Last Leaf, Wandering East | Aotearoa NZ Festival of the Arts

New Zealand String Quartet
5 hours ago
6 min read

A journey through Nordic, Celtic and klezmer traditions and a concert that bounces between joy, sorrow and nostalgia.

Saturday 14 March, 4:30pm & 7pm | Prefab Hall, Wellington | Part of the 2026 Aotearoa New Zealand Festival of the Arts

LAST LEAF

Album by the Danish String Quartet

Programme notes from the Last Leaf album, written by the Danish String Quartet: Rune, Frederik, Asbjørn & Fredrik. Learn more.

Shore

(Fredrik Sjölin, 2017)

Shore is a little folk-fantasy written by Fredrik, simply inspired by the vast coastline and the many hundreds of islands that form Denmark. Just as the shore is the last thing you see when leaving, it it is also the first thing you experience when returning. Opening the album, the idea was to create a musical resemblance of the landfall.

Polska from Dorotea

(Swedish traditional)

A famous polska, attributed to Swedish fiddler, teacher and cantor Johan August Andersson (1866-1902), who lived in the village Dorotea in Lapland. Andersson had quite a tragic life, losing his wife and daughter in childbirth, which resulted in a local scandal when he entered

the church mid-service to publicly curse God. He was subsequently fired from his teaching position, but was allowed to stay as a cantor, because he was such a good fiddler. Later his mental derangement worsened until he was primarily known in Dorotea as “Crazy Andersson”, spending his last years alone in a small house in the middle of the village.

This tune has a natural sense of gravity and swing, and an almost la follia-like progression. And although the polska dance usually tends to be a tad slower, we like it when played with “sturm und drang”!

Tjønneblomen

(Gjermund Haugen, Norway)

The tune Tjønneblomen (meaning something close to The Water Lily in Norwegian) is a waltz composed by the renowned fiddler Gjermund Haugen, born in 1914 in the county of Telemark. At first glance it might seem very traditional, but it has an unusual five-part structure, revealing that it is a contribution to the modern concert stage, rather than just a traditional dance tune. The melancholic melody has proven viable amongst fiddlers today, although people still discuss whether Gjermund wrote it as a tribute to his homestead, or to the girl that he loved but never got.

Menuet no. 60

(Danish traditional)

Rasmus Storm was the son of an indentured peasant who worked as low-rank assistant to a merchant in Fåborg on the island of Funen. In his spare time, he was a renowned fiddler and dance master. His collection of tunes, written down in the 1760s, is one of the earliest collections of Danish folk melodies. Almost half of his melodies were minuets, a sign of how popular this dance was in the latter part of the 18th century. The beautiful Minuet no. 60 is rather complex: in four parts with both major and minor keys.

Æ Rømeser

(Danish traditional)

Sønderho is a tiny village on the southern tip of the Danish island Fanø. It is a legendary location for Nordic folk music aficionados. In Sønderho they have a unique type of dance, a “sønderhoning”, which is entirely unique to the island. It is a dance that somewhat resembles a polska, but the music is played in a different meter than the dance, creating a very hypnotic feeling of coordinated un-synchronization.

Æ Rømeser is one of the traditional sønderhonings from the 18th century, the title simply meaning The one from Rømø: Rømø is the first island south of Fanø and is perhaps the origin of this particular sønderhoning.

Intermezzo

(Fredrik Sjölin, 2017)

A little musical break written by Fredrik, that comes and goes faster than a daydream...

Shine You No More

(Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen, 2017)

The inspiration for this tune came after listening to a song by English renaissance composer John Dowland called Flow My Tears. John Dowland was composer at the Danish court under King Christian IV and in this song from 1596, he uses a very nice chord progression which became the foundation for the C part of Shine You No More.

Drømte Mig En Drøm

(Danish traditional)

The oldest known secular song in the Nordic countries. Drømte Mig En Drøm is notated on the last leaf of parchment in the Codex Runicus, a codex from the beginning of the 13th century, written in runes. It contains the so-called Scanian Law - the oldest known provincial text in Scandinavia - and it chronicles the early Danish monarchs. The meaning of Drømte Mig En Drøm has been debated, but most scholars agree that it is a song about justice and fair play.

Stædelil

(Danish traditional)

A traditional Danish medieval ballad telling the tale of the young knight named Stædelil. The story is one of magic and love.

Like many other folk songs, Stædelil exists in many versions in different countries. In Denmark there is a version of the song, where Stædelil goes by the name “Ridder Stig” (Knight Stig). Curiously, this song was arranged for soprano, four-part chorus and piano by none other than Beethoven in the 1810’s as an early predecessor to our project of playing folk music as a classical string quartet.

Naja’s Waltz

(Fredrik Sjölin, 2017)

Naja loves the sentiment of the typical Swedish polskas, often in minor. And when she asked Fredrik to write one, he ran eagerly to his desk, ready to fulfill the task! He wasn’t very good at it though, and the tune that came out was rather an asymmetrical waltz with a little Norwegian touch. Nevertheless, Naja loved it!

Unst Boat Song

(Shetlandic traditional)

The island of Unst, situated in the very north of the Shetland Islands, has for hundreds of years conserved this simple and rather captivating little melody. If you ever wanted to hear real Viking music, this is probably very close! No one knows exactly when this song came to life or who wrote it, but the language of the three surviving verses, partly in Norse and partly an extinguished dialect, suggests that it is very old. Although the lyrics leave some room for interpretation, it most certainly concerns the strong winds at sea, the difficulties handling the boat, and the prayer for coming home safely.

Hur Var Du I Aftes Så Sildig

(Danish traditional)

Another tune from Rasmus Storm’s collection but this one is slightly more mysterious than the straightforward Minuet no. 60. Firstly, the melody has an elaborate title, something that wasn’t too common back then. Additionally the melody has an unusual bar structure of 3+5 rather than of 4+4, making it unsuitable for all known Danish dances in the 18th century.

The Dromer

(Scottish/Danish traditional)

One of the most important collections of Danish tunes was assembled by the Bast Brothers from 1763 - 1782. The two brothers, Christian Frederik and Paul Danchel, grew up on the island of Lolland in the second half of the 18th century. Both of them studied theology in Copenhagen, making their way through their collegiate years by playing music at parties and social occasions. The Dromer is technically an English dance. In the final decades the 18th century, dances from the British Isles were very much in fashion in Denmark and naturally the Bast Brothers had several English dances in their repertoire. The peculiar

title of this tune is probably a misspelling of The Drummer, which is a a fairly well-known Scottish reel that is identical to the melody notated by the Bast Brothers. The Drummer started to appear in British tune collections around 1700 and it later morphed into the famous Scottish song The Piper o’Dundee, which was used to “stir up the chiefs and their clans” during the Jacobite rising.

Now Found Is The Fairest Of Roses

(German traditional)

Published in 1732 by Danish theologist and poet H. A. Brorson, this is of the most beautiful Danish hymns we know. It is written for Christmastime, but unlike many Christmas hymns, it is not just about Bethlehem and the holy infant - rather, it simply describes a fair rose, growing in a world of thorns and thistles. The hymn is set to a mysterious, somewhat dark melody, a melody that most people were familiar with in 1732. To the surprise of many, Brorson had chosen an old Lutheran funeral chorale to accompany his Christmas hymn, elegantly showing how life and death are always connected.

ARTISTS ON STAGE

Gillian Ansell Violist, New Zealand String Quartet

Peter Clark Violinist, New Zealand String Quartet

Martin Smith Cellist, New Zealand String Quartet

Manu Berkeljon Guest Violinist

THANK YOU