Slåttepiano

“Slåttepiano” is traditional Hardanger fiddle music, in piano translations by Ingfrid Breie Nyhus. She joins her different backgrounds on this album, as pianist, but from a folk music family. This is Norwegian folk music, in the sound of the piano.

“The seventeen pieces I have selected, are the same as Edvard Grieg arranged in his Opus 72, with Knut Dahle of Telemark as his source, following the tradition of great fiddlers like Myllarguten and Håvard Gibøen. I have listened my way into the traditional music, with several fiddlers as my sources and inspiration, in order to play my way to a personal understanding of the core of traditional slått music, the core of each slått, when the piano is its voice. “

Slått: From Old Norse sláttr or slagr, from the verb slá “hit, beat, strike, pluck”. A piece of instrumental folk music played mostly on the Hardanger fiddle or violin. The word originates from the verb “slå”, which points to that this music was originally struck with a plectrum or fingers on harp-like instruments.

Piano: Abbr. of pianoforte, from Italian piano “soft” and forte “loud”.  Large keyboard musical instrument, where pressing a key causes a padded hammer to strike the internal metal strings. Variations in volume correspond with the weight of the pianist’s touch on the keys.

“Puzzling folk playing – intimate and honest” 
Aftenposten

“You have to hear this! Ms. Nyhus is a phenomenon!” 
Gapplegate Review

“Rhythm and ornament are made as closely to the hardingfiddle as I never heard on the piano before”
Dag og Tid

“In an intimate and beautifully embellished musical universe, the small world of old slåtts where it all began, is widened”
Lira Musikmagasin