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My encounter with Denmark

In 2008 I came to know about Denmark especially its thought about welfare. At that time I was looking for a nursing home suitable for my family member, then I happened to meet a facility based on Danish welfare thought, which led me to the opportunity for visiting Denmark.
The more I study about Denmark, the better I was fascinated by its deep and mature thought. At first I didn’t understand how to relate it to my music as a musician, but gradually I wanted to know the root of their music because I have thought that music comes from people’s deep part of their heart.
In 2010 I released a piece of arrangement work “The Ugly Duckling” composed by Danish composer L.Schytte on Muramatsu Original Series Vol.44 ( Muramatsu Inc. ), which is my first work related to Denmark.
From 2011 I have visited Denmark once a year, researching Danish music and made a donation of my work (music booklets) related to Denmark to Danish various facilities.
I have asked my coordinator and interpreter (Danish language) Mr. Taguchi to arrange my interviews and translate there ensuring accurate communication.
From 2017 I started to introduce the thought of Danish welfare in order to adapt it to the idea of Japanese ordinary life by playing various original works partly quoted from Danish music so as to make like “hybrid” music at our concert.

I think that Danish thought of welfare is not only for disabled people or elder people but also for ordinary healthy people. If we all understand the way of thinking such as “normalization”, we would be able to live more fulfilling lives and avoid debasing ourselves. Now we have to face our aged society and live in the diversified set of values; however we can find the root of Danish mature thought in the tales of H.C.Andersen written about one hundred years ago.
Music must be born from people’s thoughts or feelings in their deep unconsciousness, therefore searching for songs of Danish heart, I believe to pursue our real happiness.

The "hybrid" music between Denmark and Nanase

Ayuko Nanase's works related to Denmark (Excerpts)

◆A Stork from Egypt (From “The Ugly Duckling”) [Nanase&L.Schytte] (Cl. Vc.)
The original tale is compared to H.C.Andersen’s autobiography. Though it has some scenes of fierce bullying, the beginning and ending of this story showcase beautiful and calm landscape in spring. A stork from Egypt so to say the immigrant begins to tell the world of Andersen rolling its beaks like a drum that is the prelude of Andersen’s stories.

◆Mermaid Fantasy (From “The Little Mermaid”) [Nanase&L.Schytte] (Vc. Pf.)
The little mermaid is known as a sad tale of a mermaid who could not be joined in marriage with her beloved human prince; however the story has been interpreted in various ways. At the last part of the story, the mermaid becomes a sylph and gets her start to obtain the eternal spirit that only human-beings can hold. It could be such fantasy that a heterogeneous couple composed of man and mermaid would be sublimated through the phase of her loving the prince; and cello’s gentle sound is suitable for it.

◆One-legged Lovers (From “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”) [Nanase&L.Schytte] (Cl. Vc. Pf.)
A one-legged soldier because of a lack of tin falls in love with a ballet dancer posing on one foot, as he sees that she has similar characteristics. The soldier having serious mind and much pride fell to channel water drifting between life and death in the riptide, then he heard a supernal song and the beloved dancer flashed across in his mind and his fate was declared by her. Chamber music contributes sophisticated mood to the most romantic scene of this story of the soldier’s crowded life. (The soldier reminds me of Danish temperament by which people have gradually gained their personality maturity in poor and hard circumstances.)

◆Blue Moment in Ribe (From “Når mørket Jorden blinder”) [Nanase&Danish traditional] (Cl. Vc. Pf.)
Blue moment is a phenomenon that can appear after sunset, filled with the mystic blue scenery. In Nordic area it can be seen sometimes in a long time related to the inclination of the sunlight. The old town of Ribe, the oldest city in Denmark, preserves the historical streetscape, and when it changes into blue moment, the world beyond time and space appears. Night watchman’s songs which had been with people in their hard times are going to be listened there soon.

◆The Elder-Tree Mother (Hyldemoer) [L.Schytte arr.by Nanase] (Cl. Pf.)
The original tale is a fantastical story that begins from a pot of elder-flower tea. The fairy of elder-tree leads an aged couple to the reminiscences of their lives, and that would increase awareness of importance of our memories which we can trace and talk about.

◆Little Ida’s Flowers (Den lille Idas Blomster) [L.Schytte arr.by Nanase] (Cl. Pf.)
This tale is said to be the first original fairy tale of Andersen. A girl named Ida grieved over her flowers withering, but she came to accept their death through the ball of dancing flowers in her fantasy.

On-the-ground research in Denmark (1)

(In progress)

On-the-ground research in Denmark (2)

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct.2013

Having been overwhelmed by Danish old ladies enjoyed the opera Falstaff of Verdi as if they gave a horselaugh to Japanese famous comic chat artist Kimimaro Ayanokoji, it may be because its dramatic interpretation had a kind of wham-bam taste. After going to the opera in Copenhagen, I visited to Aarhus the second large city in Denmark.
Aarhus is the birthplace of Ludvig Schytte, Danish composer whose piece I dealt with as my arrangement work for flutes. The old town is a popular tourist area in Aarhus, where old landscape was recreated and preserved carefully. It shows various ways of living that represent unbridgeable gap between rich and poor in times of Andersen, and the way of display is based on rationality that is so effective and just like Danish to do so. Denmark is recently well known as a nation having the highest level of happiness by the investigation of UN, but when I saw that Danish people had overcome such cruel conditions which had not had appeared in their official history, I was dumbfounded at those facts.
Another purpose of this travel is to visit an educational institution “folkehøjskole” which exists about 25miles south of Aarhus. Folkehøjskole means private boarding school for adults representing the quality of Danish spirituality in which I have been interested. Guided by a Japanese staff member working there for long time, I spent a day with other students including 13 Japanese staying there, talking and having meals with them. This school stands out for the educational style in Denmark which means that the physically or mentally challenged people live with the unimpaired people and study together helping each other. Japanese officers from an independent administrative institution also joined us and made a presentation about their research of front-line facilities of welfare, and a local aphasic person in wheelchair gave us a short lecture about Danish social systems accompanied by his helper, from which we could glimpse the current situation or the issue of their world.
Of course, I could get fine information about music in their lifestyle, and having an enjoyable day, it was an overwhelming sight that pursued the concept of the ultimate barrier-free world coming from each person's mind. It was a prime opportunity because I savored the unique sense that only exited on-site in Denmark.

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct. 2014

Folkehøjskole means a private school for adult education which is said to be one of the most understandable symbols of Danish culture and society. People studying there have traditionally used each song book every day that has an important meaning as education, and I’ve been interested in its contents keenly from before visiting Denmark. Luckily enough, I got a chance to interview a person who played a key role in folkehøjskole society and had also been one of the supervised editors of højskole song books, Mr. E.Christiansen.

On his wishes, this interview was held by using Danish language with my interpreter, and he told me about various aspects of Denmark in a private lecture style, that is to say Danish as the folk who loves songs, the role of songs for Danish and its history, and present situation and vision for the future. His lecture continued for about two hours so passionately. At the end of his interview, he told me that he knew some foreigners who had interests in words of their song book, but he met the foreigner who focused attention on its music for the first time. In addition, records showed that there had been a foreigner who researched that kind of music around three hundred years ago, so I was the first person since then. I appreciate his compassionate response to our visit that gave me a supportive push.

Looking back at his lecture, I was so impressed by the episode of Grundtvig (1783～1882) who has been said to be the father of modern Denmark. He wrote a lot of words to music and led the way of Danish song society in common people, whereas he wrote excellent rhythmic rhymes in words, he couldn’t actually sing on key at all, so he hardly ever sang with others properly. This surprising fact means that the musically challenged can participate in singing without worrying about it there. This is also the thought-provoking thing for us as musician, which has deep meanings related to the "normalization" that is the distinctive principle of welfare in Denmark.

Den Gamle By(Old Town) Aarhus; Denmark 21/10/2013

Atelier for students at Egmont højskolen; Denmark 22/10/2013

The song book used at the folkehøjskole; Denmark 7/10/2014

The organ in the Grundtvig's church; Denmark 2/10/2014

On-the-ground research in Denmark (3)

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct. 2015

Roskilde is a small city, but has been thought of as a cradle of Denmark, because the home of royal family existed there before Copenhagen was opened up. Vikings as their ancestor sailed out from the port of Roskilde fjord, and toured around the seas exploiting their business talent, then became efficient traders gradually. We can see some restored ships of Viking moored to the bank at the area of Viking's museum, and it is amazing that many of their ships tend to be so small beyond expectation (photo1).
The souvenir of Vikings must include various indigenous music of the place where they were staying. In addition, most of them would be conveyed by mouth, and what had survived were the ones which people were impressed by and memorized. Those songs then became familiar to them sung by the common people or soaked up by professional musicians as their repertoire. I feel their dedicated attitude to such songs while I research Danish favorite songs by various materials. Danish people have been said to be cheerful and love to sing, but once I begin to make a searching study of their core songs, I feel like wandering about a forest of music and other culture that beyond time and space.
With that, accompanied by my coordinator Mr. T, I tried to visit the rehearsal of the elite choir DR PigeKoret (←click! ) of the young girls who were selected as being good at singing, which national radio station operates and has been popular among Danish people. As we before had an interview about amateur choirs for common people at former visit to Denmark, we imagined this kind of choir should be an extreme opposite of it. We were looking forward to attending their rehearsal actually.

At first I was impressed by their up-front tone of vocalism, they seemed to face their own voices so naturally. In spite of the fact that they worked on music with a sense of pride, they didn't overstrain themselves about their technique at all, and I fully understood that the well-qualified girls for singing gathered spontaneously. While I felt a little overwhelmed by such atmosphere, having remembered about Danish traditional culture of singing that Mr. Faber, the conductor of this choir, told us about in between rehearsals, he suddenly called me to the center piano. All members began to surround me sitting in front of the piano, and Mr. Faber told me that they were going to sing a welcome song for me "Danmark, mit fædreland (Denmark, my fatherland; words by H.C.Andersen, regarded as like a second anthem of Denmark)" that received first-place votes in balloting of the song of Danish heart held by national radio station. Of course I knew the song well as a Denmark fan, so I played the first phrase on the piano softly, because I couldn't control my urge then. As soon as I began to play, he turned to speak to me "You know it!" with a lot of pleasure. Their performance in a capella style involved a kind of distinctive feminine charms being pure and that would exist only in voices on the brink of adulthood. I was so touched by their cordial surprise that my eyes voluntarily blurred with tears. (photo2)

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct. 2016

Copenhagen has been the source of Northern European culture, having many places full of cutting-edge tastes. I wanted to feel them actually during my time in Copenhagen, because I had not have a chance to do so until then.

The Christianshavn district located near the sea was one of the hot places to visit, where the world famous restaurant “NOMA” had gained a reputation as the revolutionist of food culture from Denmark, and the Christiania zone had exerted a strong presence as a self- ruled area by hippies. NOMA has been known as the restaurant that was hard to make a reservation, but some tourists came to see its appearance that has a Japanese-inspired small rock garden which surprised me.(photo3)

In addition, the Vesterbro district located at the west side of the Central Station called Copen’s SOHO was the area with common touch where many artists came to live. Many fancy shops dotted the area, which sold interior goods, furniture, and sundry goods filled with Northern European refined taste, and I could intuited the scheme of the Scandinavian design that had flowered on Danish modest and down-to-earth nature from the atmosphere there. Diversity of living style, what they need or how they want to live, the face of this town could embrace, and the inherent sense of relief in this place I felt marvelously.

The feature of this visit was Ribe the oldest town in Denmark that located in the south-west part of Jutland peninsula. Ribe’s Old town where streetscape of the Middle-Ages was preserved resembled Odense the birthplace of H.C.Andersen and had denser and deeper impression.(photo4) “I would love you to visit Ribe if you have a real desire to know Denmark.” Those are the words my coordinator who helped my work in Aarhus remarked to me, that have remained in my heart, by which guided I got to Ribe taking trains for about 3 hours.

In the evening I arrived there, I got an unexpected chance to see the blue moment phenomenon found only in clear and unclouded twilight, that surroundings everywhere turned mystic blue taking me to another world beyond time and space.

Ribe is well known as the existence of night watch long ago, and tourists can enjoy the brief tour of night watch for sightseeing now. Night watchmen had worked for security and guarded people from various troubles, patrolling along cobbled streets while singing songs every night which attracted me a lot. The songs must have stayed present to the people’s everyday life and been ingrained into the innermost part of mind, I have always wanted to listen to them directly. In the same dimensions of the row of brick houses as medieval era which means the same resonance, night watchman’s songs echoed somehow plaintive but then a bit humorous. The guide of night watch told us Danish history being full of ups and downs, whereas Danish people had survived a crisis together and become hardy citizen; therefore I realized their calm confidence and a sense of pride from the way he talked about.
(New piece ♪Blue Moment in Ribe♪ more details → click here!)

Photo 1; Roskilde, Denmark 3/10/2015

Photo 2; Rehearsal of DR PigeKoret ; Copenhagen,Denmark 5/10/2015

Photo 3 Copenhagen; 3/10/2016

Photo 4 Ribe; 6/10/2016

on-the ground research in Denmark (4)

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct. 2017

At this year’s research for Danish song culture, we focused on the filksongs which Danish people had sung on their anniversaries. Selskabs sang (lejlighedssang) in Danish they sing on their special occasions at their private meeting like birthday party per decade, confirmation service, or wedding party. Let’s say Mr./Ms. A is going to hold his/her 50th birthday party, all members in attendance will sing filksong which tells his/her events or episodes on the popular melody they all know well, and they enjoy and respect the world of A’s life. The text is distributed on the day of the meeting, without rehearsal or demonstration by good singer, they begin to sing together cooperating each other. The most important priority is that the song is possible to sing for all members and understandable to them. If someone sing a little out of key, it won’t be a problem, but it’s necessary that all members can sing together without dropout. That’s why singing tempo is set slower than usual. It is abundantly Danish way that they assign great value to join and sing together and share the content of song; in other words, committing spontaneously and sharing song’s world by all of them, they value the main character of the event. It should be more important to be connected by songs than to be able to sing better.

Since I had always been interested in such songs, my interpreter Shige and I made a visit to a professional copywriter Mr. Lau Ishøj (Photo 1) who had made verses of Selskabs sang as his business. He had been active as a hard-core journalist working at a major daily newspaper company and had a long career of international correspondent as a freelance. Having peculiar Danish feeling of humor and irony that includes a little salty spice, his texts always clear the atmosphere of a party and have been appreciated by clients, then have come to be advertised by word of mouth. When he accepts the offer, he carefully interviews his client beforehand, and his way of making well-thought-out plan must be supported by his conviction and pride as a genuine journalist. As everyone expects to be understood accurately deep down inside, he satisfies such expectation with a fine sense of balance which should come from his deep human love and base on his supreme sense of music.

Though we could not join the ceremony with songs directly because of its privacy, just when I was impressed by the deepness of Danish culture again, he asked me “Why are you living in Japan far from Denmark interested in such kind of songs?” widening his clear blue eyes. Surprising at the common sense in Denmark that must correspond to the essential point of studying different culture.

Search for songs of soul and spirit in Denmark as the great nation of welfare Oct. 2024

(In progress)

Photo 1 Mr. Ishøj ; Taastrup, Denmark 6/10/2017

Photo 2 The culture center at Taastrup, Denmark 6/10/2017