Music And Dance Of Norway
Although there is scant written record of what kind of music was played in Norway but there is a vast audio record which provides some insight to this. Minor or Modal scales with a sober and haunting sound form the music of Norway. There is very little written record to give the background of the origin and existence of music but it is learned that religious and traditional music prevailed. Like many other countries, Norway too experienced a revival in the 20th century. Ballads and short songs are the common types of traditional or folk songs.
Other popular kind of folk music is hymns, work songs, trialling vocals skillingsviser. Like the nearby countries of Sweden and Denmark, Norway too has a Nordic dance music tradition. The most distinctive instrument in Norwegian folk music is hardingfele. Bygdedans including halling, pols, springleik, rull, gangar and springar are the traditional dances of Norway. They were performed on important events such as weddings, funerals etc and were called the Courting Dances. Few dances were also brought from Europe like the fandango, reinlender, waltz polka and mazurka. Norwegian harp, bukkehorn, harpeleik, lur are a few other traditional instruments.