“De Kast, Huldren gjør med Kohalen.”

Om kjønn og andre musikalske identiteter i den norske komponisten Agathe Backer Grøndahls “Huldreslaat”

Abstract

Gender and Other Musical Identities in Agathe Backer Grøndahl’s ‘Huldreslaat’
This article grew out of an interest in the intriguing Norwegian pianist, composer, and piano teacher Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847–1907), and her composition for piano, Huldreslaat. The work received its first performance with the composer herself at the piano in Kristiania in 1887. By virtue of being music both in and as gender discourse, the score was in need of further fleshing out, understanding and analysis. The author starts out from the assumption that gender roles were and are self organizing dynamic systems and that Grøndahl’s gender roles worked towards goals that preserved her own interests. Ahistoric gender perspectives do not penetrate the ideological and social complexity in the critics’ understanding of femininity, which deviates substantially from the norms of the present. On the other hand close readings of them show us live experiences from the past. It seems like the delineation of the work’s title and Grøndahl’s personal apperance were brought to bear on the inherent meanings of her piano playing, and the work in the performance process. Therefore, it is neither possible nor desirable to regard Huldreslaat in total isolation, since gender, Norwegian and international musical identities, are fundamentally intertwined and interdependent in the work, it’s context, and reception materials.