
47:31And our life will fade.
47:33But we know that it will stay.
47:35We can make it reappear someday, some way.
47:39I want to keep it reappear сегодня, some way.
48:04And especially now they're just gonna attempt to draw.
48:05It would still impact my heart right.
48:06That said that it was late.
48:14Daniel wanted to show me one more Icelandic tradition.
48:18There are hot spring baths on the edge of this fjord.
48:23Everybody talks about how beautiful Iceland is,
48:26but when I arrived, I was really, truly shocked.
48:29It's so incredible here.
48:31It is incredibly beautiful,
48:33and whenever I come back home when I've been traveling,
48:35I feel really grateful to live here.
48:38It's a very special place.
48:40I think Icelanders really do appreciate the beauty of this place,
48:45but I think they're also quite aware of under the surface of beauty.
48:49There is also a lot of danger.
48:51This wasn't always an easy place to live in
48:54for the generations that came before,
48:57and it's awe-inspiring in many ways to live here,
49:00but it's also terrible,
49:03and you need to treat it with respect.
49:05It's really beautiful.
49:16This has got to be one of the most picturesque hot springs in the world.
49:21This is one of a kind.
49:23Yeah, this is a really, really beautiful spot,
49:26this hot spring here called Komsvik.
49:28But this is also the result of volcanic activity, right?
49:32I mean, this place is full of contrasts.
49:35You know, we have the extreme cold,
49:37and then we have this heat rising from the earth.
49:40You know, we have almost completely bright summers,
49:44and then it gets very dark in the winter.
49:47And it's always swinging between these two extremes.
49:51They live together in one small country.
50:02So why is Iceland so musical?
50:05This beautiful, terrible landscape certainly shapes their art,
50:09and you can hear it in Anna's cello concerto.
50:18Anak Monase is on set is an urge to be the attitude towards one small country.
50:19So why is he still met in other small cities?
50:27For more on you,
50:27people often have Ulster series rather than picnic parties.
50:29From me going back to London,
50:41we can hear you as a major child,
50:41which has range of heart and moocity of the fire here.
50:42Some village have turned around to meet the halt where the wind was Darth Vader.
51:42A boring choral hymn, so different, is also by Anna.
51:56That says a lot about Icelandic musicians.
52:07In a small population, they must be versatile, easily crossing genres.
52:15They're classically trained, yet shaped by a thousand years of distinct culture.
52:23In dark winters, they have time and silence to create.
52:28In bright summers, they explode with song.
52:36This magnificent choir, by the way, are all amateurs.
52:41Icelanders who come together to sing together.
52:44They are doers, as they say.
52:46And what they do is music.
52:50I'm Scott Yu, and I hope you can now hear this.
53:17This program is available with PBS Passport and on Amazon Prime Video.
53:23To find out more about this and other Great Performances programs,
53:26visit pbs.org slash greatperformances and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
53:31And the Great Performances and Facebook and Instagram.
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