Viking heritage inspires soothing lullabies from Icelandic pianist Gabríel Ólafs
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Gabríel Ólafs drew inspiration from Viking tunes for his album Lullabies for Piano and Cello, featuring cellist Steiney Sigurðardóttir.Courtesy of Universal Music -
Gabríel Ólafs, a self-taught composer, was just 14 when he wrote "Absent Minded," a piece that landed him his first record deal.Anna Maggy / Universal Music Group
While strolling in his home city of Reykjavik last year, Gabríel Ólafs wandered into a bookstore, where he found an out-of-print collection of ancient Viking melodies. The Icelandic pianist-composer found inspiration to explore his heritage in a new way as he flipped through the volume of tunes collected by a traveling priest around 150 years ago.
History books and popular tales remember the Vikings as ruthless, seafaring warriors who pillaged their way through Europe between the eighth and 11th centuries. But Ólafs encountered another narrative in the book, which documented melodies otherwise only preserved by oral tradition. There were no chords or harmony, so Ólafs added his own.
"The Vikings actually weren't only conquerors. They were also storytellers. Their main thing was trade and telling stories," Ólafs tells NPR's Morning Edition host Leila Fadel. "They were very early in terms of human history in writing things down, and they were writing poetry. So I would say something that people generally don't know about my ancestors, the Vikings, is that they were quite sort of into the arts and they preserved art in some ways."
So the self-taught composer, who was only 14 when he wrote the piece that ultimately landed him his first record deal, adapted Viking tunes for piano and cello arrangements, and wrote others inspired by these ancient melodies.
The lullabies are soft, transporting the listener to a soothing landscape. "It's really about honoring my ancestry," says Ólafs, now 24. "It's always fun to explore your roots." The cello, played by longtime friend and collaborator Steiney Sigurðardóttir, serves as "the mother's voice" singing to her young child.
Sigurðardóttir herself had her first child while working on the album. "I actually think you can hear it in the music. You can sort of hear her new motherly qualities in her playing. And I think it's absolutely beautiful," Ólafs says.
In "Bambaló," the pair play a traditional lullaby that originally came from Ireland — a country with which Iceland shares deep roots. About half of Iceland's original settler population is believed to be Celtic (with Norse people accounting for the rest). The title means rock-a-bye, just like the traditional nursery rhyme. The tune is eerie, with a sense of danger lurking just below the soft but hoarse voice of the mother/cello.
The original song's lyrics, removed for the instrumental version here, speak to this sinister feeling: "My little friend I lull to rest / But outside, a face looms at the window." Ólafs remembers his mother singing these lines to him. The melody has been previously adapted, including the post-rock band Sigur Rós.
Ólafs and Sigurðardóttir recorded the album at Reykjavik's Eldborg Hall, where they experimented with playing back to back, rather than a traditional seating arrangement where the players can see each other and pick up on visual cues.
"I always tell people that because we've been playing for so many years together, that we have sort of an unspoken emotional connection through music. And I wanted to test that out," Ólafs says, recognizing it was a "challenge" playing that way. "I also just thought it was a beautiful look, sort of almost like us becoming one person for this performance where we sort of sit back to back."
The digital version of this story was edited by Majd Al-Waheidi. The audio version was produced by Phil Harrell.
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Transcript
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Gabriel Olafs stumbled into an antique bookshop in his home city of Reykjavik and found an out-of-print collection of melodies from the Viking era. The Icelandic pianist-composer has a new album featuring 10 pieces inspired by or adapting those tunes as "Lullabies For Piano And Cello."
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "SALMUR")
GABRIEL OLAFS: I have actually always been fascinated with the concept of lullabies because lullabies captures the essence of music, basically, emotional connection and, you know, in some ways relief. And also, lullabies as tunes always have to have certain qualities, which is, you know, catchiness and some sort of emotional axis when you listen to them. So I've always been really into lullabies and folk music. And then I stumbled upon this old book by this guy who was sort of a priest who went around Iceland and collected these very old Viking tunes that have sort of just been preserved by singing. You know, they didn't write sheet music down until early 20th century in Iceland. So the collection itself is a bit younger, but the melodies are ancient.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "SALMUR")
FADEL: OK. Forgive my broad-brush stereotyping that I'm about to do, but I was listening to this music, and I had the sense of calm. But when I hear Vikings, I don't think calm. I think conquering, invasions...
OLAFS: Yes.
FADEL: ...Horned helmets.
OLAFS: Yeah.
FADEL: How did you find this genre of music, and what does it tell us about that era?
OLAFS: You know, a Viking essentially just means a person from Vik, which is, for example, Reykjavik, my home city. But the Vikings actually weren't only conquerors. They were also storytellers. Their main thing was trade and, you know, telling stories. Something that people generally don't know about my ancestors, the Vikings...
FADEL: Yeah.
OLAFS: ...Is that they were quite sort of into the arts, and they preserved art.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "MAMMA")
OLAFS: I don't think anyone's ever sort of joined these two things - classical-leaning music and Viking-era themes. Yeah. It's really about honoring my ancestry. And also, it's a search for me.
FADEL: You're 24?
OLAFS: Yes.
FADEL: And the Vikings were around more than a thousand years ago?
OLAFS: Yes. Yeah.
FADEL: How did you bring this music into the modern day?
OLAFS: Yeah. So most of the album is just original material that I wrote, sort of inspired by this old collection, that old book that I mentioned. But some of them actually are adaptations of old folk melodies, which I arranged through my eyes and through my ears. I deliberately picked my two absolute favorite instruments that I have sort of a direct emotional access to. And that's piano - I'm a pianist, myself - and cello, which is, to me, sort of almost like the mother's voice in this album, you know, in terms of the lullabies concept.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "BARNKIND")
FADEL: When I think of lullabies, I think of, like you said, a mother singing to their child. The cello in this case, you said, is like a mother's voice. Who are these lullabies for?
OLAFS: I'm closer to - emotionally to, you know, being a child than actually having one. Although some of my friends are having children at this point.
FADEL: Yeah.
OLAFS: I am dedicating this to family and to mothers. I am very close to my mother. But then I ended up sort of also dedicating this piece of music to my cellist - her name is Sigurdardottir - who is one of my dearest friends. She had her first baby while she was making this album with me.
FADEL: Ah.
OLAFS: So I actually think you can sort of hear her new motherly qualities in her playing, and I think it's absolutely beautiful.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "BARNKIND")
FADEL: I'd like to ask you about "Bambalo," which is one of the album's singles.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "BAMBALO")
FADEL: Tell me about what the title means and the links between this lullaby and Ireland.
OLAFS: Yes. Wow, great question. It's a very popular, very old Icelandic lullaby tune, and it's originally from Ireland. There is a connection between Iceland and Ireland because roughly half of the original Icelandic population was from Ireland and Scotland and England - and mainly Ireland. But this melody - you know, Bambalo means basically rockabye or lullaby in Icelandic, and it has a very haunting, yet beautiful lyric to it, which I obviously remove.
FADEL: I'm looking at the lyrics that you removed. Man, lullabies all have really weird...
OLAFS: Yeah.
FADEL: This is, my little friend I lull to rest, but outside, a face looms at the window. That's terrifying.
OLAFS: Oh, yeah. That's an iconic lyric, actually. I remember my mom singing this to me. My mother sang this...
FADEL: Really?
OLAFS: ...To me as a kid, and I was wondering what face this was referencing. Why would there be a face on the window?
FADEL: Well, "Rockabye Baby," the English lullaby, is also very scary. Rockabye baby in the treetops. The baby falls from the tree. Anyways.
OLAFS: Yes.
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "BAMBALO")
FADEL: It's very hectic at MORNING EDITION in the morning. And as soon as I sat down to listen to your music, I did feel a sense of peace. Thank you for that moment of peace today.
OLAFS: Thank you.
FADEL: That's pianist and composer Gabriel Olafs. His new album is called "Lullabies For Piano And Cello."
(SOUNDBITE OF GABRIEL OLAFS' "BAMBALO") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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