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Jan Beitohaugen Granli
Lite Nemmar - A Little Nearer (ta:lik, Norway
$16.99
14 tunes for dancing masterfully performed on the hardangar fiddle by Jan Beitohaugen Granli, plus a video of Anne Røine and Erik Onstad dancing a springar from Valdres, so you can really get the feeling of being there!
Listen:
Fagerdalen
Luråsen
Beitohaugen med ferespel
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Notes from the CD:
A LITTLE NEARER
You will also find a video of Anne Røine and Erik Onstad dancing the springar from Valdres. Together and separately, Anne and Erik stand out as masterly, detail-rich, and expressive dancers. They value the music highly, and they have developed the dance while being together with the older dancers in Valdres. Anne has learned to dance from many, including her uncle Harald Røine; her father, Erik Røine; Brit Totland, and Marit Mattisgard. Erik Onstad has learned mainly from Jørgen Trøen. The video also shows Berit and Knut Steinsrud, highly regarded Valdres dancers for more than 50 years.
It is with intensity, intimacy, and ruggedness that Jan meets his audience. "Energy, danceability, those I must have. If I play a springar, I play a dance, not a springar as a listening tune," he said once, as he began to play a springar after Jørn Røn. "You can’t get through this one easily, you know," he laughed after the last bow stroke. But he can be softly lyrical also.
Jan Beitohaugen Granli
ABOUT THE TUNES:
1. Fagerdalen (named for a mountain valley in Valdres). A springar I have from many different fiddlers. The tune was originally a short springar called Bikkjelåtten (The Mutt), and Ola G. Okshovd (1872–1960) improved it. I’ve had a lot of fun with this tune.
2. Mehanken (The Mosquito). A springar with forms after many fiddlers, mostly from Ola Bøe(1910-1985). I learned this form when we had a flat tire between Notodden and Bø in Telemark, and Anders Røine and I played it for all the mosquitoes in the ditch alongside the car.
3. Hundedengja (The Dog Beating) . I got this tune from a recording by Engebret Beitohaugen (1893 – 1963). An amusing tune with a feeling that it should have been in half-gray tuning (raised D-string). I got nice details in this tune from Olav Viken.
4. Vesle-Ole Sæle. Springar in usual tuning that I learned from Olav Jørgen Hegge. He says this tune is actually called Fjellpistrelåtten, but Vesle-Ole (Little Ole) from Sæle, Ola O Sælid (1907 – 1981), liked playing this tune so much that Olav Jørgen named it after him.
5. Luråsen (named for a man in Telemark who like the tune). I have this Hilmerengje in Helge Myrheim’s form, as he played it in a concert during a Hilme-stemne (an annual festival in Fagernes).
6. Bustebakkin. A springar I learned from Olav Jørgen Hegge. It was made by Torstein Sveinson Hegge (1814–1895), or Bustebakke, as he was called after he took over the farm Bustebakke in the Robøle community.
7. Gamle Anne Vik (Old Anne Vik). A springar I have from Trygve Bolstad. He was my teacher the first 12 years I played.
8. Beitohaugen med ferespel (Beitohaugen with introduction) . Springar after my great-great-grandfather, Nils Beitohaugen (1863–1927). He made the tune in his youth. I learned it from Magnus Daleng (1911 - ) , who learned it directly from Engebret Beitohaugen, Nils’s son. The form here has turned out to be a little different, because I studied a recording of Engebret where he plays different variations from time to time. For this recording I am playing the fiddle Engebret used until the day he died—while fiddling! In the top of the fiddle one can still see marks made when Engebret fell and died. We call the tuning here huldre tuning or troll tuning, that is to say, lowered A-string.
9. Hallingen hass Engebret (Engebret’s Halling) I have taken a little of this halling from a recording by Engebret and a little from Magnus Daleng.
10. Den vande låtten (The Difficult Tune). This listening tune I also learned form Trygve Bolstad.
11. Makaløysa. (Matchless) A springar learned from Olav Jørgen Hegge. He learned it from Torleiv Bolstad (1915-1979). who used the tune often. "The tune is so good for getting the fiddle going", Olav Jørgen says.
12. Skraddarlåtten (The Tailor Tune). A springar I have from Olav Jørgen Hegge. I had played it earlier, but the tune was quite different from what I believed it should be. A great dance tune. It is also called Kubakkin.
13. Lyarlått (A listening tune). This tune is mainly in Torleiv Bolstad’s (1915–1979) form.
14. Låtten hennar Bjørg-Gudrun (Bjørg and Gudrun’s tune). A springar created when I was deeply involved in the springar Beitohaugen. It is in Huldre tuning (lowered A-string). It’s a little two-phrase springar made in the same style as Beitohaugen, after my great-great-grandfather. The name comes from my grandmothers, Anne Bjørg Granli, (nee Tveit) and Gudrun Beitohaugen, (nee Smedsrud).
Video: Kristofferrengja. I have this tune from Trygve Bolstad, and it’s one of the most danceable of Jørn Hilme’s rengjene (very difficult tunes).
HARDANGER FIDDLES USED IN THIS RECORDING:
Gamlefela (The Old Fiddle). The fiddle goes by this name because its origins are unknown, but it was probably made in Valdres before K. Ø. Rudi’s time. Some have thought that Nils Beitohaugen got this fiddle in a horse trade. I’ve had it since 1990. Used on tracks 4, 9, 11 and 14.
K. Ø. Rudi 1900. I borrowed this fiddle from Olav Viken, who got it from his father for a "round year" birthday. The fiddle has a more nasal tone than the two others here, but it has an especially fine, full-bodied sound. Used on tracks 8, 10 and 12.
You often hear Jan while he's playing for dance. He's right there beside you. And so he is on this recording. The most ringing possible is coming from the instrument, and the sound is up close and natural.
Nils Beitohaugen was Jan’s great-great-grandfather on his mother’s side, and the family has produced several good folk musicians through the generations, such as Engebret Beitohaugen. But Trygve Bolstad has been Jan’s teacher first and foremost. He has also learned from Harald Røine, Olav Jørgen Hegge, Tore Bolstad, and Knut Bolstad.
Bjarne Øen 1956. My grandfather received this fiddle in 1992. It’s a fiddle in constant change because its material is somewhat thin. Used on tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 13 and on the video.
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