• Nynorsk
  • English

Universitetet i bergen logoUniversity of Bergen

Search form

Vikøy

In the unusual orchestral work “Hundrad Hardingtonar” (A hundred Harding tunes) the composer Geirr Tveitt (1908-1981) has, with exquisite sense of tune, arranged 100 folk tunes for grand piano and orchestra, collected from material of more than 1,000 folk tunes that he collected in Hardanger during the years 1942-45. He was born in Kvam and had a house in Bjødnabrakane on the farm Tveit in Vikøy. With a masterly ability to characterise the objects of his music and knowledge of the instruments, he is the one of the Norwegian composers, in addition to Edvard Grieg and Harald Sæverud, who has consciously made use of the folk tunes and become innovative within Norwegian folk music tradition. For many, Geirr Tveitt is probably best known through lyrical song tunes with a unique and beautiful melody, such as the composition for Jacob Sande’s moving tune “Fløytlåt” (flute tune), or Aslaug Laastad Lygre’s melancholy beautiful midsummer night song “Vi skal ikkje sova burt sumarnatta/ho er for ljos til det…” (“We must not waste the summer night sleeping/ it is too light for that …”)