Viking heritage inspires soothing lullabies from Icelandic pianist Gabríel Ólafs

Viking heritage inspires soothing¹ lullabies from Icelandic pianist Gabríel Ólafs

Transcript³

While strolling in his home city of Reykjavik last year, Gabríel ?lafs 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 flipped⁴ through the volume of tunes⁶ collected by a traveling priest around 150 years ago.

History books and popular tales remember the Vikings as ruthless, seafaring warriors⁷ who pillaged⁸ their way through Europe between the eighth and 11th centuries. But ?lafs encountered another narrative⁹ in the book, which documented melodies otherwise only preserved by oral tradition. There were no chords or harmony, so ?lafs added his own.

"Bambaló" is based on an Icelandic lullaby, originally an Irish folk melody, passed on to Iceland centuries ago.

"The Vikings actually weren't only conquerors¹⁰. They were also storytellers. Their main thing was trade and telling stories," ?lafs 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 cello¹¹ 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 ?lafs, now 24. "It's always fun to explore your roots." The cello, played by longtime friend and collaborator¹² Steiney Sigur?ardóttir, serves as "the mother's voice" singing to her young child.

Sigur?ardóttir 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," ?lafs 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 accounting¹³ for the rest). The title means rock-a-bye, just like the traditional nursery rhyme. The tune⁵ is eerie¹⁴, with a sense of danger lurking¹⁵ just below the soft but hoarse¹⁶ voice of the mother/cello.

The original song's lyrics¹⁷, removed for the instrumental version here, speak to this sinister¹⁸ feeling: "My little friend I lull² to rest / But outside, a face looms¹⁹ at the window." ?lafs remembers his mother singing these lines to him. The melody has been previously²⁰ adapted, including the post-rock band Sigur Rós.

?lafs and Sigur?ardóttir 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," ?lafs 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."

1 soothing   

adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的

参考例句：

• Put on some nice soothing music.播放一些柔和舒缓的音乐。
• His casual, relaxed manner was very soothing.他随意而放松的举动让人很快便平静下来。

2 lull   

v.使安静，使入睡，缓和，哄骗；n.暂停，间歇

参考例句：

• The drug put Simpson in a lull for thirty minutes.药物使辛普森安静了30分钟。
• Ground fighting flared up again after a two-week lull.经过两个星期的平静之后，地面战又突然爆发了。

3 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

4 flipped   

轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥

参考例句：

• The plane flipped and crashed. 飞机猛地翻转，撞毁了。
• The carter flipped at the horse with his whip. 赶大车的人扬鞭朝着马轻轻地抽打。

5 tune   

n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整

参考例句：

• He'd written a tune,and played it to us on the piano.他写了一段曲子，并在钢琴上弹给我们听。
• The boy beat out a tune on a tin can.那男孩在易拉罐上敲出一首曲子。

6 tunes   

n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调

参考例句：

• a potpourri of tunes 乐曲集锦
• When things get a bit too much, she simply tunes out temporarily. 碰到事情太棘手时，她干脆暂时撒手不管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 warriors   

武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I like reading the stories ofancient warriors. 我喜欢读有关古代武士的故事。
• The warriors speared the man to death. 武士们把那个男子戳死了。

8 pillaged   

v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• They are to be pillaged and terrorised in Hitler's fury and revenge. 在希特勒的狂怒和报复下，他们还遭到掠夺和恐怖统治。 来自辞典例句
• They villages were pillaged and their crops destroyed. 他们的村子被抢，他们的庄稼被毁。 来自辞典例句

9 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

10 conquerors   

征服者，占领者( conqueror的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Danes had selfconfidence of conquerors, and their security precautions were casual. 这些丹麦人具有征服者的自信，而且他们的安全防卫也是漫不经心的。
• The conquerors believed in crushing the defeated people into submission, knowing that they could not win their loyalty by the victory. 征服者们知道他们的胜利并不能赢得失败者的忠心，于是就认为只有通过武力才能将他们压服。

11 cello   

n.大提琴

参考例句：

• The cello is a member of the violin family.大提琴是提琴家族的一员。
• She plays a melodious cello.她拉着一手悦耳的大提琴。

12 collaborator   

n.合作者，协作者

参考例句：

• I need a collaborator to help me. 我需要个人跟我合作，帮我的忙。
• His collaborator, Hooke, was of a different opinion. 他的合作者霍克持有不同的看法。

13 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

14 eerie   

adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的

参考例句：

• It's eerie to walk through a dark wood at night.夜晚在漆黑的森林中行走很是恐怖。
• I walked down the eerie dark path.我走在那条漆黑恐怖的小路上。

15 lurking   

潜在

参考例句：

• Why are you lurking around outside my house? 你在我房子外面鬼鬼祟祟的，想干什么？
• There is a suspicious man lurking in the shadows. 有一可疑的人躲在阴暗中。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

16 hoarse   

adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的

参考例句：

• He asked me a question in a hoarse voice.他用嘶哑的声音问了我一个问题。
• He was too excited and roared himself hoarse.他过于激动，嗓子都喊哑了。

17 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

18 sinister   

adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的

参考例句：

• There is something sinister at the back of that series of crimes.在这一系列罪行背后有险恶的阴谋。
• Their proposals are all worthless and designed out of sinister motives.他们的建议不仅一钱不值，而且包藏祸心。

19 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。