Eatnemen Vuele (Fairest Lord Jesus) - Frode Fjellheim

Voorhees Choir, Women's Choir of Rutgers University.
Hingrid Kujawinski, Director.
Spring Concert, 2015.

Eatnemen Vuelie was written for the Norwegian female choir Cantus in 1996, originally for a Christmas record. The line sung by the second altos in the choir is called “joik”, which is the folk music of the Sami people, indigenous people inhabiting the Artic area of Sapmi, which where today is the northern Norway, Sweden, Finland, and the Koala Peninsula of Russia. In Eatnemen Vuelie the “joik” element was combined with the Norwegian hymn translated to English as “Fairest Lord Jesus”. Eatnemen Vuelie was featured in the opening scenes of “Frozen”, the 53rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, released in 2013. The makers of “Frozen” listened to the Christmas CD by Cantus released in 2011 and became interested in the tone of the choir and the tune “Eatnemen Vuelie”, then, the movie makers asked the composer Frode Fjellheim to rewrite the melody in order the piece be used in the movie. Fjellheim is a Norwegian freelance musician and composer. He studied music at the Trondheim Musikkonservatorium and lives in Trondheim.