Patrice George
Fiddler Magazine, Winter 1999/2000
Used by Permission.

Annbjørg Lien has toured the world, hypnotizing audiences everywhere with the sound of Norway's national instrument, the Hardanger fiddle (hardingfele). A virtuoso on this delicate, decorated indigenous fiddle, she's won many awards for her traditional playing in national competitions. Performing with the band Bukkene Bruse, started in 1989, she has also been influential in creating a contemporary branch to Norwegian folk music's roots. Annbjørg, still only in her twenties, has also collaborated with many other musicians, including fellow Nordic bands, American guitarist Henry Kaiser, and the legendary Irish band, The Chieftains. In Norway, the Norwegian "Got Milk?" advertising campaign invited her to pose with her fiddle and that infamous white mustache.

This interview with Annbjørg took place on March 27, 1999, in New York City. She was in town to play in a festival of Nordic fiddle music, along with the Swedish band Väsen and the Finnish fiddle band JPP. She also gave a workshop for local fiddlers who play a bit of Hardanger fiddle, despite the handicap of living outside of Norway.

Our discussion started with how Annbjørg learned to play the Hardanger fiddle:

"I started to learn the fiddle when I was six, studying classical violin at the same time. Ålesund, my home town, did not have a strong folk fiddle tradition, but my parents loved music, and listened to the folk music programs on Norwegian radio, so it was in my life. My father started to play Hardanger fiddle in his mid-forties, inspired by a course with the great fiddler and violinist, Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa. A few years later my father started a fiddle class for young people in Ålesund, where I also learned to play the hardingfele. My parents took me to festivals and kappleiks, where I met people my own age with the same interests. I needed to meet with others who were interested in playing, to learn. You can't really learn on your own, playing tunes without a teacher! [Note: because of the drone strings, open tunings, and specific rhythms, the traditional music for hardingfele is almost impossible to play "off the page", although notations are often available. Teaching of tunes is almost always by ear, making this complex music a long- term study for even the most talented students."

"In my late teens, I had to choose between classical and folk music, because I wanted to go deeper into music. I couldn't do it in both styles because they are so different in technique and feeling. So around the age of seventeen, I stopped the classical training to concentrate on folk music."

Did you ever think that folk music would become your full-time career?

"I just moved toward it very naturally, and suddenly I was there. It is as if you just take the steps of the ladder; on the way you relax, learn and have fun. You don't plan so much! "

"After I finished high school in Ålesund, I took a year of basic design studies, which led me to study interior architectural design at the National College of Art and Design in Oslo. I finally took my exams last summer — eight years to do a three-year course because I was so busy with the music."

Other than your parents, who were your mentors and teachers?

"My mom grew up further south on Norway's western coast, where there is a strong fiddle tradition. So every summer when we went to visit my grandparents, I learned much from the local fiddlers of that area, Sunnmøre".

"The biggest change in my music was when I went to Oslo, where I had to think for myself and take my own steps. I learned much from Hauk Buen, a fabulous fiddle player and a fabulous person, who made a powerful impression on me. He has a natural relationship to music I really love — a passion. He asks questions like, "Why are we musicians? Why are we playing folk music and not building houses?" I wanted to meet that person and find out more. By visiting him at his home, seeing the nature around him, his neighbors, his dog, everything that inspires him, I learned much about the language of music, not just new tunes. "

Tell me a little about Kristiane Lund, a woman fiddler you have mentioned as one of your heroes.

"Kristiane Lund died about twenty years ago, in 1976. When she was active, she was just about the only woman who was visible, as a player, as a teacher, and a judge at competitions. She was an active organizer for folk music. She possessed a remarkable balance between being very strong, and very generous with her time and talents. She was important to the history of fiddling, as well as to the history of women in folk music."

Of course, wouldn't the lack of women musicians in the past have something to do with drinking, night life, and the places musicians performed?

"Yes, but they were also home taking care of the children! This instrument is so naked, you can't hide. You have to be totally involved to play it. Especially when you have reached beyond the level of learning to play, and start to express yourself with the instrument. Play for me and I can tell you who you are. That's why it is so important for women to play, to add their experience to the music! There is another generation of young girls after me, learning to play the Hardanger fiddle in Norway it is a huge movement, and it is fantastic. There are still many young men learning, too."

Are there going to be enough fiddles for all these new players?

"So many of the older fiddles were destroyed in the late 19th century by moralists who associated them with an evil life, and more were taken away from Norway by emigrants who never returned. Now it's a problem to find good instruments. Many of them are hanging on walls with collectors, collecting dust. Fortunately, there are a lot of makers making good instruments now, so in the end of the day the problem will be solved.

There are less expensive instruments, too, but the Hardanger fiddle is an expensive instrument to make. You know how it looks, with the inlays and the drawings — it is a pure thing. Yet, a person has to go up to a certain quality level to be inspired by its special qualities to continue playing! So it is hard for an ordinary person to afford a good one."

Will this lead to more ensemble playing with so many more fiddlers?

"The Hardanger fiddle, with its drone strings and overtones, had traditionally been played solo. That's an interesting thing — now you get both kinds of performances. Still, the best thing is that people can decide for themselves how they want to play now. Before, no one talked about folk music at all. Now there are meetings, discussions, classes and schools. People want to be part of it and make it better. That's the best thing that has happened in recent years."

Do you still play alone for dances?

"Oh, yes! But I can't do it regularly because I'm not home all the time. The point is that there are no rules, just a strong respect for the tradition. I've done a lot of band gigs; I feel that I now need to do solo Hardanger for a while. One should never be afraid of doing arrangements or other new things, because the traditional root of the music will always be a part of it."

You have been part of some wonderful musical collaborations, like Henry Kaiser's "The Sweet Sunny North," or the work you have done with Roger Tallroth and Mikeal Marin [guitarist and violist from Väsen, a famous Swedish band].

"Yes, I don't remember how the contact was made with Henry Kaiser, but it was a fun project. The result was that we got to tour the U.S., and met a lot of beautiful people. Roger Tallroth and I have been playing together for over ten years. He knows my playing and the Norwegian tradition very well. Mikeal came via Roger and is an extraordinary violist. He also has listened to Norwegian music, and knows the ornamentation and rhythms. They are curious about new sounds, but are also based totally in folk music. They aren't adding folk details to a rock and roll mind — there is a huge difference!"

How do you set up your hardingfele for band and recording performances?

"I just use a tiny mike, for the Hardanger or nyckelharpa, but also play an electric fiddle for some arrangements. I could never turn an old instrument into an electric instrument. There isn't any reason to use an instrument just because it is fancy. When I use the electric fiddle, it is because the arrangement and the tune call for it."

You're on The Chieftains' new CD — are you going Celtic or are they going Norwegian?

"I think they are going Norwegian! It doesn't matter who is going where though. The importance of it is that there was a meeting of different ideas. I first met The Chieftains when they wanted me to play the nyckelharpa to accompany Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on an earlier CD. For their latest CD, they wanted a medley with women fiddlers, including Eileen Ivers, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh, Natalie MacMaster, and myself."

Tell me about the instrument you play.

"I play on a Hardanger fiddle made by Olav G. Helland in 1898. It's one of the first fiddles that Kristiane Lund played on. She was one of the only woman fiddlers in the time when Hardanger was a male instrument. I got it as an award, and it's a big honor for me to have it and to bring it into my time."

How much time do you spend performing and touring in a year now?

"Quite a bit of the time, but it is important to plan free time well. If you just travel and play like we have done for many years now you start to think, "I need some space" to reload the batteries, think about what you have experienced, so you don't burn yourself out. I used to say that the Norwegian folk music is the best kept secret in Norway even from Norwegians! And yet the tradition is so strong. When you start to play in a band it doesn't mean that you won't do traditional concerts anymore. One needs a balance between the two ways of playing."

Annbjørg has kept busy throughout 1999. She appeared at the international fiddle festival, Fiddles of the World, in Nova Scotia, where she teamed up with Shetland fiddler Catriona MacDonald to demonstrate the relationship between fiddling in Norway and the Shetland Islands. Fall 1999 had her back in the studio working on a new CD to be released in early 2000. She has also received an award from the Norwegian government, which will help her plan a tour to perform and teach in the year 2000.

A number of these recordings are available from the HFAA Bookstore.

Annbjørg Lien solo CD's:

• BabaYaga (to be released on NorthSide in February 2000)
• Prisme/Prism (Shanachie CD, 1997)
• Felefeber/Fiddle Fever (Shanachie CD, 1994)

With Bukkene Bruse (Annbjørg Lien, fiddles; Arve Moen Bergset, vocals & fiddles; Steinar Ofsdal, flutes, mouth harp, vocals; Bjørn Ole Rasch, keyboards):

• Steinstølen/The Stone Chair (Northside CD, 1999)
• Åre (Grappa CD ,1995)
• Bukkene Bruse/Billy Goats Gruff (Grappa CD,1993)

With other artists:

• Tears of Stone, 1999. The Chieftains. (Annbjørg plays with Eileen Ivers, Mairéad Ní Mhaonaigh & Natalie MacMaster on one track)
• The Long Journey Home. The Chieftains. (Annbjørg accompanies Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø on nyckelharpa on one track)
• The Sweet Sunny North, compilation with Henry Kaiser, David Lindley, and other Norwegian musicians (Shanachie CD, 1994)

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