The Danish Quartet performs ‘Once a shoemaker’ (featuring a clog fiddle!)

Watch a performance of ’Once a shoemaker’ from the Danish Quartet - composed by violinist Rune Tonsgaard Sørensen and arranged by the ensemble.

The work will feature on the quartet’s upcoming album Keel Road, described as a retracing of musical pathways across the North Sea, a journey through the sounds of traditional music from Northern Europe, travelling from Denmark, Norway and Sweden to the Faroe Islands, and to Ireland and England.

The tune features the traditional clog fiddle or träskofiol from southern Sweden, played by Sørensen. The instrument consists of a violin neck and soundboard added to the body of a clog wooden shoe.

The video was recorded and edited by Jonas Lyngdam at The Wood Hunter workshop in central Copenhagen. Keel Road was recorded at Copenhagen’s Village Recording Studio in November 2022, and mixed at Munich’s Bavaria Musikstudios in March 2024. The album is due for release on 30 August 2024 on ECM.

Playing

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Calendars

American collector David L. Fulton amassed one of the 20th century’s finest collections of stringed instruments. This year’s calendar pays tribute to some of these priceless treasures, including Yehudi Menuhin’s celebrated ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri, the Carlo Bergonzi once played by Fritz Kreisler, and four instruments by Antonio Stradivari.