Spelemannens Bekjennelser* (The Confessions of a Musician)

In Spelemannens Bekjennelser* (The Confessions of a Musician) Teater NOR invited its audience along through parts of the history o music, at high speed. With live music, dance and quick jumps through time Teater NOR demonstrated how music has been performed during daily life, during celebration and as part of religious performance. In particular the company emphasised how the seductive power of music and rhythm works on us people and how this has been used through times.

• Who is this madman dancing to the rhythms of the drums, trying to make the higher powers strike down in a stick?

• How was music used in church during the middle ages?

• Who is this musician who, according to legend, played in such a manner everyone had to dance and according to the stories, danced to death? Did he have, as some has claimed, contact with the very devil?

• What is hidden behind the smiles of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers? Why does the step dance look as some kind of birds’ pairing game if one turns off the music?

• Why are rock musicians hailed as the greatest heroes of our time?

• What is really the difference between the original fertility ritual and our time’s discos and rave parties?

All these questions Teater NOR posed to the musician in person.

Laughter, smile and humour were the foundation as well as the aim for the production. At the same time Teater NOR entered the different epochs and the musical expressions with respect and sobriety. All music was performed live. The instruments were violin, drums, trumpet, langeleik (a traditional Norwegian instrument resembling the zither), electric guitar and electric organ.

Spelemannens Bekjennelser is from 1998 and was produced in collaboration with Nordland Visual Theatre.

Source: E-mail from Thorbjørn Gabrielsen, 10.11.2010