Our Lady’s Church in Trondheim is the base of NRK’s latest minute-by-minute show. (Photo: NRK)

Over two hundred choirs are preparing to perform the Norwegian hymnbook from cover to cover. Starting on Friday 28 November at 12.00 p.m. lasting until Sunday 30 November around midnight, nearly sixty hours of hymns will fill Norwegian homes.

Several important personalities, including the Minister of Culture, will be present when the first stanza is sung. The main broadcast airs from Our Lady’s Church in Trondheim in addition to performances from eleven other Norwegian locations as well as Iowa in the U.S.

Two choirs from the host city have the honor of opening with the book’s first hymn – “Herre gud, ditt dyre navn og ære” (“Lord God, Your Precious Name and Honor”). Overall, there are over two hundred choirs and more than three thousand singers participating.

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After nearly sixty hours of slow-TV, three choirs from Trondheim close with hymn number 899 – “Jeg tror på jordens forvandling” (“I Believe In The Earth’s Transformation”) around midnight Sunday night.

Our Lady’s Church will be open to the public and holds about four hundred people. Churches across the country are encouraged to open their doors and transmit the broadcast so that the whole of Norway can sing along.

Viewers may follow the broadcast on social media and send in photos and messages.

In 2013, a new book containing 899 hymns was launched. It has a far greater range of genres than previous books, including gospel, spirituals, African, Latin American and Asian hymns.

The project is a collaboration between Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK), the Norwegian Choir Association in South Trøndelag County, the Church City Mission in Norway, the Church of Norway and the Norwegian Church Song Association.

Here you can follow the program on NRK, and here you can read which choirs are singing which hymns.

Text by: Anette Broteng Christiansen, ThorNews

Source: NRK

Categories: Culture, Film & TV, Music