Culture and opinions | As a cultural heritage of North Trønder, Vømmøl is more important than Åge

in the weekend It is the vömmøl festival in Verdal. When you think about it, it's amazing how a series of musical texts written in the 1970s formed the basis of an entire culture, which has survived from generation to generation – and which forms Verdal's entire identity.

And inheritance Yet Hans Rotmo and Vømmøl culture do not stop there. Vømmøl is the national music of all the people of North Trondheim. After 50 years Fomulen Released in 1974, long after cassette players and CD players had been replaced by the Internet, the narratives in these songs spread to new listeners. And the songs do something with them.

on the roof Many of Vømmøl's songs are the most enjoyable – and there is hardly any better lyrical material. But the content is also very current, even in 2024. Because Rotmo and his colleagues are better at expressing what it means to be a Norttrønder than anyone else. The universe narrated in Vømmøl's music is inhabited by honest, hardworking, unadorned people, who have to fight against society as a whole. Without comparison, the timelessness in Vomol's music is reminiscent of that in the works of Henrik Ibsen.

For the reader If you took the texts in isolation, they could have easily been written in 2024.

For example, this passage from Fjøsvisa (1975): The country is sick, fat and ugly. The government lied while blinking in shame. The cooperative organization became a nuisance to people and livestock. It is central and closed. Yes, that will be the end of it!

Or this from Arbeidslaget (1975), who reminds us that it is not civil servants, bureaucrats and politicians who actually drive value creation: “But will there come one who will lay the wreath, speak beautiful words, and reap the whole age? What has the working class done? Partipampan in LO and DNA, LO and DNA, LO and DNA, Partipampan in LO and DNA, LO and DNA.

In fact, even this text – from Fordi du er kvinne (1975) – takes on a new significance with the senseless commercialism: Women are hidden behind the curtain of the kitchen, women are birth and breastfeeding machines, women have no right to work, women are zeros in the state budget.

Many of the texts are also political in a slightly more complex way. As when the violin music performance in Soda Hammarforsen is sour and full of strange tones, it is because the waterfall was built with a power plant. Or the last spring of Vømmøldalen, where a power station will soon be built in song: See how beautiful it is, sit quietly, and hear the sheep playing with their bells.

The view is on Nature, local management and sustainability are key in the world of swimming pools. It must be considered farsighted to write this in the 1970s, long before climate and environmental conflict reached the top of many people's political agenda.

one can They claim that vømmøl music is not recognized enough. Maybe it's because of what it's perceived as. Because Rotmo has been controversial – both before and now. Not least because communism was poorly glorified, in the Soviet Union and China. As young people say sarcastically: “This age is good…”

50 years And then, of course, everyone will know that totalitarian communism and armed revolution are a disaster. While the Red Party denies its desire for armed revolution, I think most people can accept these texts at face value. Moreover, the far left does not have a monopoly on the desire for just social development. Almost everyone in our part of the world believes that society should develop jointly – and be owned jointly by all. Because the market can't fix everything. There must be a reasonable match between the work being done and the resources being allocated.

it should It would have been interesting if Rotmo were young and active today – and writing the same humorous, irreverent and critical texts about our times. About how German energy companies want to green themselves by building wind turbines in the nature of northern Trondheim. About how to open Tine for the first time is that there doesn't need to be a cap on the size of milk quotas that farmers have. About how a faceless bureaucracy runs our society, or how overpaid consultants come in and report on school closures. Or about “respect for human life” – in a world where Europe has once again been devastated by the horrors of war. Or about how social media and the Internet are sending a generation of young people into a life of achievement, undefined goals, and psychological problems.

In many He seems to have more to write about now than then.

Many would say that Åge Aleksandersen is the greatest musician from North Trondheim of our time. I think this is true. Like Vømmøl, Åge came from a simple background and worked hard for a long time. Like Rotmo, Åge manages to capture something of the essence of being human, which he conveys in a way that makes us proud. Like Rotmo, Åge is also political. But where Åge also represents something bigger – about a desperate Rosalita, about Trønder's encounter with the world or about what Trondheim is like under the stars, vømmøl's music is just north of Trønder.

I mean vømmøl's music once again stands as a framework for what is important in life. How will we develop society together?

Probably It is right to build power plants, but it may not be. But regardless, we benefit from thinking about what is good and important in the world. We must have electricity, but at what cost? We must obtain food, but does it matter how, on what scale, or who owns it? And what it really is Isugesa?

no Least: We can all learn to appreciate the small, everyday things. Like the joy of a new driver's license or a good party. Or just incredibly fun pool music.

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They tested their knowledge of vømmølquiz at Vømmølquiz