Voss and Hardanger

On Thursday we got up and had breakfast, then headed out to the Academy. The Ole Bull Academy is an institution that trains professional folk musicians. It offers both undergraduate and graduate degrees, and serves as a hub for folk music and dance in the Voss area.  Because I am connected to Arne, and he works for the Academy, we have been able to use it as a rehearsal and practice space at no cost. Can you imagine being handed a set of keys to a university building in the US, when you are not an employee or a bigwig? Yep. That's how we roll here! 

Our class on this morning was with Silje Solberg. She is a lovely fiddler from Østerøy. We reviewed our tunes from the day before, and then learned a lovely march. Here are Lilah, Maren and Itsani in class with Silje. (Martha's Video)

Itsani, Lilah, Maren.
(Martha's Photo)

We loaded up the van and headed for the Hardanger Fjord and Utne.  There is always something to see or do on the road in Norway. This time it was to stop at a very famous waterfall, Skjervsfossen. Here, the water cascades nearly 500' down. 

But, parking was terrible, so the girls sat and waited to go down for the first view while Sue parked the van and I assisted. In the end, the view from the top wasn't so great. But the view from the bottom? 

We drove down to check it out! It was, in fact, spectacular. 

Skjervsfossen.
(Itsani's Photo)

 It is quite difficult to get parking down at the bottom because so many people are trying to look at the falls. This was, in fact, a second attempt. :)  

On the ferry.
(Martha's photo)

From the falls we drove down the west side of the Hardanger fjord, on a skinny road with two way traffic. Often one has to stop to let a vehicle going the other way come through. Sometimes one of you has to back up, and sometimes there is someone behind you who also has to back up... It can be a little hair raising, but on this day it was a smooth trip. 

We arrived at the right time to walk right onto the ferry. It's a very short ride, time enough for some snacks, which we had brought along. 

Sue and I looked for the place to buy tickets. There was a window, but no one was staffing it. We tried to pay when we got off, but learned that the ferry is free if you walk on!  Then it is a short walk along the edge of the fjord in the village of Utne to get to the Museum. 

Lady of the Fjord
(Itsani's photo)

We had brought food with us for lunch, and decided to picnic at the edge of the fjord. The kids spotted a sculpture in the rocks. This is The Lady of the Fjord, and she is part of the collection belonging to the Museum. Can you spot her on the rock? 

Looking at belts. 
(Martha's photo)

The museum has, among other things, a fantastic collection of folk costumes, bunad, and their accessories.  In this photo, you can see in the left side a peek at a costume, locally made furniture in the back, and the kids are looking at a display of belts. 

They recognized that some are merely embroidered, and they guessed that might be because those belonged to less wealthy women. Others had different levels of beadwork, up until the most fancy, completely beaded with no stitching visible. 

Here is a closer shot, taken by Itsani. They are exquisite!

Belts
(Itsani's photo)

Tjoflot's Fiddle
(Itsani's photo)

Another fun thing to see is the collection of fiddles. One of the tunes that many of my students play is a reinlender after a guy named  Nils Tjoflot (say TCHOO flut). He was a fiddler from Hardanger who lived from 1865 to 1898. You might note that he died quite young. What happened? He went to play in Granvin at a barn dance. He also had a special sailboat, and when sailing it home, a wind came up. The boat tipped and was taking on water, and it sank quickly. People saw it from the shore, and rowed out, but all that remained were Tjoflot's hat and his fiddle, floating on the water. 

This is the same fiddle, which now hangs in the Museum. It has been restored a bit, and it was super fun for the kids to see. 

The next thing was to go up to the cafe for a nosh. Yes! They had gluten-free products!! 

Once in the cafe, we noticed a poster...OH HOLY COWS! It was of us and was advertising our little concert later in the afternoon. These two took the news with style! 

These two...not so much. It's really pretty shocking to see yourself posted in some public place!

Yum yums on the deck.
(Martha's photo)

The kids went to go check the gift shop for goodies, and one of the ladies came out. She asked me if I knew Alexander Røynstrand. I answered quite honestly that I knew who he was, but that I had never met him. Well, it turned out that he was playing a concert that evening at 6PM. YES! We were going to check that out. The deck seemed a good place to have yum yums. The sun was out, and it was a beautiful day.  On the left is a gluten free chocolate cake, and on the right an almond cake with custard through the middle. 

Now come a couple of videos I took from the deck, one of the ferry coming in, and one just of the scenery because it was so lovely! 

We did play a short concert at the museum, and had a whole two-member audience! They stayed for the whole concert, which was nice. Then we decided to pop down to the gift shop with our fiddles. The two women working there do all of the arrangements but never get to see a show. We thought that was something that we could fix! Off we went, down to the first floor with our instruments. We played, and the ladies, plus the two gentlemen at the concert and their partners, all danced. It was one of the best moments of the day for sure. 

Alexandre Røynstrand
(Martha's photo)

Yes, it was a little silly, but I WAS really excited. He has been on the top of my list of people to see/hear/meet for a couple of years. 

The concert was in an old house at the Museum in Granvin. That meant catching the 5:30P boat back to Kvanndal, then driving up to the show in Granvin. We would be a few minutes late, but that was ok by me! 

The little house was stuffed; there were probably 40 people there. I was lucky to be the last of our group in, and got a front row seat in the corner. 

The concert was so wonderful! And afterward, we had a chance to talk to Alexander.  (Arne had asked him to teach the kids in February, but he had had to decline because it was a week he was with his own kiddos...) But now it seemed that there might be an opportunity to work with him at the end of Strunkeveko. We shall see! 

We were really late getting back to Voss, but what an amazing day! 

-Martha