Gullveven (Middelalderballader)

EM20 / Mars 2008

It is a pleasure to be able to present this selection of medieval ballads sung by one of the most distinctive and highly respected vocalists of the Scandinavian traditional landscape. The ballads are performed with an unpretentious, traditional mode of delivery, utilizing tonality, ornamentation and rhythmic understanding that have survived the centuries – despite continual, conscious attempts to quell these ever since the Reformation of the 1500’s.

Øyonn Groven Myrhen has grown up in a musical home, rich in tradition and old- style singing. Her parents come from musical families where traditional singing has been a normal part of daily life for generations. From her mother’s family she has inherited an especially large repertoire of songs and melodies. Øyonn has also learned a great deal from Hagny Huso, of the Gugard family singing tradition.

The ballads presented here are for the most part from the Groven and the Gugard family traditions of western Telemark. Some are performed a cappella. Others are arranged, using instruments whose non- tempered tunings help emphasize the melodies’ peculiar qualities.

The result is a singular weave of the:

– lovely and the wild, the grand and the mild.

– beautiful and the violent, the grand and the silent.

– the mystical and the mild, the beautiful and the violent, the majestic and the silent.