Due To Circumstances, Schools Will Be Closed

School closing announcements are usually due to upcoming holidays or weather related emergencies, however, in this case, several schools will close to aid their students.

School will be closed

Despite this being examination time in Norwegian schools, five schools have decided to  move their midterm exams up a week because students will be unable to concentrate later this month. Important exams will be moved up  to enable students to go to a concert  on April 16 and 17.  According to an announcement made by Norway’s Ministry of Education and Research  “I am concerned that students should be concentrating when they take tests and midterms,” the country’s education minister Kristin Halvorsen told the Associated Press. The administration remembers the problems created at a  concert in 2012 and here we go again! Justin Bieber, the Canadian-born, highly popular singing star is coming to town!

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What teen-age student can concentrate when heart-throb Justin Bieber will actually be there?

The  pop star is scheduled to perform in the Norwegian capital on April 16 and 17 — stoking fears that some students in remote schools will skip midterm exams scheduled to take place at the same time. Bieber is extremely popular in the Nordic country, where his free concert in Oslo last year resulted in dozens of injuries as teenage girls fought to get better glimpses of the 19-year-old icon.
Kristin Halvorsen, Norway’s education minister, said she did not intend to intervene with the schools' decision.

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Modern youth have always sought the unusual. In the mid-1980s, and in this eletronic age, every country’s youth have developed “Their Sound”.Swedish youth bands developed an electronic-guitar sound called  Heavy Metal, or “Death Metal”, the sound of heavily distorted guitars, tremolo picking, deep growling vocals, and blast beat drumming. While this pleased and excited the youth, it was not pleasing to the majority of adult ears!

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Modern adults are more likely   listening the to the quiet sounds of people like Sissel. Sissel Kyrkjebø is a Norwegian soprano who has toured the world singing her soprano solos, and performing with a variety of musical groups. Well-known for her pleasing vocal work, she has performed for royalty, singing also at the opening and closing of Olympic ceremonies. She has represented  Norway at Nobel Peace Prize concerts and here in America while recording several well-received musical selections.

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Four Swedish singers  Agnetha, Bjorn,Benny and Anna combined their
talents and the  first letters of their

names  to form ABBA, a popular group who came to America with “Dancing Queen” “Mama Mia”, and several other popular songs. Ballads done with close harmony pleased their happy listeners.

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Musical awareness has been heightened by modern day electronics. Today’s instruments and music are the result of  the basic sounds of pipe, strings and drums. Some were used both as instruments of entertainment as well as communication  in times of war.

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                                              An early horn was known as a lur.

A wooden lur

 The earliest wooden lur have been mentioned in Icelandic stories, where they are described as war instruments, used to gather troops and frighten the enemy. These lurs, several examples of which have been discovered in longboats, are straight, end-blown wooden tubes, about three feet  long.with no finger holes.

 This instrument served both as a call to get the livestock home and a
horn to entertain the people. It was limited in it’s notes, much like a bugle and it might also have been used to control  soldiers with volume loud enough to blow the walls down.A lur similar to the Viking war instruments has been played by farmers and milk maids in Nordic countries since at least the Middle Ages.

Today, we may hear them at soccer games.

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A Sami performing a joik

And the earliest singer may have been an Icelandic native. Sami people currently have a traditional form of song known as “joik”. According to music researchers, joik is one of the longest living music traditions in Europe,  the folk music of the Sami people. It’s sound is comparable to the traditional chanting of some Native American Indian  celebrations. This type of song can be deeply personal or spiritual in nature, often dedicated to a human being, an animal, or a landscape as a personal signature.Traditionally, joiks sometimes have no lyrics at all.

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These products of the past have had a great influence on  music and culture of today. The latest electronic gadget is available world-wide and american TV has quickly created musicians that have been heard nation-wide. As these new voices tour the world, excitement grows. Due to the latest release, Norway's youth have become very aware that a famous name is coming to town.School will be dismissed to enable Norwegian youth to attend the concert. In May 2012, Bieber gave a free concert on the Oslo Opera House's roof as fans fought for prime position. As described by Aftenposten, a Norwegian newspaper, the mob filled the city streets, closed bridges causing  injuries to 88 people.

Justin Bieber is coming to town!

Norwegian teens fans line up for the Justin Bieber Concert 2012