The Department of Traditional Music

Postal address:
Tromsø Museum, N-9037 Tromsø, Norway
Telephone number Tromsø Museum +47 776 45000 (switchboard)
Direct line +47 776 45042
Address: Lars Thøringsveg 10.
The department is open Monday to Friday.

Ola Graff. Photo: Adnan Icagig.

Ola Graff graduated “Magister Artium” in Musicology in 1985 with a dissertation about the traditional yoik singer Per Hætta: “Yoik as a musical language. Something about Northern Sami yoik based on Per Hætta’s role as a mediator of the tradition”. He graduated “Dr. Philos” in 2002 with a dissertation about coastal Sami yoik tradition: “Yoik on the northern coast of Finmark. Studies on an extinct coastal Sami yoik tradition”.

Om kjæresten min vil jeg joike (“I will sing a yoik song about my beloved one”) documents an extinct and unknown yoiking tradition from a coastal Sami area on the northern coast of Finnmark. This book documents the historical development which followed the meeting of the Norwegian majority and the Sami minority cultures. It outlines its subsequent disapparence between the two World Wars.

Click the link (or on the picture of the book) to listen to the yoik melodies.

Click the link to read opinions about the book.

“Of the purest gold” presents traditional Norwegian music from a northern perspective. In addition, it includes Sami music and music of “travellers”. The book spans the period from ancient times until after the Second World War. It is based on the rich archive of traditional music at Tromsø Museum.

Click to listen to the music

Click the link to read opinions about the book

Daniel Hægstad wrote down many fiddle melodies and some songs which he had learned during his childhood in the 1870’s. In this book is published the whole collection along with comments and analysis. In the book is also his autobiography.

Click to listen to the music