Rekve

On the farm Rekve at Bulkan we find three well-known fiddlers in the same family. With the first one, Ola Kristofferson (b. 1733), we find ourselves in the oldest part of our folk music history. His son, NILS (b. 1777) became a master player, and some years later, in 1796, Olav Larsson arrives on the scene as the last in the line of Rekve-musicians. Of these it was Nils who set his marks on the traditions. Even today his name lives strongly among fiddlers. At his height he set a pattern in creative fiddle music of the “slått” (reel) type, and he was a revered teacher for fiddlers in West Norway. In Hardanger it was said that most of those who started as fiddlers at the time were together with Nils Rekve. The most prominent of the fiddlers in Nordhordland, Magne Kleivland (b.1804) also counted “the Rekve” as his tutor. We know that they came to Rekve after playing, both Knut Lurås and Myllarguten from Telemark, and from there comes the name “Nils Rekve’s halling” (a type of dance from Hallingdal).