Analysis of the Icelandic Oral Hymn Tradition as Seen in the Twentieth-century Enthnographic Recordings of "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ Bears His Cross")

Author

Navina M. Dueck-Stefansson, Andrews UniversityFollow

Date of Award

2013

Document Type

Honors Thesis

Department

Music

First Advisor

Trina Thompson

Abstract

The Hymns of the passion are a collection of Icelandic poems (1656-1659) that have been important to Icelandic religious life since the seventeenth century. Until an organ was first brought to Iceland in 1840, hymns were unaccompanied both in church and in the home. Though the words of the hymns were reprinted several times, the musical notation seldom accompanied them, allowing for a strong oral tradition to form. I transcribed 31 field recordings of the hymn "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ bears his cross"). I then compared these transcriptions in order to identify rhythmic and melodic variations. The final stage of my research is grouping similar variants to determine possible trends in oral tradition with respect to age or geographic region.

Recommended Citation

Dueck-Stefansson, Navina M., "Analysis of the Icelandic Oral Hymn Tradition as Seen in the Twentieth-century Enthnographic Recordings of "Stridsmenn Krist" ("Christ Bears His Cross")" (2013). Honors Theses. 61.
https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/61/
https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/honors/61

Subject Area

Hymns, Icelandic

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.

DOI

https://dx.doi.org/10.32597/honors/61/