On August 30th, the ECM Record Label released a marvelous new CD that features the renowned Danish String Quartet. Called Keel Road, this recording explores folk music from countries around the North Sea coastline.
The North Sea served as the main communication and transportation channel for Northern Europe. Trade goods, culture, and music crossed the North Sea on ships run by men who were brave enough to venture out into the abyss.
Travelling from Demark, to Norway, to England and Ireland, Keel Road explores folk music form these areas in string quartet arrangements that have been created by the members of the Danish String Quartet.
Folk music from Scandanavia and other parts of Northern Europe is something that the Danish Quartet love doing. This is their third CD that puts folk music front and center; the other two recordings being their discs Woodworks and Last Leaf. This, in addition to their renowned recordings of the standard string quartet literature.
As it was for Woodworks and Last Leaf, the members of the quartet have explored and researched the melodies. Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen is a violinist with the Danish quartet as he explains, “Most folk musicians have this common repertoire that you meet up and play in jam sessions at festivals. But it’s also about searching for new tunes and there are tons of various ways of doing that nowadays. You can find most thongs online.”
One of the gems on the disc that Sørensen found online very much by chance was an old wax cylinder recording of a women singing an old Danish song about a shoemaker. The recording dates from 1907 and is included on Keel Road. It was recorded by the women’s husband, who as Sørensen explains was a Bela Bartok or Kodaly of Denmark. Someone who travelled around the country collecting and documenting Danish folk melodies. “It was just so incredibly beautiful and strong...we wanted to feature that song on the album, and it also inspired me to write a new tune called Once a Shoemaker.”
Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin, the cellist for the quartet contributed folk songs that come from the Irish folk music Tradition. As Sørensen says, “He [Sjölin] dug up these amazing tunes by Turlough O’Carolan the Irish composer, who has this amazing catalogue of great tunes... and he arranged four of those tunes.”
There are also tracks on Keel Road that reflect the English and Irish folk tradition of musicians playing tunes without break, known as sets. “Since this new album is looking a little bit more westward this time, instead of just being Scandanavian music.... we wanted to feature that tradition on the album of having sets of tunes.”
The Danish Quartet have become masters of arranging these folk melodies for string quartet, and much of the expertise comes from experience. As Sørensen describes the process, “The first step is finding a good melody, that would work well on a concert stage and has a clear character or story. The next step is to try to emphasize that narrative or that character in the melody. We’ve been playing together for more than two decades now, and we have been playing many of the big classical masterworks. From that we have gained some experience in terms of how to write for string quartet. We have built up quite a lot of tools that we can use to underline the character of the folk tune.”
The Danish Quartet's approach to folk music, has proven to be extremely popular and well received by audiences. “A good melody is universal. We can play these tunes all over Europe and in North America...and it awakens something in people. There is maybe a feeling of home... or something that people can relate to in some way, even though they haven’t heard the music before. A good melody ignites something in all of us,” says Sørensen.
Keel Road is a marvelous disc, that is a joy to listen to. The Danish String Quartet’s rich and beautiful harmonization and presentation of these melodies is sure to keep any listener entertained.
Take a trip around the North Sea and let the Danish Quartet be your guides and entertainers.