Knut Buen

Knut Buen was born on 31 October 1948 and lives in Tuddal in Telemark, where he has a home as well as a base for his work. He is descended from folk musicians for several generations on both his mother’s and his father’s side. This applies to creative and traditional practices in music, art and handicraft. He grew up in an environment where all these techniques were alive and he learned to play the Hardanger fiddle at 9 years of age. He went to a normal grammar school for eight years, but later became most preoccupied with using his time learning and collecting folk melodies, songs and memories, and stories from older authorities with whom he also became personal friends. He learnt around 500 melodies and had already begun working as a professional concert artist in his teens. At the same time, he continued his collection of folk memories and folk music and founded his own publishing house to produce recordings in various formats, articles and books. Accordingly, around 150 publications have found their way from the Buen Cultural Workshop to interested users, and been downloaded to the internet. Knut Buen has composed dozens of folk dances and over a hundred melodies to his own texts. He is also a lyric writer and musician by upbringing and, in collaboration with arrangers, has created a series of musical works in various genres. Knut Buen has written a book on the tradition surrounding the fiddle-player Knut J.Dahle (1834-1921). In this connection he has also recorded the original slåtter to Edvard Grieg’s op.72 on LP and CD, with professor Einar Steen-Nøkleberg.