Don Rosa in music book

[Nils Lid Hjort]

"Ekko 1" is a very nice book about music & history of music,
intended for use in Norwegian high school (age group 16-17),
more specifically for those pupils opting to have more
on music inside their curricula than what the default choice
amounts to. Its authors are Brunsvik, Danbolt, Egenberg,
Graff, Solberg, Soernaes and Vaardal, and it is just out 
(this week, actually?) from the Norwegian publishing house 
Gyldendal. (There is a companion volume "Ekko 2" for the next
musical step of the high school ladder.) 

I recommend the book unhesitatingly for its informative 
discussions on well-chosen topics from Monteverdi to sami joik,
its beautiful design, generous illustrations, and exquisite 
and balanced selection of musical examples. 

Chapter 8, of the nine chapters, concentrates on Nordic 
folk music and popular music, with separate sections on 
the music of Iceland, Denmark, Sweden and Finland. This latter 
section mentions the Kalevala and its importance for the folk 
music tradition, along with the kantele, the "crying women" 
from Karelen, and so on. And, lo & behold, this section is 
accompanied by an extract from the great Kalevala Duck story 
by Don Rosa, published last year [in Finland with much bravado 
in November, in the other Nordic countries in December, then in 
Germany in January?, and soon in France, and so on]. We see 
3/4 of the first page of the second part of the three-part story
(taken from NDD #49/1999), to be precise. The accompanying picture 
text informs the readers that 

"In 1999, the well-known Disney comics artist Don Rosa created 
a story where Donald, Uncle Scrooge and the nephews land in the
middle of the mythical epos Kalevala. The Kalevala lines 
are kept in correct runo-metric form, with eight syllables 
per line of verse, as in the original Kalevala epos." 

Congratulations to Don on having reached even textbooks about
music history. Since this is lifted from the first page 
of one of the parts, the line indicating "Manus & tegninger:
Don Rosa" is also clearly given. 

The well-constructed names-and-objects register at the end of the book
graciously includes `kalevala' and `kantele' as well as `Donald Duck'
and `Rosa, Don'. This, incidentally, reflects the Scandinavian/European
tradition or viewpoint that _Donald_ is (by default) the central
figure; perhaps most Americans, and perhaps Don R, would instead
have put in `Uncle Scrooge'. 

Let me also comment briefly on a side issue, since I know it interests
several of the Disney Comics people: the book is packed full with
all kinds of illustrations, some of which are copyrighted with 
such and such rights, and so on. It is then among the laborious
tasks of the publishers to painstakingly go through everything
and secure permission, calculate and pay royalties, and so on. In the 
particular case of the Rosa art, my understanding is that the publishers 
politely asked the Egmont office (the rightful owners) for permission 
to include the chosen 3/4 page, and they nodded and said yes, for free, 
as long as it is clear that it is taken from a Disney Comic. 
And even those Norwegian pupils who fail in music and mathematics
instantly recognise these pictures as being taken from the Norwegian
weekly "Donald Duck & Co". 

Nils Lid Hjort