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Een to discuss Hardanger fiddle in Mellby Lecture

By Linnae Stole '10
January 28, 2009

Associate Professor of Music Andrea Een will present the spring 2009 Mellby Lecture, "Playing by Ear: A Journey from Classical Violinist to Hardanger Fiddler," Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m. in Christiansen Hall of Music, Urness Recital Hall. The lecture will be streamed live and archived online.

A reception will follow the lecture in the Margaret Skoglund reception room.

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Een's lecture will focus on how she came to learn and appreciate the rich history of the Hardanger fiddle tradition in Norway after years of study on violin and viola. She will share her journey of learning music by ear, playing a rich, centuries-old repertoire from native fiddlers, and thinking in a different way musically from the classical violin tradition in which she was first trained. The lecture will also feature Een performing examples of traditional Hardanger music.

Since 1979 Een has taken nine research trips to Norway to study the Hardanger tradition and master the eight- to nine-stringed folk fiddle. She soloed with the St. Olaf Orchestra during the ensemble's 2005 tour of Norway and played with the orchestra on their international tours in 1979 and 1985. This June she will again return to Norway to give concerts and hear the National Fiddle Contest in Hallingdal.

Hardanger music remains popular in Norway today, often crossing over into a combination of rock and jazz. However, its folk nature is changing as the rural culture of the country is changing and even disappearing. Een notes that she has noticed this even since her first trip to Norway in 1979. "We will always have the old recordings and pictures, but we may lose the folk milieu that has kept [Hardanger music] alive for centuries," she says. Een is optimistic, however, that the tradition will remain alive in the United States, thanks to organizations like the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America, St. Olaf's program (which is the only academic institution in America where students can earn credit for study on the Hardanger fiddle), and growing numbers of non-Norwegians who enjoy the music.

Een received a D.M.A. degree in Violin Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and she has taught violin, viola and Hardanger fiddle at St. Olaf since 1977. She is a member of the Minnesota Opera Orchestra and has performed as soloist and chamber musician in the U.S., Norway, France, Germany, Austria, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica. Her solo CD of original and traditional music, From the Valley, was released in 2004. In 2003 Een received the St. Olav Medal, given by Norway's King Harald V, for her promotion of greater knowledge of Norwegian culture.

The Mellby Lectures
The annual Mellby lectures are named in remembrance of St. Olaf faculty member Carl A. Mellby and were established in 1983 to give professors the opportunity to share their research with the public. Mellby, known as "the father of social sciences" at St. Olaf, started the first courses in economics, sociology, political science and art history at the college. He was professor and administrator from 1901 to 1949, taught Greek, German, French, religion and philosophy, and is credited with creating the college's honor system.

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.