Vårvise
December 1, 2023 2:29 PM Subscribe
A lovesong This is a song that the Danish artist Sebastian wrote for the Norwegian artist Sissel Kyrkjebø when she was very young. They are accompanied by the amazing bassist NHØP.
The theme of the song is that magical time where you are in love and feel at one with the universe. But Sebastian is very much a musician. The lyrics are important, but they are there to support the music. And there is a tone in the song that is melancholic as well as erotic.
Both Sebastian and Sissel Kyrkjebø are huge names in Scandinavia and their works are classics.
Here is the choir of the Danish public broadcasting system singing the Vårvise, now part of the canon of Danish songs.
Meanwhile, Sissel has grown up, and here she is singing Til Ungdommen at the memorial ceremony after the terror attack in Norway in 2011. Til Ungdommen is a powerful anti-war poem/song written by the Norwegian author Nordahl Grieg, who died as a fighter pilot during WW2. It's complicated, and that is what is interesting.
The theme of the song is that magical time where you are in love and feel at one with the universe. But Sebastian is very much a musician. The lyrics are important, but they are there to support the music. And there is a tone in the song that is melancholic as well as erotic.
Both Sebastian and Sissel Kyrkjebø are huge names in Scandinavia and their works are classics.
Here is the choir of the Danish public broadcasting system singing the Vårvise, now part of the canon of Danish songs.
Meanwhile, Sissel has grown up, and here she is singing Til Ungdommen at the memorial ceremony after the terror attack in Norway in 2011. Til Ungdommen is a powerful anti-war poem/song written by the Norwegian author Nordahl Grieg, who died as a fighter pilot during WW2. It's complicated, and that is what is interesting.
Hers is an extraordinarily beautiful voice, ethereal - I am not musically knowledgeable but I can’t think of anyone in the US who compares. Maybe it is the song and the way their voices blend, but it makes me want to be Danish!
posted by mmiddle at 6:21 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by mmiddle at 6:21 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Oh, enchanting. Thanks, mumimor.
posted by blue shadows at 7:00 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by blue shadows at 7:00 PM on December 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
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Someone from Norway should probably unfold the importance of these two very different songs in Norway, but in Denmark, they are both central to the national identity. We sing both songs at all sorts of occasions, probably more than the national hymns.
posted by mumimor at 2:43 PM on December 1, 2023 [4 favorites]