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Norrœnn, for double string quartet

Norrœnn (‘Norn’) is a four-movement original composition by Catriona Macdonald, commissioned by the Telemark International Folk Music Festival and funded by Kulturrådet (Arts Council Norway). The piece stages a dialogue between the fiddle style of the Shetland Islands and the Hardanger fiddle style of Telemark, Norway. Norrœnn was composed for world-leading exponents of both traditions, creatively working with their playing styles.

Through its processes of composition, its development in rehearsal, and realisation in performance (also led by Macdonald), Norrœnn represents research into the creative possibilities latent in the respective styles; it tests connections and differences, and from their interaction brings forward new formations affirmative of longstanding cultural affinities, and indicative of the future (co-)evolution of these traditions.

The confluence of fiddle styles in Norrœnn evokes other convergences in a long cultural history. The Shetland Islands were part of the Norse nation until their impignoration to the Scottish crown in 1459. The remnants of the Old Norse language (e.g ‘Norroenn’) and customs are heard in Shetland dialect, place names, and in customs still practised within the islands. And certain parts of the pre-20th-century repertory from Shetland utilise marches, reels and other dance forms with similarities to those of the Hardanger repertoire.

These generic connections, among others, are explored in Norrœnn. And so are the different sonic properties associated with the fiddling styles. The Hardingfele or Hardanger fiddle is Norway’s national instrument; its numerous schemes of microtonal tuning and its additional set of resonating under-strings offer rich potential for creative inquiry into subtle plays of consonance, dissonance and timbre.

While a notated score formed a starting point for Norrœnn’s realisation, it does not represent the essence of a work whose roots are in a practice-focused tradition of oral transmission. Hence the medium of submission is a live recording of Norrœnn’s 2013 première.