Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa (3 May 1910 – 2 February 1990) was a Norwegian

fiddler A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syno ...

and traditional

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

ian. He was one of the best known Norwegian performers of folk music in the 1900s.

Personal life

Osa was born in

Ulvik Ulvik is a municipalities of Norway, municipality in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The municipality stretches from the Hardangerfjord to the mountains that reach above sea level. The administrative centre of the municipality is t ...

Hardanger Hardanger is a traditional district in the western part of Norway, dominated by the Hardangerfjord and its inner branches of the Sørfjorden and the Eid Fjord. It consists of the municipalities of Ullensvang, Eidfjord, Ulvik and Kvam, and is ...

as the son of fiddler and painter Lars Osa and

children's writer Children's literature or juvenile literature includes stories, books, magazines, and poems that are created for children. In addition to conventional literary genres, modern children's literature is classified by the intended age of the reade ...

Hermine Bernhoft-Osa. He spent his first years in

Valle Valle may refer to: * Valle (surname) Geography *"Valle", the cultural and climatic zone of the dry subtropical Interandean Valles of the Andes of Peru, Bolivia, and northwest Argentina * University of Valle, a public university in Cali, Colomb ...

Setesdal Setesdal (; older name: Sætersdal) is a valley and a traditional district in Agder County in southern Norway. It consists of the municipalities of Bykle, Valle, Bygland, Iveland, and Evje og Hornnes. The Otra river flows through the val ...

, and moved to

Voss Voss () is a Municipalities of Norway, municipality and a Districts of Norway, traditional district in Vestland Counties of Norway, county, Norway. The administrative center of the municipality is the village of Vossevangen. Other villages inclu ...

when he was six years old. He was married to Kersti Alice Grambo from 1937, and to Anne Heggtveit from 1950. He was the father of actress Liv Bernhoft Osa (b. 1957). He died in Voss in 1990.

Career

Osa's father was a skilled

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

and

hardingfele A hardanger fiddle () is a traditional stringed instrument considered the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than four as on a standard v ...

player and Osa learned to play both instruments starting when he was six. He studied violin with

Bjarne Brustad Bjarne Brustad (4 March 1895 – 20 May 1978) was a Norwegian composer, violinist and violist. He was born in Kristiania, now Oslo. He played with symphonic orchestras in Stavanger and Oslo. In the 1920s he travelled to European cities su ...

in Oslo then with the academy of Musikselskabet Harmoniens orkester in Bergen from 1929 to 1930. He continued his violin studies with :de:Siegfried Eberhardt in Berlin from 1931 to 1932. He made his début as violinist in 1937. He started playing on the radio with the

Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

in the 1940s and recorded more than 350 traditional

air An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...

s () on either hardingfele or violin between 1948 and 1978. His airs were often based on the Voss tradition from elder fiddlers such as Sjur Helgeland,

Ola Mosafinn Ola Mosafinn (14 July 1828 – 28 December 1912) was a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player and composer. Mosafinn is regarded among the more important fiddlers in Norway in the late 19th century. Ola Sjursson was born in Voss in Hordaland Cou ...

or his own father. He often toured in Norway, Europe and the United States with concerts or

causerie Causerie (from French, "talk, chat") is a literary style of short informal essays mostly unknown in the English-speaking world. A causerie is generally short, light and humorous and is often published as a newspaper column (although it is not defi ...

s. He composed a concerto for hardingfele, ''Three Fjords'', in cooperation with

Geirr Tveitt Geirr Tveitt (born Nils Tveit; 19 October 1908 – 1 February 1981) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. Tveitt was a central figure of the national movement in Norwegian cultural life during the 1930s. Life Early years Tveitt was born in Be ...

. In 1973 he recorded the track "Texas-låt" on an album with the rock group "Saft." He published the textbook ''Hardingfela'' in 1952. He became an Honorary Citizen of the U.S. state of Washington in 1968. He received the Arts Council Norway Honorary Award in 1976. He also received the

Spellemannprisen The Spellemannprisen (also referred to as the Norwegian Grammy Awards) is a Norwegian music award ceremony presented by International Federation of the Phonographic Industry#Local associations, IFPI Norge and :no:FONO, FONO. It was first awarded i ...

Honorary Prize in 1973.

Selected works

*''Hardingfela'' (1952) textbook *''Spelmannsliv'' (1979) autobiography (with Jostein Mæland)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Osa, Sigbjorn Bernhoft 1910 births 1990 deaths People from Ulvik Norwegian fiddlers Norwegian male violinists Spellemannprisen winners 20th-century Norwegian violinists 20th-century Norwegian male musicians