Ringve, CC BY-SA 3.0
Folk tunes tell us stories.
The country of Norway has a dramatic landscape of mountains and valleys. Before 1850, people from Norway’s inland rural communities tended to live their entire lives where they were born. The traditional music and dance they produced reflected their communities. Most tune titles refer to a local story, landmark (like a mountaintop or waterfall), or the name of a town’s well-known fiddler.
But when looking through a list of Norwegian tunes, a surprising title stands out. One song is called “[Lars] Fykerud’s Farewell to America.”
Who was Lars Fykerud? Why was he saying goodbye to America? How did a song about America end up among those about Norwegian waterfalls and mountains?
A portrait of Lars Fykerud in his folk costume (bunad) and holding his Hardanger fiddle. Another fiddle lies on the table to the right. This photo was often used to promote Fykerud’s concerts. Source: Bø Museum.
Lars Fykerud (1860–1902) was one of the best-known fiddlers in Norway. He played what’s called the Hardanger fiddle, an instrument from his country’s mountainous interior. The Hardanger fiddle makes a striking visual impression. It boasts a stark geometric inlay and delicate fine-line painting. The top of the instrument features a carved lion wearing a crown, a national symbol of Norway.
A Hardanger fiddle “scroll” featuring a lion head
Two typical Hardanger fiddles
The Hardanger fiddle looks like a violin. But it has important structural differences that create a distinct sound. If you count the fiddle’s pegs, you’ll see it has nine strings. But only four run over the top of the fingerboard, where the performer places their fingers. These four are played with a bow, like on a violin. The other five strings are underneath, hidden in a channel below the fingerboard. When the fiddler plays, the sound waves from the top strings cause these bottom strings to vibrate. This interaction gives the instrument its unique echoing sound. Fiddlers also use a technique called “double stops.” This is when the fiddler plays more than one string at a time with the bow.
The fingerboard of a Hardanger fiddle. The fiddler plays the four top strings with their fingers. The five “understrings” run beneath the fingerboard.
Fiddler Hauk Buen playing “Rjukanfossen,” a tune named after a local waterfall
Resonant strings and double stops boosted the Hardanger fiddle’s volume in its original noisy context: a dance party. In the early 1800s, the Hardanger fiddle became the main accompaniment for social dances in many parts of rural Norway.
Sigbjørn Rua and Hege Johnrud dance to fiddling by Vegard Bjørhusdal. This video features a historic building in which this dancing might have taken place. It also includes folk costumes based on historical garments. Although this video only shows one couple, in a social dance there would have been many people dancing.
By the 1850s, musical influences from mainland Europe affected the valleys of Norway. Accordions playing polkas overtook social dance and fiddlers were in lower demand.
At the same time, urban Norwegians had a growing interest in rural folk culture. City dwellers looked to rural communities to help define their national identity. Fiddlers took advantage of this interest and staged concerts in urban centers. They often shared the stage with classical music celebrities. On these stages, the fiddle music began to change. It became more intricate and focused less on dance.
Lars Fykerud was among the most famous fiddlers who performed in these concerts. He brought his impressive technique and flair to urban audiences who sought a new Norwegian identity.
But his audiences were not only in Norway. Fykerud also had an enormous following in the United States. In the nineteenth century, over 800,000 Norwegians emigrated, seeking relief from poverty. Their new communities, primarily in the upper Midwest of the United States, became hubs for Norwegian culture. Fykerud and other Hardanger fiddlers found an eager audience in these communities. Fykerud was often billed as “Norway’s Greatest Violinist” and depicted in his folk costume.
An advertisement for a Lars Fykerud concert from the Minnesota newspaper The People’s Press in 1891. The bottom text draws attention to Fykerud’s folk costume as a featured part of the performance.
Fykerud found such success in the United States that he stayed for eight years, working as a touring star. He earned large sums for each concert but was notoriously unable to manage his money. After eight years of touring, his health deteriorated and he returned to Norway. On the boat journey back, he composed “Fykerud’s Farewell to America.”
Fykerud was known for writing beautiful long melodies. These melodies helped bring the fiddle out of the dance hall and onto the concert stage. In a recording of “Fykerud’s Farewell to America,” you can hear the type of singing melody that appealed to audiences in the late nineteenth century, both in Norway and in America. Fykerud is still celebrated as one of the most important fiddlers in Norwegian folk music history. His life story has become legendary and his American tours are a big part that story. “Fykerud’s Farewell to America” testifies to his journey to America and back to his mountain village. When fiddlers play it today, between other tunes about Norwegian waterfalls and mountaintops, they remind us that sometimes our ideas of home are shaped by other places we have been.
“Fykerud’s Farewell to America” (“Fykerud’s Farvel til Amerika”) performed by Knut Buen
Vilde Aaslid is an associate professor of music/music history at the University of Rhode Island. She has published on the intersection between jazz and poetry, as well as on music history pedagogy. She is an active performer and teacher of the Hardanger fiddle, and has recently begun new research in this area.
Learn more about this topic:
Read more about the Hardanger fiddle in Strings magazine
Hear live performances of the Hardanger fiddle on Norway’s Folkemusikktimen podcast
Learn more about the Hardanger fiddle from the Hardanger Fiddle Association of America