The Disney animated film “Frozen” contains a lot of inspiration from Nordic landscape and culture. The opening music is composed by Frode Fjellheim and is inspired by the Sámi “yoik”.tradition. The performance of the music is done by the choir “Cantus”. The web site animatedviews.com did an interview with the composer here. We include the introduction below.
Any composer would tell you this: the first notes you hear in a movie are certainly the most important ones in order to set the tone and the musical identity of the film. Remember the sound of Lebo M’s chant during the Lion King sunset? Or the native chant at the beginning ofBrother Bear?
For Frozen, the creators of the movie chose to turn to an intensely poetic and deliberately authentic piece: a “Vuelie”, written by Norwegian composer Frode Fjellheim.
Fjellheim first trained in jazz at the Trondheim Conservatory of music and then combined that style with his Sàmi background in creating his very own style, a kind of a mix of jazz, electronic and traditional music some have characterized as “world music”.
That unique personality is certainly the reason why Disney turned to this artist to create no less than the musical opening of their latest hit, giving Frozen its own, genuine voice.
It is also certainly the reason why Fjellheim received praise from the Norwegian Sámi President for spreading yoik to new audiences.
We asked the composer to share with us some part of his culture that shines through Vuelie.