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NEW SONGBOOKS [2006]
 
Videostill / cover of the 2006 version of the songbook. A 2008 version was made for the U-Turn Quadriennial.
New Songbooks is an interdisciplinary collaboration project consisting of:
· video projection - 15:00 min. loop
· 8 uniforms displayed in a purple velvet installation
· original music performed by a choir
· songbook.
As a subversive cultural production (inspired by the culture canon issued by the Danish government) it deliberately distorts the notions of national
cultural heritage. By appropriating elements of Carl Nielsen, traditional christian mass, civil defense uniforms, theory of civil religion, and investi-
gations of the Danish language into a conceptual staged meta-version of the television program ”Før Søndagen” from DR1, the familiar images be-
comes somehow blurred and translated into other meanings, and a renegotion of symbols and cultural heritage can take its beginning.
(See also the text by Niels Henriksen under "Song of My Great Grandfather")
New Songbooks has been performed at numerous concerts, exhibited at a number of times in Denmark, the lyrics has been published in the critically
acclaimed book: ”Find Holger Danske” by Maja Lee Langvad, and a publication of the songbook is available.
The project evolved from the video "My Great Grandfather" into "New Songbooks", and re-evolved into the installation "Song of My Great Grandfather".
This text was inside the songbook:
”Why Carl Nielsen as the starting point?
The interesting aspect of Carl Nielsen is that he is one of the keypersons, when professional circles as well as the broad public talk about the core
of the Danish nationality, something that stems from a type of “unspoilt national mind” that National Romanticists like A.P. Berggreen and Niels W.
Gade formulated it in the middle of the 18th century. At the time the folk high school emerged, Slesvig was lost to Germany and the national community
singing spanning across social classes spread like wild fire.
The composers of the time were encouraged to delve into the folksongs in order to retrieve the national roots and not let themselves be overtaken by
foreign “high culture”.
It’s interesting, considering the contemporary national culture canon, that neither in church- nor folkmusic one has been able to find any particularly
Danish stylistic features that could justify research in distinct Danish music.
It rather appears to have been cultural and historical circumstances that have formed the basis of people’s perception of a distinct “Danish national”
music, and that feelings and associations tied to a composer as for instance Carl Nielsen, the peasant son who became an internationally acclaimed
composer, have been the basis of this tenacious myth.
And it is also interesting that previous to the 1990´s not one single critical text was written about Carl Nielsen and his music; he has as a national
icon been untouchable concerning closer study.
Is it then possible to create new common music that is concious of the role it takes on in the active construction of fellowship and doesn’t claim to be
a distinct “authentic national core” or seeks to maintain a static ideal?
Title: ”New Songbooks"
Prod. Year: 2006
Duration: 15:00 min.
Director: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Music: Christian Winther Christensen
Text: Maja Lee Langvad
Camera:Morten Sangpo Borik, Alex Brüel
Light: Claus Lykke
Editor: Jette Hye Jin Mortensen
Sound Edit: Regin Pedersen
Installation:Video - Uniforms - Songbooks
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