The City - the Country - the
World
1. The point of departure for this concert journey will be the
very city or town in which the concert takes place.
Anne-Lise Berntsen will zoom in on an event or year that carries a special
importance to this place; this may be a year any time between, say,
1600 and the present. From the epoch framing this special event, she
will set out to explore the local history, the social structure, how
people were thinking at the time, and of what.
2. How were things in this country during the
epoch? What happened in history, in the social and economical structure?
What occupied people’s minds? And further: How did all this sound? Who
listened to what sort of music, and where? We may visit the meetinghouse,
the labour union, the fraternal lodge, the community centre, the concert
hall, the stage, the opera, the radio, the television, the classroom
anything is possible.
3. What about Europe and the rest of the world
at the time? What about the political events, the basic ideas, the great
inventions, the progress and the setbacks? And again: how did this sound
in the many worlds of music?
This is a narrative concert, inspiring and richly varied. It comprises
two sections, but it can also be cut down to one.
Thus it can also be fitted in as "guest lecture" by any history
or music class at college level.
Harstad, Norway, 1999
Rjukan, Norway, 2000
Roeros, Norway, 2000
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Europe and USA Changing I -
V
This concert series is based on the same idea as "The City",
but comprises up to five concerts. Our point of departure is an important
year or event somewhere in the span between the 16th and the 19th century.
We follow the development of Europe from that point up to the present
day. Each concert deals primarily with one single epoch.
At the final concert we land in the Present. Each concert will include
the pop music of its time, along with the intellectual avant-garde music,
plus most of what lies between these two extremes.
Drammen Theatre, Norway, September 1997 – January 1998
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Millennium – Man and Music
Through 1000 Years
This concert series is based on the same ideas as "The City"
and "Europe".
Five concerts deal with the main epochs of the Millennium of European
music, idea and society at large.
Original instruments are used, thus emphasizing the huge variety and
colourfulness of each single period.
Drammen Theatre, Norway, January – April 2001
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Emigrants and Immigrants
First part: Scandinavia
1. In this concert we will accompany a specific individual or a
small group of people from Scandinavia. Anne-Lise Berntsen takes as
her starting point the year and the place they, he or she left
to set out for the new world, some time between 1850 and 1900.
Here, she touches on a number of questions: How was the local community
structured or stratified? What kinds of music were people listening
to in their different homes, in church, and in school?
2. From the level of the local community, we move on to Scandinavia
in general: How werethese countries governed at this point
in time? How the territory divided? What were the dominant ideas? What
was music like at the different levels of society?
3. Finally: What was Europe like that year? What
were the political events? Which ideas were in vogue? Were there important
inventions being made? What were the progresses and repercussions? What
music did people listen to? What and how did they themselves sing and
play?
For instance the 1880s and 90s would contain songs from the rapidly
growing labour movement, from the almost as rapidly growing free church
movement, along with music played in bourgeoisie homes: Offenbach, Grieg,
Sinding and Dvorak.
Second part: America
1. Our emigrant has become an immigrant in the USA.
Anne-Lise Berntsen´s narrative gives glimpses into the immigrants communities.
Where was music to be found in these surroundings, and what kinds?
2. What were the life conditions in this state, in these countryside’s
and in these cities? What were the prevailing political ideas? Where
did people listen to music? How and when did they themselves make music?
What did this music sound like?
3. Finally, we will take a broader outlook on the U.S.A. of the
actual period. What was this continent like just then? What was happening
in society at large?
All of the above will be answered during the concert, by way of narration,
music and song.
Emigrants and Immigrants:
Example : ELISABETH KOREN
She was a vicar’s daughter from Larvik, on the southeast coast of Norway,
in the 1830s. Then married to a vicar, she accompanied her husband to
Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, where they settled down. They arrived
in a bustling society, brimming with dynamical development. In her youth,
Elisabeth kept a diary. Later she became a prolific letter-writer. Brilliantly
edited and presented by Professor Gracia Grindahl in the book "Vicars
Wives", Korens diaries and letters constitute a wonderful basis
for a concert of this kind.
Example : THE PIANO FACTORY IN BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Around the turn of the last century, two Norwegian brothers established
a piano factory in Brooklyn. Today, we have extant source material at
hand from this enterprise that will serve as a firm basis for an informative
and entertaining concert.
Example : CITIES OF LIGHT
The little hydroelectric town of Rukan in Norway, and the much bigger
Buffalo City at Niagara Falls in the U.S., were both cities of light
at the turn of the Century a hundred years ago: Both were centres of
hydroelectric power. The actual events surrounding the births of these
two hydroelectric plants are indeed marvellous; the sequel of events
at times approaching the thriller genre. The source material is comprehensive;
so are the opportunities for a very varied concert.
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