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Great Performances - Season 53 Episode 16 - Now Hear This – “The Iceland Sound
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00:05I'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.
00:19Iceland produces some of the best music and composers in the world.
00:24Yeah, 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.
00:39And 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,
01:04volcanic land of extremes
01:07creates a people overflowing with music.
01:11Come with me on the next Now Hear This to 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.
01:46But 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 Birgesen.
01:59First stop, a cabin at base camp.
02:08Why is Iceland such fertile ground for art and culture?
02:13I mean, per capita, it's gotta 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.
02:27400,000, just 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.
02:48Nobody visited us for centuries.
02:49Yeah.
02:50So we were basically just trying to, yeah, entertain ourselves over long winters and dark nights.
02:56Yeah.
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, you kind of have the feeling
03:07that 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.
03:12Yeah.
03:13And 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.
03:21We 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 de Clemensson and it's talking about...
03:41When he was born.
03:42Yeah.
03:42Who he was married to.
03:44And then his dream, right, of becoming a knight.
03:48He 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.
04:02Yeah.
04:03So he lived a farmer, but he died a knight.
04:04Yeah.
04:05Let's hear it.
04:06So let's, let's honor his memory.
04:07Yeah.
04:08Yeah.
04:17Let's hear it.
04:25To get there.
04:28To get there.
04:30Here we go.
04:33That's tall, whatever we want.
04:34Let's hear it.
04:35All you love were.
04:36That's why we have to do it.
04:36I'll be able to get it.
04:37How did you do it?
04:37All you are doing.
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
04:55builds 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 Jofrieder Akastotter.
05:19But her artist name is easier for me to say, JFDR.
05:29So Efi, here's your driftwood.
05:32Yes.
05:33This 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?
05:43Well, 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.
06:01It means that when the Vikings came, the accounts say that 40% of the country apparently was birch trees.
06:09But they soon disappeared.
06:12They used it for houses, firewood, et cetera.
06:15So driftwood has been a very important source of material.
06:21Should we bring it up there?
06:22Yeah, let's do it, yeah.
06:38So this is a longspiela.
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 it looked.
06:51So you're quite free to interpret it.
06:53Exactly.
06:53It's very much in tune with folk traditions.
06:57But still it's a part of a big family of drone zithers.
07:00I 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 these?
07:17Yes, in Iceland we played with bow traditionally.
07:20So you might just play the drone strings first and then you pick up the melody string.
07:37Like that.
07:38But you can also pluck it, which is quite nice.
07:51And also if you would drone with me.
07:53Okay.
07:54You have these.
08:00Exactly.
08:01Yeah, very nice.
08:02And then you can also hammer it like this.
08:13But 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.
08:26Would you mind playing with me a bit?
08:29The drone.
08:29The drone.
08:30The drone.
08:31The drone.
08:44The drone.
08:46The drone.
08:47The drone.
08:51The drone.
08:51The drone.
08:51The drone.
08:51The drone.
08:51The drone.
08:52The drone.
08:52The drone.
08:53The drone.
08:53The drone.
08:53The drone.
08:55The drone.
09:00Böndir bláum sóla salí, söðlux upp í lignum dalí,
09:08fólkið hafa hana hagalík, fyrsta skemmdun bænum á,
09:14fagurkallari fuglins á, og það fleiri fugla hægðar í fríðum sumar stungi,
09:21fagurkallari fyrir, lista maður en lengi þar við um tíl.
09:43Við náðs bláum úr öllum maktum, heldur sætum í gama fyrir,
09:50svingi bæn í grasa, gáttum gjörði tíð á enda klár,
09:57fagurkallari fuglins á, skjópa líði langt að hattum,
10:02hlægst fara allt í brunni, lýstamaður en lengi þar við um tíl.
10:34Fagurkallari fyrir,
10:36fagurkallari fyrir,
10:38Arni Hæmur Ingolfsson.
10:40I guess you could say that,
10:42for most of Icelandic music history,
10:44Iceland was kind of stuck in the Middle Ages.
10:46Iceland was settled by Norwegians in the 9th century,
10:49but the earliest music that we have here is church music,
10:53because Iceland was Christianized around the year 1000.
10:55And so for a very long time, the only music that Icelanders were singing and performing was folk music and
11:03music for the church.
11:05And there are a few different types of Icelandic folk songs, but one of the unusual, I would say, probably
11:12for people outside Iceland,
11:13is a type of singing called Tvírsöngur, which really just means singing in two parts.
11:19Okay. Well, that's pretty common.
11:20That's pretty common. The interesting thing is that the intervals between the two lines that are being sung are always
11:27parallel fifths.
11:29Like all the time?
11:30All the time.
11:32Really?
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 class is no
11:42parallel 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 makes Icelandic
12:03music really unusual.
12:07At Hallgrimskyrkja, Iceland's great cathedral, their choir was ready to give me an example.
12:13Thank you very much.
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.
13:11We 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 because this is a time
13:20when 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 a nation among
13:30nations, then we need a national theater, a national gallery, a symphony orchestra, a 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?
13:49Absolutely.
13:49Well, one of the first Icelandic composers to really have a strong impact was Jon Leifs.
13:55Leifs.
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 this expanses of, you know, very quiet, calm, but then
14:14also 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 Iceland in her music.
14:39We're going into a bit darker space.
14:42There's a nice big space we're going to rehearse in.
14:45Okay.
14:59My friend, the cellist Johannes Moser, was here to perform her new concerto.
15:11Yeah.
15:12Wonderful.
15:13And I love 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, um, you ask for some special effects and you ask for, um,
15:31non-pitched notes.
15:33So 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 to see what you
15:46had 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...
16:05...
16:08...
16:08...
16:14You know, Anna, your music has so much texture in it, and, and so much space, and I'm wondering if
16:21the geography of Iceland somehow has informed your creation.
16:27It's not unlikely because, I mean, I, I grew up here in Iceland. I, my roots are here. And even
16:34though I've lived abroad for many, many years, it lives with me in my music.
16:38Mm-hmm.
16:39The sense of space and the sense of, the wind is almost always blowing and, and you have all these
16:46sounds connected to that.
16:48It's not that I'm trying to take a natural element and put it into music. It's more that it becomes
16:54an inspiration and, and manifests as, uh, as this combination of textures and lyricism and harmonies.
17:02Yeah.
17:10Their rehearsal was happening in Harpa, the magnificent concert hall that's also an interpretation of Iceland.
17:18I talked to CEO Svanhildr Konradsdottir.
17:24What motivated the design of this building? I mean, it's so unique.
17:30Icelandic nature. And the architects, they, they actually did travel to the highlands of Iceland to get the inspiration, so
17:36it'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 you
17:43find 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. And you see it, of
17:56course, in Elborg, which is our main concert hall, and that is the volcanic fiery heart of Harpa.
18:07What makes Iceland absolutely unique is the light. And this building could only have been made in Iceland. Wow.
18:19What makes Icelandic nature?
18:23Icelandic nature is full of contrasts. I mean, we have these magnificent mountains, you have these empty spaces up in
18:32the highlands, you know, the black lava, the fire in the volcanoes, geothermal energy.
18:39So it's, it's full of energy and full of life. So 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 Eggert Pahls and Stefan Osterhut showed me some instruments made
19:00for that Iceland sound.
19:02Jan Leifs. I know him.
19:04Jan Leifs. You've heard of him?
19:04Of course. He's famous here.
19:06Oh, yes, he is, actually.
19:07What does Hecla mean?
19:09Hecla is a volcano, probably one of our most renowned volcanoes.
19:14So this is a big piece?
19:15It is a very big piece. It 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.
19:31With everything ranging from snare drums to cannons and chains.
19:38Chains, too?
19:39Chains, 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.
19:57Right.
19:59Does this show up in Hecla as well?
20:01This is there as well.
20:02This is not very subtle.
20:04Not really, no.
20:05He writes for Big Hammer, played on wood, any wood.
20:10Okay.
20:10I can give you a demonstration.
20:12Okay.
20:14Oh, God!
20:19This is a metal 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.
20:30It's beautiful.
20:31It is very nice.
20:31It's an instrument.
20:32It's beautiful.
20:33The instrument should look nice.
20:35Yeah, it does.
20:35It's really nice.
20:36Hey, what are these cymbal-looking things here?
20:38These are the scudi.
20:41They 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.
20:57So, does this show up in a Leif's piece as well?
21:00Yes.
21:00Several.
21:01Really?
21:02Several.
21:02We premiere these pieces.
21:03Can I hear some Leif's just with some of these percussion instruments to sort of understand
21:10the sound?
21:11Yeah.
21:12We'll call the team in.
21:16It's very nice.
21:18We just do it.
21:18It's just great.
22:00¶¶
22:12Speaking of volcanoes, it was time for me to go down into this one.
22:34Okay.
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.
22:54Wow.
22:56But 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.
23:03It's the 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.
23:34alongside the land of earth and anvilabad,
23:43So we are filled with light in our thirst,
23:48We are filled with our punches andcus communes that life hurt.
23:58That sky is high is later, and it's our very free.
24:08Oh, him you will be later, the sand of school is free.
24:33A more recent eruption happened on Iceland's Westman Islands.
25:03The entire town had to be evacuated to the mainland.
25:14At their Eltheimer Volcano Museum, I saw firsthand how Iceland's volcanoes shaped their lives with director Kristine Johansdotter.
25:25So this house was excavated, and then they built the museum around it.
25:30Yeah, that's right. This house is one of 350 houses that were destroyed in the vulcan eruption in 1973.
25:40It was not only lava, also millions, billions of tons of ash.
25:45Ash.
25:46This volcano ash, there were around 60 meters on the top of this.
25:50You know, it's really, I mean, it's incredible. You see ash and lava, but it's also kind of personal and
25:59poignant to see, like, a spoon or a light bulb or a piece of jewelry or a piece of clothing.
26:07You have to keep in mind, we didn't have any warning, and it was just, you have to leave now.
26:12So they just took the very most important things, and then they left.
26:19Many of the people did lose everything that night, but we had a lot of luck, we can say that,
26:25because there were a lot of damage, but nobody died.
26:29Were you actually here on the island that night?
26:34Yes.
26:35What happened?
26:36My father did wake me up, and my brothers, we were all sleeping, and he was kind of upset.
26:44I did hear him saying many times, oh my God, oh my God.
26:49We did look out of our windows, and we saw it was like a wall of fire, like the east
26:57part of the island were burning.
26:58We were told that we should go to the harbor and leave.
27:04So our father, he did bring me and my brothers to one of the fishing boats, and he did stay.
27:12He stayed here all the time, and he was joining the rescue teams, and that was not undangerous, because nobody
27:19knows what vulcuna was going to do.
27:22So this is a pretty common thing in Iceland.
27:25A volcanic eruption, something, will just completely change somebody's life, change a family's life, change a town's life.
27:33The guests ask, how can you live here?
27:35Aren't you afraid of the next volcano?
27:37And then they say, no, I'm not.
27:39We can deal with the nature, we are quite sure about that.
27:43Nature can change our life, of course, but we have to live with that in Iceland.
28:09Lava from the volcano, flowing into the sea, added more than four square miles to the island.
28:15Something that Westman Shep Geasley Matt uses to his advantage.
28:21So here we're walking on new land.
28:24There was nothing, we were just at the sea here, like around 50 years ago.
28:29Really?
28:30Yeah.
28:31So, Geasley, what are we looking for here?
28:34So we're looking for oyster leaves.
28:36Okay.
28:37And the amazing thing about it, it has a slight flavor of oysters.
28:42Oh, really?
28:43Just raw oysters.
28:44Really?
28:45Definitely not the texture of an oyster, but the taste is there.
28:50So here it is.
28:51Okay.
28:52I was once working at a restaurant called Elevonson Park, which is in New York.
28:57Oh, sure, it's very famous.
28:58Very famous.
28:59I was doing like an internship, and I was asked to cook a dish, and I only had 30 minutes
29:06to do so.
29:07And they told me I could use everything in the kitchen, except for foigra, truffles, and oyster leaves.
29:14And back then, I had never heard of oyster leaves.
29:17They were importing them fresh from Alaska, and paying one dollar per leaf.
29:22And there I was standing, just like, I've seen this before.
29:29You grew up with this.
29:30Yes, but like nobody kind of knew that it's quite a special herb.
29:37So if you want to taste it, it has like a brindiness, but it grows wild all over here in
29:46Iceland and all over the peaches.
29:48It's free.
29:49It's free?
29:49Yeah.
29:50It's free.
29:52It's free.
29:53Yeah, and like, all these herbs can't be used.
29:57There's sea sandworms, mountain soil, some lime grass up there.
30:05It's actually quite high tide now.
30:08Uh-huh.
30:08But there is still a lot of seaweed that we can find.
30:12Okay.
30:12We use around 12 types of seaweed at the restaurant.
30:17This is the most commonly used in Iceland.
30:21It's called dulls.
30:22Okay.
30:22When it's dried, it has almost like a licorice-y, like quite dark flavors.
30:28Okay.
30:28But then when you're foraging all the time, you get curious about all the different varieties.
30:35This is called pepper dulls.
30:39Okay.
30:40Then this is one of my favorites here.
30:44It's called sea lettuce.
30:46The salad is nice.
30:48It's so fragile.
30:49You can just eat it in a salad, just lightly dressed.
30:54Uh, we use this quite a lot.
30:57This is sugar kelp.
30:59It's amazing to use for broths.
31:02So I think we should just take that back to the restaurant and cook some food.
31:07Awesome.
31:08Amazing.
31:1115 years ago, Gisli and his family opened this restaurant, trying foodies and food writers
31:17from around the world to his little corner of Iceland.
31:23All right.
31:24Okay.
31:26So this is a sugar kelp seaweed broth with a cracker that's made from nori seaweed.
31:32And I recognize that.
31:33Yeah.
31:34The oyster leaf.
31:35Nice.
31:35And some seaweed capers.
31:37And then here is cod skin that we've salted, dried, and puffed.
31:42Wow.
31:42Hope you enjoy it.
31:43Very, very impressive.
31:45Mmm.
31:47Oh, my God.
31:52Mmm.
31:53Mmm.
31:55That is laughably good.
31:58Whoa.
32:00Lots of stuff.
32:01This is a sea urchin.
32:03And here you have the cured halibut, which is cured with the Arctic thyme.
32:07And then here you have our cod wing.
32:11We love filling the table with food.
32:14Wow.
32:14That is outrageous.
32:17Oh.
32:18Mmm.
32:19Wow.
32:20That isn't 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.
32:27You know, you can only have this meal not just in Iceland, but only on this island.
32:32Have this, hopefully.
32:34What makes it special is that you can only get it here.
32:39It seems all of Iceland's arts are profoundly shaped by this unique environment.
32:45Back at Harpa, conductor Eva Olekainen ran the Iceland Symphony Orchestra through Anna's Cello Concerto.
32:53Back at Harpa, Hand holding aboard.
33:06Holy bloodopoos судed by the Ace of Plymouth.000
33:12general morton. What
33:18makes it special?
33:40Okay yeah so the ninth tuplet is over two beats isn't it yeah so first clarinet,
33:47bass clarinet bassoons I think some of you try to play a little bit shorter those notes but
33:52but really it is a queen tuplet what else Johannes? Eva it's a bit too fast for me I need
34:01a little bit
34:01more space for make it make it speak yeah yeah sure just to to hear the notes a little bit
34:09more
34:09ever so I was wondering with the second part because it's so completely different from the
34:19from the first part that um it would be nice to have the atmosphere be kind of laid back a
34:26little
34:26bit so he draws you in like with the glissandi and the strings he's drawing you in there
34:31with that okay and I like it's a bit driven still right yeah so felt a little bit and this
34:37is only
34:37for kind of inspiration yeah it's a little bit more meditative somehow the second part yeah yeah
34:43absolutely absolutely yeah we can do that yeah okay so letter j please
34:51you
35:19you
35:25you
35:35you
35:39you
35:42you
35:59every icelandic musician in this orchestra is a product of their superb school music program
36:06to learn more jove took me back to her grade school to meet her old friend birker hofstein
36:11and so do you teach music here like music class here what do you teach i teach clarinet here so
36:18they
36:18have private lessons two times a week for each student so for us we're lucky if we have a music
36:24budget at all i mean you teach private lessons i mean it's pretty integrated into the school system and it's
36:32it's quite common across the country it's quite common that you have access to band and also private
36:38lessons
36:38boy lucky icelanders huh no i know that's fantastic you don't realize how lucky we is i mean i started
36:45when i was seven with a private teacher yeah in that room this room yeah nice nice it's why we
36:52have so much music here it's because it's not an elitist thing it's not a class thing it's like a
36:56it's a community thing and this is what we do to socialize we play in bands we play in our
37:01classical
37:02environment or in jazz or choirs a lot of culture for singing choirs and it is to meet and to
37:08to
37:08socialize and to play together so i have 55 students that meet me two times a week which
37:15is awesome and i'm also conducting clarinet choir clarinet choir never heard of that and this is how
37:20we met you know 10 12 years ago when we were together in music school i was studying the classical
37:25clarinet and uh now birkit is the conductor of the same choir that's really neat and do you ever sing
37:31with the clarinet choir so we have this one particular song that we did yeah together where i arranged one
37:37my songs um for clarinet choir one sun orchid sudden a silver light and so limbly waiting slightly
37:53breathing touched its gleason and tear only one dream away from our perfect birth one promise away
38:06from one secret away from one dream away from one kiss away from my life from another life from another
38:28life
38:37so
38:49so
38:50so
38:50so
38:51so
38:52so
39:02so
39:03so
39:04so
39:06so
39:07so
39:28finally to see how iceland's traditional culture and folklore shapes its music
39:33i went for a drive with composer and conductor daniel biardison
39:44so
39:46so
39:46so
39:47so
39:47here we are next to a famous rock
39:49so here we are next to a famous rock that is named after the elf that lives inside of it
39:53his name is stay past it this is his home this is his home and uh for those who can
39:57see him and there
39:59are quite a lot of people in iceland who can still see the elves and the hidden people
40:02they say he's quite friendly
40:05somebody left an apple for him
40:06i'm sure he'll be very happy
40:09let's walk up here and we'll get a great view of the fjord
40:11okay
40:20wow
40:23pretty cool
40:24so
40:25this is
40:26which means whale fjord
40:28the name is thought to have arrived from an old legend about a man
40:34who fell in love with an elvish woman
40:36and they had a child together
40:38but he did not want to recognize that he had this child and she became very angry with him
40:44and turned him into a whale
40:46with a red head
40:48and it was called the red head and banished him to the oceans
40:51where he would terrorize and plague the fishermen for many many years
40:55until eventually an old priest who had lost two of his sons to the red head whale
41:01through some sorcery was able to drag him onto land
41:04where 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
41:13they 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
41:27jörn leifs actually collected icelandic folk songs
41:30so he went around the country with a little cylinder recording device
41:35and he recorded farmers and fishermen and people all over the country
41:40because he was really interested in you know what was the original sound that he could use for his music
41:47and because we were talking about the parallel fifth singing earlier
41:51one of the other types of traditional icelandic folk singing is also quite unusual
41:57it's called rimr and the unusual thing about that is the rhythmic structure
42:01because they're reflecting the metric pattern and the syllable count of the poetry
42:08so every syllable gets one note basically
42:11it's a bit unpredictable i guess if you're hearing it for the first time
42:14but once you understand the way it comes from the poetry
42:17it all makes sense because it's just reflecting the way the poetry is structured
42:21can i hear it?
42:22yes absolutely
42:23so you have
42:31i'm already lost
42:33okay okay
42:33so let's see what did he do here
42:35um
42:36so 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
42:57that's cool
43:25the islandic climate shaped their traditional houses
43:28houses which shaped their culture
43:30many lived in compounds like this
43:32well into the 20th century
43:34i went there with Eyfi Jof and her sister Osthilder
43:42turf houses would always be built according to the winds and the sun
43:46so the main side of course is on the south side
43:52and you see the black house there this is the kitchen
43:56the same type of kitchen people have been using since medieval times
44:00and the walls are very thick made of turf and rocks
44:05like this?
44:06oh no probably like this at least
44:08you know
44:08so that's a lot of insulation
44:10yes
44:10and that's why people were able to survive the winters
44:14you know
44:15they might look a bit rustic
44:17but they're very functional
44:18and there's a reason why they have lasted for 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 and this is also the center place of I study culture through centuries
44:45how many people lived in here?
44:48how many beds are here?
44:49five
44:49five so calculate that with two you will have the number of people
44:53so everybody shared
44:55yeah
44:55the only source of heating were the bodies themselves
45:00oh really?
45:01and if a bed would be empty
45:04they would bring in
45:06an animal
45:07sheep for a calf
45:09to put in the bed
45:10so they wouldn't lose the heating
45:14so this is before electricity
45:16before the internet
45:18what would people do in a house like this?
45:22yeah there's storytelling
45:23there's chanting
45:24and there would be traveling
45:26um
45:27musician performers
45:28that would go from farm to farm
45:31entertain the people
45:33literacy was very common
45:35this was the sole light in the baz doa
45:38and the ruler of light was the head of the household
45:42and would decide what was being read
45:45and it also gives us this important notion of the darkness in this room
45:52and where folklore was created
45:55and it was dark a lot
45:58yeah
45:58we live like in darkness
46:01a big part of the year in Iceland
46:03it certainly influences your behavior
46:07yeah
46:07and 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
46:14when you're inside in a small room
46:17and I think it kind of maybe even architecture
46:19spending time indoors in small rooms
46:21can influence the sound
46:23yeah
46:24is the
46:25are the songs more intimate
46:26are your voice more intimate?
46:28in Iceland we work a lot on headphones
46:30we have a
46:31a great connection to details
46:33a lot of people say Icelandic music is textural
46:36but maybe it's also just because
46:38in Iceland it is silent
46:39it is very quiet
46:51we should have left our hearts in the forest
46:55where they first met
46:58we take them back when now they are broken
47:03and start to slowly forget
47:06and start to slowly forget
47:32never forget
47:33but we know that the mistake
47:35we can make it real
47:37we will simulate
47:38or
47:39somewhere
47:39La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la,
47:53la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la.
47:56Cherish and embrace it, appreciate the time we got.
48:00I ask you to forget me now, someday, or some way, and our love will fade.
48:06But we know that if a stick
48:08We can make it reappear
48:11Someday, somewhere
48:14Daniel wanted to show me
48:16one more Icelandic tradition.
48:18There are hot spring baths
48:20on 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,
48:35when I've been traveling,
48:36I feel really grateful to live here.
48:38It's a very special place.
48:40I think Icelanders really do appreciate
48:44the beauty of this place,
48:46but I think they're also quite aware of
48:48under 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,
49:02and you need to treat it with respect.
49:05Beautiful.
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?
49:33I mean, this place is full of contrasts.
49:35You know, we have the stream 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
50:07certainly shapes their art,
50:09and you can hear it in Anna's cello concerto.
50:32I'm Brian Something.
50:40Bye.
50:45Bye.
50:46Bye.
50:46Bye.
50:48Bye.
51:34But there's more to the Icelandic sound.
51:41This soaring 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.
52:47And 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,
53:27visit pbs.org slash greatperformances and follow us on Facebook and Instagram.
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