Nordstrand Kirkekor - Lovsang fra to sider

Lovsang fra to sider (Songs of praise from two sides)

Songs of praise are not just for cheering. They can have undertones of silence and meditation as in Trond Kverno's melodious "Completorium Norvegicum" where the song is accompanied by flute, guitar and bass. But it can also contain elements of shouting and fading uncertainty such as in Hans Dramstadt's experimental Mass about the Love of God.

Ever since the turn of the century from the 19th to the 20th century, church music had been in a changing and difficult period of development. After the break with the romantic period, people tried to find new ways. In the area of art music, the church musicians tried to follow world developments with a stylistic range that stretched from Hindemith's Neoclassicism to the Viennese school's twelve-tone technique.

The distance between the entertaining church music and the music that could be said to belong in a church service just got bigger and bigger.

In Norway, the 1960s was an exciting period with hectic musical activity and great contradictions. The ten-sing movement and the young people's desire for pop and jazz in the church created strong debate, while some of Norway’s leading composers, such as Nystedt and Hovland, attracted attention with their new well-composed services with elements of dance and radical musical means. All this happened while the restoration movement had not yet been able to realize its dream of renewing church singing through the rhythmic chorale and through a liturgical music that built on a rich and inexhaustible melodic heritage.

Compared to this time, the 1970s were a period in which the sharp edges and contradictions were somewhat toned down. Much modern and radical music became accepted and a good part of "youth music" passed without the big newspaper articles.