Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T07:45:39.352Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“The Land of our Origin“: Music and History in the Norway-Azerbaijan Connection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 December 2018

Thomas Solomon
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In 1995 Norwegian archaeologist and adventurer Thor Heyerdahl went public with his theory that Scandinavia had been populated by people who had, in the distant past, migrated from present-day Azerbaijan in the Caucasus (Heyerdahl 1995). While academic archaeologists and historians scoffed at Heyerdahl's theories and dismissed them as pseudoscience, the idea that there was an ancient connection between Azerbaijan and Norway, and that the people living in those two nations today might have common ancestors, captured the imaginations of people in both countries. Despite being dismissed by the academic scientific community, Heyerdahl's theories became a source of inspiration for artists, especially musicians. Heyerdahl's speculative approach to research may not have conformed to accepted methodologies for the scientific study of history, but musicians found in Heyerdahl's theories a fruitful point of departure for exploring their purported common past through collaborative artistic projects that prioritized collective creativity based in a common historical imagination. In effect, Heyerdahl's theories became the basis for ways of doing and aestheticizing history through musical practice where the standard for success was based on the production not of verifiable facts, but of aesthetic experiences. This paper provides an account of two of these initiatives. But first I offer some brief remarks on the nature of history, and then a quick overview of Heyerdahl's theories and their critiques.

Type
Articles
Information
Yearbook for Traditional Music , Volume 48 , 2016 , pp. 115 - 135
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 By The International Council for Traditional Music

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bates, Eliot 2011 Music in Turkey: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bjørgum, Hallvard T. 2014 “The Quest for Linkages between Caucasian and Norwegian Folklore and Folk Music.” In Thor Heyerdahl's Search for Odin: Ancient Links between Azerbaijan and Scandinavia?, ed. Vibeke Roggen, 253–70. Oslo: Novus Press.Google Scholar
Bjørgum, Hallvard T. & Co. 2003 Free Field. Setesdal: Sylvartun Folkemusikk SYLVCD 9. Compact disc.Google Scholar
Buck-Morss, Susan 1992 “Aesthetics and Anaesthetics: Walter Benjamin's Artwork Essay Reconsidered.” October 62: 3–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Conant, Eve 2001 “In Search of the Gods.” Newsweek: http://europe.newsweek.com/search-gods-151323 (accessed 4 January 2016).Google Scholar
Cook, Nicholas 1998 Analysing Musical Multimedia. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Djani-Zade, Tamila 2002 “Music of Azerbaijan.” In The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 6: The Middle East, ed. Virginia Danielson, Scott Marcus, and Dwight Reynolds, 921–33. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
During, Jean 2001 “Azerbaijan.” Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/53092 (accessed 25 February 2012).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emoff, Ron 2002 “Phantom Nostalgia and Recollecting (from) the Colonial Past.” Ethnomusicology 46/2: 265–83.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford 1973 The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Heyerdahl, Thor 1995 “The Azerbaijan Connection: Challenging Euro-centric Theories of Migration.” Azerbaijan International 3/1: 60–61. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/31_folder/31_articles/31_thorazerconn.html (accessed 16 October 2013).Google Scholar
2000 “Scandinavian Ancestry: Tracing Roots to Azerbaijan.” Azerbaijan International 8/2: 78–83. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/82_folder/82_articles/82_heyerdahl.html (accessed 16 October 2013).Google Scholar
Heyerdahl, Thor, and Lillieström, Per 1999 Ingen grenser [No boundaries]. Oslo: J.M. Stenersens Forlag.Google Scholar
2001 Jakten på Odin: På sporet av vår fortid [The hunt for Odin: On the trail of our past]. Oslo: J. M. Stenersens Forlag.Google Scholar
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Ranger, Terence 1983 Eds. The Invention of Tradition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hovdhaugen, Even, Keller, Christian, Mundal, Else, Stalsberg, Anne, and Steinsland, Gro 2002 Review of “Thor Heyerdahl og Per Lillieström. Jakten på Odin: På sporet av vår fortid.” Maal og minne 1: 98–109.Google Scholar
Hovdhaugen, Even, Mundal, Else, and Stalsberg, Anne 2000 “Snorres og Heyerdahls tidløse fantasier” [Snorre's and Heyerdahl's timeless fantasies]. Aftenposten (15 December): http://tux1.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/d180454.htm (accessed 29 December 2015).Google Scholar
Forlag, J. M. Stenersens n.d. “Om J.M. Stenersens Forlag.” J. M. Stenersens Forlag. http://www.jms.no/index.cfm?id=370658 (accessed 29 December 2015).Google Scholar
Keller, Christian 2005 “Heyerdahl uten peiling—Om Heyerdahl & Lillieströms bok ‘Ingen grenser'” [Heyerdahl without a clue—On Heyerdahl and Lillieström's book ‘Ingen grenser']. http://skepsis.no/index.php?page=vis_nyhet&NyhetID=20 (accessed 29 December 2015).Google Scholar
Kolltveit, Gjermund 2012 Torleiv H. Bjørgum og Hallvard T. Bjørgum: Skjoldmøyslaget: Faremoslåttar frå Setesdal. Oslo: Falck Forlag.Google Scholar
Levy, Morten 1974 Den stærke slått: Om magisk musikk fra sagatiden og dens genklang hos norske spillemænd [The strong stroke: On magical music from the time of the sagas and its reverberation among Norwegian fiddlers]. Højberg: Wormianum.Google Scholar
1989 The World of the Gorrlaus Slåtts: A Morphological Investigation of a Branch of Norwegian Fiddle Music Tradition. 3 vols. Acta Ethnomusicologica Danica 6; Dansk Folkemindesamling Skrifter 7. Copenhagen: Forlaget Kragen.Google Scholar
Naroditskaya, Inna 2002 Song from the Land of Fire: Continuity and Change in Azerbaijanian Mugham. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Øksnes, Ingunn Sørli 2011 Tradisjon og transe i lys av folkemusikeren Hallvard Torleivsson Bjørgums filosofi og praksis [Tradition and trance in light of the folk musician Hallvard Torleivsson Bjørgum's philosophy and practice]. MA thesis, Norges teknisknaturvitenskapelige universitet (NTNU), Institutt for musikk. http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/handle/11250/243595 (accessed 21 October 2013).Google Scholar
Opheim, Steinar 1997 “Azerbaijan's Primal Music: Norwegians Find ‘The Land We Come From.'” Azerbaijan International 5/4: 19–20. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/54_folder/54_articles/54_skruk.html (accessed 16 October 2013).Google Scholar
Pereltsvaig, Asya 2012 Languages of the World: An Introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roggen, Vibeke 2014a “Heyerdahl's Linguistic Arguments.” In Thor Heyerdahl's Search for Odin: Ancient Links between Azerbaijan and Scandinavia?, ed. Vibeke Roggen, 325–34. Oslo: Novus Press.Google Scholar
2014b Ed. Thor Heyerdahl's Search for Odin: Ancient Links between Azerbaijan and Scandinavia? Oslo: Novus Press.Google Scholar
Rugeldal, Caroline 2002 “Heyerdahl kjører debatt” [Heyerdahl drives debate]. http://universitas.no/nyheter/1254/heyerdahl-kjorer-debatt (accessed 4 January 2016).Google Scholar
Seeger, Anthony 1991 “When Music Makes History.” In Ethnomusicology and Modern Music History, ed. Stephen Blum, Philip V. Bohlman, and Daniel M. Neuman, 23–34. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Sipos, János 2004 Azeri Folksongs: At the Fountainhead of Music. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.Google Scholar
SKRUK, Brilliant, and Muradov, Ilgar 1997 Landet vi kommer fra: Musikk fra Aserbajdsjan. Oslo: Kirkelig Kulturverksted FXCD 188. Compact disc.Google Scholar
Solomon, Thomas 2012 “Where is the Postcolonial in Ethnomusicology?” In Ethnomusicology in East Africa: Perspectives from Uganda and Beyond, ed. Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Thomas Solomon, 216–51. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.Google Scholar
Stalsberg, Anne 2006 “Ytringsfrihet og påstått vitenskap—Et dilemma?” [Freedom of expression and alleged science—A dilemma?]. Skepsis: http://skepsis.no/index.php?page=vis_nyhet&NyhetID=49 (accessed 29 December 2015).Google Scholar
Steinsland, Gro 2000 “Heyerdahls og Odins ‘narrespill'” [Heyerdahl's and Odin's ‘charade']. Aftenposten (24 November): http://tux1.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/d176403.htm (accessed 30 December 2015).Google Scholar
Storfjell, J. Bjørnar 2000 “The Kish Church: Digging Up History. Norwegians Help Restore Ancient Church. An interview with J. Bjornar [sic] Storfjell.” Azerbaijan International 8/4: 18–19. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/84_folder/84_articles/84_kish.html (accessed 16 October 2013).Google Scholar
2003 “The Church in Kish: Carbon Dating Reveals its True Age.” Azerbaijan International 11/1: 33–39. http://www.azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai111_folder/111_articles/111_kish_church.html (accessed 16 November 2015).Google Scholar
Sultanova, Razia, and Broughton, Simon 2006 “Azerbaijan: In the Mugham.” In The Rough Guide to World Music, Volume 1: Africa & Middle East, comp. and ed. Simon Broughton, Mark Ellingham, and Jon Lusk, with Duncan Clark, 489–94. London: Rough Guides.Google Scholar
Tomlinson, Gary 1996 “Unlearning the Aztec Cantares (Preliminaries to a Postcolonial History).” In Subject and Object in Renaissance Culture, ed. Margreta de Grazia, Maureen Quilligan, and Peter Stallybrass, 260–86. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Treitler, Leo 1984 “What Kind of Story is History?” 19th-Century Music 7/3: 363–73.Google Scholar
van der Leeuw, Charles 2000 Azerbaijan: A Quest for Identity. A Short History. Richmond, UK: Curzon.Google Scholar