Transforming the Nordic
'Transforming the Nordic - Music and Politics in Norway 1930–45' is a research project established at the Grieg Research Centre in cooperation with the Department of Music at Universität Münster and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG).

Main content
The aim of the coordinated project "Nordic Music" -Resistance, Persecution, Collaboration, and Reintegration in Norway’s Music Life 1930–1960 initiated by Arnulf Mattes (˷ͧƻ) and is to re-examine the role of music in Norwegian nation state buildingafter 1905in the context of European,nationalist movements of the first half of the twentieth century.
Within the coordinated German-Norwegian projectvarious interrelated research topics are to be explored from new angles and illustrated by a wide range of case studies.The project’s aimisto revisit the role of musicin cultural memoryand national historiography by studying musicalworks, practices,and agencies in context of thesocial networks and politicalhierarchies in Norwegian musical life.A main ingredient is the comprehensive understanding of thetransformation of the ‘Nordic’ in music, culture, and politics from a geographical category,utopian idea, and nostalgic dream into a weapon of political propaganda during the 1930s and 1940s.
DFG grant forpartner project at Universität Münster
The partner project at Universität Münsterreceiveda three yearresearch grant from Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG). Project duration: 2017–2020.
Further, the cooperation with DFG and UniversitätMünster includes exchange of teachers and students (ERASMUS+), the organization of joint workshops and internationalconferencesin Bergen and Münster, a shareddatabase,and co-edited publications.
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- Winter semester2018:
Joint student workshop series.
Music and Politicsin Norway 1930–45.
University of Bergen and °±üԲٱ.
Supportet by ˷ͧƻ SPIRE-grant. - Winter semester 2018:
Assoc. prof. Arnulf Mattes visiting scholar.
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Supported by ERASMUS+ staff mobility grant. - Fall term 2017:
Prof. Custodis visiting scholar.
Grieg Research Centre, ˷ͧƻ.
Supported by Trond Mohn. - Fall term 2016:
ERASMUS student exchange program established.
University of Bergenand WWU Münster.
International conferences and seminars
- March 26–27, 2019, Universität Münster
International conference - March 20 –21, 2018, Bergen Public Library
International conference - May 4, 2017, Litteraturhuset, Oslo
Norwegian Musical Life 1940–1945: New Findings and Perspectives
Open seminar
Article in ballade.no: - September 26–27, 2016, Bergen Public Library and National Library, Oslo
Fighting for Grieg's Heritage. A Seminar about War and Politics
Open seminar
Publications
- Custodis, Michael and Mattes, Arnulf (eds.):.Münsteraner Schriften zur zeitgenössischen Musik, vol. 4, 2019, 142 pages, ISBN 978-3-8309-3896-5.
- Custodis, Michael and Mattes, Arnulf:’Celebrating the Nordic Tone - Fighting for National Legacy - The Grieg Centennials 1943’, inThe Routledge Handbook to Music under German Occupation, ed. David Fannings and Erik Levi (in press, Routledge, 2019).
- Custodis, Michael and Mattes, Arnulf:’Zur Kategorie des ”Nordischen“ in der norwegischen Musikgeschichte 1930–45’,Archiv für Musikwissenschaft, 73, (2016/3), p. 166–184.