Barokk Boreal brings to light hidden and forgotten Christmas treasures by 17th-century poets from all around Norway. The album “JULETIDE” features a fascinating collection of wonderful and miraculous Christmas songs about winter, angels, stars, Christmas night, moonlight, the stable, the manger, fishing under the sun, and peace on earth.
The songwriters included on the album are Iver Brinch, Ingeborg Grytten, Samuel Bruun, Johan Brunsmand, Samuel Bugge, Oluff Lind, Peder Offvid, Petter Dass, and Dorothe Engelbretsdatter—small and great giants of their time, who saw their songs printed and shared with the world.
For each song, there’s often something like “To be sung as: A small child so joyfully.” These poets wrote lyrics to melodies they knew by heart and assumed the reader would as well. Barokk Boreal has sought and found these melodies—both in folk tradition and in written sources from the 1600s—uncovering the same melodic material from two different sources.
In true Barokk Boreal style, each Christmas song is presented as a musical tableau, weaving together the folk performance traditions with written sources from the 1600s. Both sources are rich in variations, and Barokk Boreal embraces this diversity, treating each “child” in each melody family as equally original and equally valuable. Cathrine sings from the written Baroque sources, Øyonn from folk traditions, while Vegar and Ulrik play across both traditions.
This time, the producer is early music veteran Rolf Lislevand.
“Christmas music and Christmas songs are among the most beautiful things we have. ‘Here and now’ and times gone by, woven together. Old, unknown songs, and new variations on familiar ones.”
Cathrine Jane Bothner-By shares: “Since we began Christmas concerts in 2015, new Norwegian Christmas and New Year’s songs from the 1600s have constantly come to light. We knew we’d encounter truly wonderful Christmas texts and melodies in this material. Yet it’s still like finding gold every time. Then comes the exciting task of arranging them, following the moods, finding different ways to use the four of us in Barokk Boreal, and trying to bring out the beauty and richness of it all.
We’re so glad to have completed this recording, so more people can enjoy this treasure. Here you’ll find atmosphere and storytelling, wonder, subtle humor, and a hope for peace on earth.”
