"Scandinavia" is an

instrumental An instrumental is a recording normally without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through semantic widening, a broader sense of the word song may refer to instru ...

composition by Northern Irish singer-songwriter

Van Morrison Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards. As a teenager in t ...

and is the closing track on his 1982 album ''

Beautiful Vision ''Beautiful Vision'' is the thirteenth studio album by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in February 1982. It continued Morrison's departure from rhythm and blues, R&B at the time, instead favoring Celtic folk and American ...

''. The track was the first instrumental Morrison released but which was followed by others during the 1980s. It has been performed in concert only a few times. Morrison played the composition on 3 April 1982 at the

Grugahalle The Grugahalle is a multi-purpose indoor arena located at the edge of the Botanischer Garten Grugapark in Essen, Germany. Opened on 25 October 1958, its seating capacity is about 7,700 people and about 10,000 for unseated events. The building w ...

Essen Essen (; Latin: ''Assindia'') is the central and, after Dortmund, second-largest city of the Ruhr, the largest urban area in Germany. Its population of makes it the fourth-largest city of North Rhine-Westphalia after Cologne, Düsseldorf and D ...

, Germany and was broadcast on ''

Rockpalast ''Rockpalast'' (''Rock Palace'') is a German music television show that broadcasts live on German television station Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR). ''Rockpalast'' started in 1974 and continues to this day. Hundreds of rock, heavy metal and jazz ...

'' in Germany and the BBC in the UK. It was recorded at the first recording session for the ''Beautiful Vision'' album and was the only track from this session that would be used on the album. The musicians featured differed from the other tracks on the finished album and had appeared with Morrison at the Great American Music Hall in March 1981. Morrison played piano on this instrumental. The composition was nominated in the ''Best Rock Instrumental Performance'' category for the 25th Annual Grammy Awards. It was used throughout the 1993 BBC documentary series ''

40 Minutes ''40 Minutes'' was a BBC TV documentary strand broadcast on BBC Two between 1981 and 1994. Some documentaries in the original series were revisited and updated in a 2006 version, ''Forty Minutes On''. See also * Sixty Minutes (British TV prog ...

''.Brooks. ''In Search of Van Morrison'', p.95

Personnel

*Van Morrison – piano *

Mark Isham Mark Ware Isham (born September 7, 1951) is an American musician and film composer. A trumpeter and keyboardist, Isham works in a variety of genres, including jazz and electronic. He is also a film composer, having worked on numerous films and t ...

– synthesizers *

Herbie Armstrong Herbert Christopher Armstrong (born 14 May 1944) is a Northern Irish guitarist, singer and songwriter. He is known for his collaborations with Kenny Young in the bands Fox and Yellow Dog, and with Van Morrison in the early 1960s and again in t ...

– acoustic rhythm guitar * David Hayes – bass *

Peter Van Hooke Peter Van Hooke (born 6 April 1950) is an English rock drummer and producer with over 350 credits to his name. He was the drummer for the English band Mike + The Mechanics (from 1984 to 1995) and also drummed for Van Morrison's band, Headstone, ...

– drums

Notes

References

*Brooks, Ken (1999), ''In Search of Van Morrison'', Andover, Hampshire: Agenda, * Heylin, Clinton (2003). ''Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography'', Chicago Review Press, *Collis, John (1998), ''Inarticulate Speech of the Heart'', London: Warner Books, {{Van Morrison singles 1982 singles 1980s instrumentals Rock instrumentals Van Morrison songs Songs written by Van Morrison 1981 songs Song recordings produced by Van Morrison