The World in Harmony: Icelandic
Alright, this post is very much inspired by my recent trip to Iceland where I studied geology. But besides being surrounded by rocks, volcanoes, and glaciers in beautiful Iceland, I also found myself surrounded by music most places I went. At the first hotel we stayed at, I was suddenly surprised by a brass band playing outside, later followed by a smaller gathering of people playing guitars and singing to their heart’s content late into the night (poor quality video below). At a museum we visited about volcanoes, it was also casually and several times mentioned how important music is to Icelanders, and how it brings the community together. A last, very noteworthy, experience with music in Iceland was at the Reykjavik Culture Night, a festival after the Reykjavik marathon where all of Reykjavik seemed to be present. There were live concerts playing throughout the city and we were able to wander between them, hearing locals sing along to the songs and trying to sing along ourselves.
The Icelandic singer/songwriter that I’m going to talk about was recommended from a friend on the trip who listened to him on the plane and loved his music so much, she bought one of his CD’s in Iceland: Ásgeir. He is a very interesting case, though, because he also has that same CD in an English version, making the idea of language and music even more interesting to think about in this post!
I first listened to Ásgeir’s music in the orignal Icelandic and language in no way hindered me from loving his music. To me, he has a very mellow voice, soothing especially in Þennan dag (my favorite of his songs and I will post for your listening pleasure!) I’m the kind of person that usually favors the emotional, slower songs, though (for a more upbeat song, I would recommend Leyndarmál, it still has calmer sections to it but the chorus picks up, creating an amazing dynamic.). What I love about listening to this music, in a language that I do not understand, was that I could still sense the emotion in his voice despite the language barrier. The English version of this song, “On That Day,” is still fantastic but I have to say I’m more in favor of the Icelandic version. Why? Not so easy for me to say exactly, but I feel more emotion in his voice when he sings in Icelandic, which to me is a crucial part of a song, especially when at last understanding exactly what he is singing about thanks to the translation. But judge for yourself! Links to both versions are below.
Now, I can’t help but think about the significance of having first an Icelandic album, then creating an English version for international release. If we think about music in the sense that it is made to be shared with the community, then by producing an English version, he was able to expand his community to those all over the world, rather than those residing in Iceland alone. In this way, translating this music is able to bring a world community closer together. Just by looking at the YouTube comments, we see people from all over the world saying how they enjoy his music, both in English and Icelandic. The English versions were able to attract attention to his music BUT a surprising amount of English comments are actually on the Icelandic version of his videos. So, if people who speak English still like the Icelandic versions, did the translations need to occur? And then there’s always the question of what was lost in translation?
I could go back and forth between whether or not music in a foreign language could benefit or not from translations. Like I mentioned before, I found the Icelandic versions to be more soulful and have more emotion connected to the words, making me favor originals over translations. However, I love how communities of people from all different backgrounds are able to come together because of a piece of music; that is powerful! And if it needed to be translated into a more more widely known language, well, maybe it’s worth it. Perhaps the audience captured by a translated version of a song will be curious enough to know about it’s origins, even stumbling upon other artists in foreign languages they don’t understand but falling in love with the music, nonetheless! (I can hope, right?)
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