The sweetest song - in the archive

Synnøve S. Bjørset is a music archivist and musician. Photo: Eivind Kaasin

- In the county archives, we only have one source for the hymn that gave its name to this church concert, says music archivist Synnøve Sæmundsdotter Bjørset. - It is an audio recording in which Lars Ryssdal from Gloppen performs three verses.

- The text was written by the Norwegian-Danish priest Iver Brinch and has been used for several different melodies throughout the country. As a religious folk tune, there are also a number of major and minor variations in the text.

"Opp, jublende sang" which is number 638 in the Norwegian Hymnal (1985) with melody by Ludcig M. Lindemann, is supposed to be a "combined version" of two of Brinch's hymns: "Op sødeste sang" and "Å gledelig dag". But this is not the same text that Ryssdal uses, and moreover with a completely different melody.

The first verse, Ryssdal sing, was probably printed with this wording:

O sweetest song,
On Psaltery and Harp,
Let your sound be heard.
And everything that is in me
O noblest Rod,
Thank you, Jesus.
who has always been so good,
And recently my heart was redeemed
of Force,
Thank you a thousand times!
Thank you a thousand times!