VILDSPIL – Danish folk music redesigned

In 2024, Klassiske Dage and Jazz Nights marked the town of Holstebro’s 750th anniversary with VILDSPIL – an ambitious, specially curated, cross-genre project rooted in folk music. The aim has been to celebrate and dive into our own musical heritage: the folk traditions in and around Holstebro, formly known as Hardsyssel, embracing and exploring West Jutland’s musical legacy.

The themes circle around the lives of ordinary people and the West Jutland spirit – our shared roots, told through music, words, and images. Stories of wise women healers, cattle drivers and the ”Tater people”, who lived out on the heaths, roamed freely and went by many names – ”Tatere”, wanderers, nightfolk, tricksters and such among others, which paint a picture of life in West Jutland from the Middle Ages to today.

Folk fiddler Harald Haugaard carried out extensive research in local sources and created the arrangements for the project. Well-known songs such as “Jens Vejmand” and “Den blå Anemone” appear in new versions, alongside unpublished songs by Ole Kjær (1807–1841) – known as “the Paganini of West Jutland” – and several previously unreleased tunes deeply anchored in the region’s history and folk spirit.

The driving forces behind VILDSPIL are two musicians, both born and raised in Holstebro, both artistic directors and founders of festivals in their home town, from where initial support for the project was provided: flutist Janne Thomsen (Klassiske Dage, Holstebro International Music Festival) and jazz drummer Anders Mogensen (Jazz Nights Festival).

Through music, VILDSPIL tells the story of what helped shape the life that is lived in West Jutland today. It is a kind of storytelling that evokes emotions and understanding in ways traditional history books cannot.

The name VILDSPIL comes from Anders Chr. N. Christensen’s book “Vildspil og Nodespil”, which explains that in earlier times, “nodespil”, was music played from sheet music, while “vildspil” – translates into English as WILD PLAY, in the sense of playing untamed and freely – entirely without notes.

The project premiered in Holstebro during the town’s 750th jubilee in 2024, featuring Harald Haugaard (violin), Janne Thomsen (flute), Oskar Reuter (guitar), Thommy Andersson (bass), and Anders Mogensen (drums).

VILDSPIL was subsequently recorded at Findshøj Studios in Odense for digital release. The project also expands into short films and teasers, highlighting the region around Holstebro – including Hjerl Hede, Nr. Vosborg, and the North Sea – to support the music’s storytelling.

The liner notes and the history of Holstebro as it relates to the project VILDSPIL was created by Dr. Phil. Esben Graugaard (regional history) and Mag. Art. Anders Chr. N. Christensen (music history/folklore), in dialogue with Holstebro Museum / Hjerl Hede Open-Air Museum, under the now former museum director Hanne Thomsen.

Media consultant Mads Haugkrogh lead the graphic production, with drone footage, photos and design by Jesper Thomsen, photographer and designer with a Master’s degree from Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, London.

Film footage from heritage sites such as the Hjerl Hede heathland museum, the quiet dignity of Kaj Munk’s rectory, Nørre Vosborg Manor where Hans Christian Andersen took time to write, make paper cuts for children, and fantasize about the many ghosts of the place, intertwined with visuals of the majestic North Sea accompanies the music and invites you to explore the cultural tapestry of Western Jutland’s windswept coast and rugged landscapes.

A central innovation in VILDSPIL is the use of a QR code that serves as the gateway to this rich legacy of music, film, images, and historical narratives—a modern homage to history’s enduring resonance in sound and soul. This QR code will feature on merchandise, press materials, and digital platforms (under copyright).

We look forward to presenting VILDSPIL as a cultural ambassador and a living showcase of our region’s history and heritage.

LINKS
hjerlhede.dk
nrvosborg.dk/kultur
holstebro-museum.dk
strandingsmuseet.dk
ringkobingfjordmuseer.dk
kongenshus.dk
jenle.dk

VILDSPIL – Danish Folk music redesigned

(No. 1) Festpolonaise by Harald Haugaard
Holstebro’s 750th anniversary called for a celebratory polonaise. Harald Haugaard composed this one in reference to festpolonaises from the 18th and 19th Centuries, as the polonaise was often the first dance to be played at a ball.

(No. 2) Tospring & Femdans: Long Dances after Gert Andersen’s music notebook from 1836
“Tospring” was a dance found south of Ringkøbing Fjord, and it is one of our oldest folk dances. It was a chain dance, a so called “long dance”, used on the day after a wedding when the entire group of guests would dance from farmhouse to farmhouse. While dancing, they would sing: “Tospring Kræn’ Lir-mands kat, Jermises hund, Kre’ Lausens topped’ kylling” which roughly translates to: “Twice hop around the organ grinder’s cat, Jermise’s dog, Kresten Lausen’s tufted chicken”. Whereupon everyone would be served a glass of sweetened aqua vitae before dancing on to the next farm. Tospring has a pattern of six steps similar to a Faroese chain dance.
In the Folk Music House in Hogager, Thorkild Knudsen has done research on the chain dance. The most common type is the one we know from the Faroe Islands and from the dance called Tospring. It is danced to six beats, and Thorkild Knudsen called it a Seksdans. On the island of Manø, they used to dance the Manø Trindans – a chain dance based on a pattern of five beats which Thorkild Knudsen called a Femdans. The melody played is from Gert Andersen’s music notebook from Volling in Salling. In the notebook we also find a few melodies with older meters and tonal features, all of which intrigued Thorkild Knudsen in the 1970s.

(No. 3) Vals #33 “Tater”-waltz by Ole Kjær
This is the only melody we have from Ole Kjær in which he has a section played in the minor key. By the end of the 18th Century the minor key had all but disappeared from the Danish folk music repertoire, and melodies in the major key became dominant.
Musician and composer Ole Kjær had a tremendous influence on the music scene in North-West Jutland in the early half of the 19th Century. Ole Kjær was born in Humlum north of Struer in 1807. He died in Ringkøbing in 1841, only 34 years old. He was called the Paganini of West Jutland, and he is said to have been so versatile, he could play 14 different musical instruments. The fiddle was his preferred instrument, but he was also brilliant at playing clarinet and bassoon.
Legend has it that Ole Kjær, more often than not, made the executive decision on when a wedding or feast would take place. People happily postponed their festivities several weeks to be able to book him. And as soon as he arrived, the party really took off. He was the perfect entertainer for the age. He was able to play holding the fiddle behind his back or over his head, and during breaks he might do cartwheels from one end of the room to the other.

(No. 4) Jigs from Hardsyssel composed by Niels Mortensen, Grønbjerg
He was born in 1875 and died in Grønbjerg in 1947. As a young man, Niels Mortensen had the opportunity to get a musical education from music director C. C. Møller in Aarhus. Møller would have liked to retain Niels Mortensen in his own orchestra, but Niels chose to return to West Jutland where he became a very sought after musician for gigs. He formed a family ensemble consisting of himself on violin, his daughter Hanne on piano, his son Valdemar on drums, and frequently a fourth musician as well. When listening to Harald Haugaard as he plays the jigs, we should keep in mind Niels Mortensen made a point of composing in A and E major as they sound particularly fine on a violin. In time, Niels Mortensen had the pleasure of hearing his own pieces played on the radio; not many folk musicians from the rural areas managed that in their lifetime.

(No. 5) Dangers of the Sea & Wedding Tunes
Dangers of the Sea is a melody and a verse from a song that has come down to us from Sidsel Jensdatter in Gjellerup, dated 1869, thanks to renowned folk historian and folk music collector Evald Tang Kristensen. It is published in Thorkild Knudsen and Nils Schiørring’s oeuvre “The Folk Song in Denmark”, (vol. 5, p. 79, publ. 1976). Dangers of the Sea transitions directly into two wedding tunes from Fanø.

Even today, the island of Fanø has a vivid music and dancing tradition that goes back more than 200 years, according to the history of the island. The folk musician family, Brinch, has been active on the island for almost as long. Lately, there has been renewed interest in folk music on Fanø, and this has resulted in a revival of the old music and dancing tradition. We will listen to two wedding tunes that are still played at weddings. Here, too, we find surprises in the tonality.

(No. 6) Den blaa Anemone, poem by Kaj Munk with music by Eigil Harder
This is from Kaj Munk’s final collection of poems in 1943. Den blaa Anemone (The Blue Anemone) is a flower Kaj Munk takes with him from the fertile soil of Lolland in the east in order to transplant it into the meagre layer of sandy topsoil in his garden at the rectory in Vedersø. The flower symbolizes spring and hopefulness on behalf of a tender creature that refuses to be bullied. Kaj Munk was picked up from his home at the rectory on January 4, 1944, and was soon after shot dead by people working for the Gestapo.

(No. 7) Eccosaises from Bovtrup
These pieces are from Peder Christian Bovtrup’s music notebook, dating from 1836. Bovtrup was born in Nørre Felding south of Holstebro in 1814, and he died in Ulfborg in 1899. The notebook contains 120 melodies, and we will hear no. 1: Sekstur i Svaits i 6/8, no. 16: To Tuer, and no. 18: Fire Mands Riil. The dances are here joined together in a suite.
It was Frands Valter, teacher and folk musician in Holstebro who discovered the notebook in 1965 and borrowed it from the Leth Danielsen family in Holstebro. Peder Christian Bovtrup’s music notebook is one of only a few surviving notebooks from the Holstebro area, and it contains many very fine melodies.

(No. 8) Den store Sommer – (“The Great Summer”) by Harald Haugaard
This composition is partly inspired by a chapter in Johannes V. Jensen’s novel, “Kongens Fald” (“The Fall of the King”), published in 1900-1901. It is made up of four small pieces of music in 6/8 – a kind of jig that refers to the many Himmerland jigs left to us by Otto Trads among others. Johannes V. Jensen was from the Himmerland region and happily engaged in folk dance and music.

(No. 9) Ole Kjær: Hamborger #22/Vals #113/Hopsa #11
Hamborger #22 composed by Ole Kjær can be found in two separate music notebooks. One is Peder Christian Bovtrup’s notebook from 1836, and the melody can also be found in a music notebook dating from 1835 that belonged to Hans Windfeldt Jensen at the Udstrup farm in Sønder Nissum. It would have been the house teacher, Holger Toft who taught young Hans Windfeldt Jensen to play the violin and to write down music.
Waltz #113 composed by Ole Kjær. This waltz was discovered in a second-hand bookstore in Holstebro in 1997. The store had received a giant collection of music notebooks left behind by the widow of musician Valdemar Kjær in Holstebro. There was literally about a ton of notes, as in 1000 kg. This was more than the Danish Folk History & Music Collection could take on. They were interested in parts of it, though, especially the handwritten notes that had belonged to Valdemar Kjær, as well as notes from his father, Frands Kjær, and his uncle, Laust Kjær. Laust had grown up with Ole Kjær’s brother, Peder Kjær, in Humlum. A highlight of the collection was the discovery a part for the second voice to Ole Kjær’s “Den store Vals” that otherwise would not have existed today.
Hopsa #11 composed by Ole Kjær was transcribed by Peder Vad in Sørvad from an old music notebook from Vildbjerg that may have belonged to Ole Kjær’s most talented student, Christen Knudsen, also known as “Chre’ Merrild” from Vildbjerg.
Christen Merrild made so much money playing the violin, it was said he bought his farm with the proceeds. He also found his future wife, Stine, when he played at a ball in Holstebro where Stine was present and took eager part in the dancing. At one point when the party was hopping, he accidentally poked her with the violin bow. When he later – during a break – made a point of apologizing to her, he looked right into a pair of mischievous eyes, and they became his destiny.

(No. 10) Jens Vejmand, poem by Jeppe Aakjær og music by Carl Nielsen
The song was written by Jeppe Aakjær in 1905, and it was inspired by a stone cutter who worked to pave the highroad between Holstebro and Herning, just outside the village of Tørring. Today a sculpture has been erected here, right where Jeppe Aakjær saw the stone cutter at work, and in the Tjørring churchyard, Jens Vejmand’s grave is still preserved. When the song – with Carl Nielsen’s melody – became known in 1905, it quickly became a hit.

(No. 11) Very old Waltz & Old Jig from Tarm
This Very old Walz comes to us from Kræn’ Degn who lived in Jerslev in Vendsyssel. It was recorded at the folk musician museum in 1959. Evald Thomsen learned the walz from Kræn’ Degn, and it became one of his most popular pieces. Evald Thomsen gave the walz a slightly different expression; he found the A-section had a Norwegian sound to it when played with open strings. In some ways Evald Thomsen was right to observe this, for the piece is based on quite old composition principles. The melody is built up by tiny themes that are constantly repeated and shifted. The Very old Walz transitions directly into:

Old Jig from Tarm. Both the music and the dance are described in “Old Dances from Hardsyssel” as “Gl. Sekstur”, that is, a jig. It is danced by four couples.

(No. 12) “Taterhopsa” Romani Hopsa from West Jutland
This hopsa was composed by Thomas Thomsen who lived on a street called Agerbækvej in Holstebro. He was born in the parish of Nørre Omme south of Holstebro. Thomas Thomsen was proud of having been born in this parish because two of his heroes had been born there: Peder Pøhl and Niels Mortensen.
Thomas also found his inspiration for the Taterhopsa in Nørre Omme. A few hundred meters south of Omme Church there is a sandy knoll called “The Yellow Devil’s Castle”. As a young man, Thomas heard an old legend about the place. According to the legend, a farmer’s daughter, Line, was marrying a farmer’s son from the same parish, although she was secretly engaged to a local Tater (“Tater” is a Danish word for Romani”). During the wedding festivities, the Tater secretly came and picked up the bride. Seeing the bride had vanished, the guests then yelled: “The Yellow Devil ran off with Line!” In the hopsa, you can almost hear how the Yellow Devil and Line jump from knoll to knoll through the heather. In the 1970s, Thomas Thomsen was a great source of inspiration for young people who worked to revive the old folk music tradition.

Anders Chr. N. Christensen, MA in folklore studies