Put on your viking helmets, everyone! This week, the Ether Game Brain Trust is heading up north to explore the music of Scandinavia, in a show we're calling "Nordic Trek"! Here's our playlist, guaranteed to make you exclaim "By Odin's Beard!"

• Richard Wagner (1813–1883), Die Walküre, "Ride of the Valkyries" – One of the things that the Nordic countries are most known for is their mythology. Norse myths and their powerful gods are captivating, and have influenced everything from comic book characters like Thor and Loki, to the epic operas of Richard Wagner. Wagner himself was not from Scandinavia, but used their mythology of the basis of his Ring cycle, with characters like Wotan, Fricka, and the flying female warriors known as valkyries all having direct parallels in Norse myths. In this scene from the opera Die Valküre, the Valkyries are flying away from battle, carrying with them the dead heroes. One of those valkyries, Brünnhilde, however is carrying a woman named Sieglinde, whose husband/brother has just been slain. Brünnhilde vows to protect Sieglinde, against her father Wotan's order, because she knows Sieglinde is carrying a child-a child who will become a hero named Siegfried.

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https://youtu.be/SAOf46CXaaw?t=36m41s

• Jean Sibelius (1865–1957), Symphony No. 2 in D Major, IV. Finale (Allegro moderato) – Finnish composer Jean Sibelius is known for his nationalist musical works, including the Kullervo Symphony and Finlandia. Sibelius did not consider his Second Symphony a programmatic work, but after he conducted its 1901 premiere, it was received by many people as a celebration of Finland's independence from Russia, who had sanctioned Finnish language and culture. The finale (which we just heard) is the symphony's most famous movement. Audiences felt its regal and triumphant themes were clearly evocative of victory over oppression. Stylistically, it is also the most Romantic of the four movements and has been compared to Beethoven's fifth symphony. In 1904, a few years after composing this symphony, Sibelius moved to a villa that he had built outside of Helsinki. He named this new home Ainola after his wife Aino Järnfe, the daughter of a Finnish general.

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• Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), Peer Gynt – Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg's music for Peer Gynt-and its famous excerpts like "In The Hall Of The Mountain King," "Morning Mood," and "Anitra's Dance"-originally came from incidental music to a stage play. It was personally commissioned by Peer Gynt's playwright: the great dramatist Henrik Ibsen, a fellow Norwegian and one of the founding fathers of the modern stage. Ibsen's play was written in verse (originally in Danish) and satirized Norwegian culture and folklore. It tells the story of Peer, a habitual liar and rambler who leaves his home in search of adventure. Instead of discovering self-fulfillment, Peer is robbed by Anitra, a Moroccan princess. He returns home a bitter, empty old man, into the arms of Solveig, his ever-faithful love. Due in part to the poor reception of Peer Gynt, Ibsen permanently abandoned writing drama in verse, and instead focused his attention more on theatrical realism.

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• John Dowland (1563–1626), Lachrimae: "The King of Denmarks Galiard" – For many years John Dowland petitioned Queen Elizabeth I for a royal position at her court in England as a court lutenist. Instead the position was filled by Simon Merson, a musician whose reputation, though known in England, did not match Dowland's fame across Europe. Dowland was instead enticed to travel to Denmark, where he held the position of Royal Lutenist for the Danish king, Christian IV.  King Christian was an avid patron of the arts, and went to great lengths to have Danish court musicians trained in the styles of English and Italian music, which had gained popularity across Europe. Alongside bringing Dowland to Denmark, he also sent many of his court composers to Venice and Florence so that they could learn to write madrigals in the Italian style. Dowland wrote some of his most famous works while employed in Denmark, including Lachrimae (orSeven Tears) which he dedicated to Christian's sister, Anne of Denmark.

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• Carl Nielsen (1865–1931), Helios Overture – Danish composer Carl Nielsen's overture entitled Helios was written during a period of his career when he was preoccupied with the idea of becoming one with nature, and Sun worship seemed a likely place to start.  Helios was one of several gods of the sun in the days of ancient Greece, and the one in whose honor the Colossus of Rhodes was built. According to the historical writings of Philo, Rhodes had been brought up from the sea by Helios himself. Nielsen chose the story as his inspiration while on a visit to Athens, and his use of a classical subject shows his own ambiguity about Danish nationalism during his lifetime. He was deeply interested in Scandinavian folk music, however its influence on his own musical style is debatable. That being said, Nielsen's music was eventually embraced by Denmark as a national treasure, and his portrait appeared on Danish banknotes for several decades.

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• Einojuhani Rautavaara (1928–2016), Cantus Arcticus – Dubbed "a concerto for birds and orchestra," Einojuhani Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus has been described as one of the most beloved pieces of contemporary Finnish music. The birdsongs heard in the work are actual recordings of wild northern birds from Finland near the Arctic circle. The final movement, for instance, features the loud calls of migrating "whooper swans." These birds breed not just in Northern Finland, but across all of northern Eurasia. Rautavaara, who passed away in 2016, wrote more than just bird music. He composed in nearly every major genre, including ten operas, eight symphonies, eleven concertos, and various other works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, or voice. He also wrote in nearly every major style popular at the time, including neo-classicism, serialism, chance music, atonal avant-garde, modernism, postmodernism, and tonal neo-romanticism.

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• Hugo Alfvén (1872–1960), Midsummer Vigil ("Swedish Rhapsody No. 1") – The German-centeredness of 19th-century musical culture kept many composers from wide public view and from inclusion in a mainstream "canon" of masters. Such was the case with Hugo Alfvén, a Swedish composer and contemporary of Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler. Alfvén travelled around much of Europe for his career, but most of his work was done in his homeland in Sweden, where he composed, taught, and conducted. He's little remembered outside of Sweden, save for one work. Alfvén's "Swedish Rhapsody No.1," otherwise known as the Midsummer Vigil has taken on a life of its own, and has become one of the most well-known Swedish melodies. The "Swedish Rhapsody" has shown up all over the place in television and film thanks its light, melodic charm. It was even recorded by Percy Faith in 1953 and again in 1956 by American guitarist Chet Atkins.

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• Kaija Saariaho (b. 1952), Graal Théâtre – Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho is known for combining electronics with acoustic sound in her music. After writing several pieces for instrumental ensembles and tape, Saariaho began composing with the aid of a computer alongside traditional instruments. Despite these electronic processes, she finds much of the inspiration for her music in literature, art, and natural phenomena. Graal Théâter for example, is based on a book by Jacques Roubaud of the same name. This particular recording is led by Esa-Pekka Salonen, another Finnish conductor and composer who has climbed the ranks of contemporary classical music. Salonen currently conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra of London and composed his own violin concerto, though his style is more modernist than Saariaho's. In 2017, Saariaho also become the first female composer to have an opera staged at the Metropolitan Opera in over a century.

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• ABBA, "Waterloo" – Other than gummy fish, gravy-covered meatballs, and ready-to-assemble furniture, ABBA is probably the most popular Swedish export. In the 1970s, their cheery brand of sunshine pop and disco took the entire world by storm. Songs like "Dancing Queen" and "Fernando" hit number 1 in over a dozen different countries. Their success first came, however, in 1974, when they won the famed Eurovision Song Contest with their song "Waterloo." ABBA became the first group from Sweden to win the award (strangely, Luxembourg had been the biggest winners up until that point). Although the Eurovision Song Contest is a huge international event, bringing together countries in the spirit of competition and cheesy songs, few artists and songs ever go on to be successful (or even remembered). ABBA is the exception: both them and the song "Waterloo" continue to be celebrated today.