By Andy Saunders
Is Scotland the north of the south, or the south of the north?
The world was a very different place in 1888, when the Nordic Music Days festival was founded. The original festival grew out of a tradition of song festivals, which brought together choirs from across the Nordic region, and was organised by a group of composers so that there was a platform for their works to be performed and shared with each other.
The 1888 festival, in Copenhagen, included seven large-scale choral and orchestral concerts, and went on to become the blueprint for a nomadic festival. Since then, there have been festivals in various towns and cities in Iceland, the Faroes, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark, with editions also held in Berlin and London. The festival has developed and evolved over the last 136 years, adapting as the world also changed, but has maintained its focus on new Nordic music.
Scotland’s connection to the Nordic countries goes back for many centuries. Viking influence in Shetland and Orkney goes back to at least the 800s, and linguistic similarities between Shetlandic,Orcadian, and Norse are still to be found. There are tales of the‘Finn-men’,who travelled from Greenland to Scotland by kayak in the 18th century (and possibly even before then), and there are strong links between Denmark and the North-East –even before the discovery of the North Sea’s oilfields. Our religious histories are similar, and our agriculture and geology have close resemblances. Both the Nordic region and Scotland are used to the long summer days, balanced by long winternights, and all of us have waterproof clothing close to hand at all times!
Musically and culturally, the connections continue. Scottish composer, viol player, and soldier-of-fortune Tobias Hume served in the Swedish army during the 17th century, and Evard Grieg’s great-grandfather moved across the North Sea following the Battle of Culloden in 1746. Familiar traditional tunes are found in both cultures, and Hebridean psalm singing and Faroese Kingo singing inhabit similar sound worlds.
There are existing links between Scottish and Nordic composers and performers as well, with a long history of co-commissioning, and an affinity for Nordic music from ensembles in Scotland.Collaboration has been a strength for both regions over the years, so it is a natural progression for the Council of Nordic Composers to connect with Scotland in a partnership for this year’s programme.
The 2024 festival is a unique event, with a line-up of artists that represents a Who’s Who? of the Nordic and Scottish contemporary music scenes, with unparalleled partnership and contribution from organisations large and small, and with a programming and planning ethos rooted in being generous and curious.
The theme for the festival, Word of Mouth, came out of discussions with the curator panel and festival team, and allows the festival to explore aspects of story-telling, the sharing of ideas and experiences, the physicality of singing or playing wind instruments, and power of description and imagination.