Reykjavík Grapevine - 02.08.2013, Side 38

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online at sandman.is before he gets settled in his new space.
MusicThe Reykjavík Grapevine
A Quick Journey Of Music
And Hannes Hafstein
by Tómas Gabríel Benjamin
Hannes was a pioneer in his time,
and was in a position to set an
example of how a decent home
should look like. All in all, four
floors including basement and loft,
the house has incredibly thick out-
er walls and almost everything is
made of concrete, the staircases as
well as the balconies. The inside is
bright and spacious thanks to large
windows with pretty paintwork and
decorative plaster mouldings in the
ceiling are testimonials of meticu-
lous craftsmanship.
Filling the gap in Reykja-
vík’s history
Although the house was lived in
until 2007, it sorely needed mainte-
nance when a group of idealists de-
cided to buy the house for the sake
of its history. During its renovation,
they made sure that several details
were preserved and where changes
were necessary, they made sure to
have them align with the original
designs.
The Hannesarholt non-profit
organisation was established and
the house opened to the public last
February. The organisation’s goal
is to honour Hannes’s memory and
commemorate his contribution
to Icelandic society. Ragnheiður
Jónsdóttir, one of the owners, says
they want to introduce Hannes Haf-
stein to both Icelanders and for-
eigners, as well as enlighten them
about Icelandic cultural history as
there’s a gap in our architectural
and economical history. “There’s
a slight gap in Reykjavík’s history
that people are vague about. We
know everything about the turf
house culture but then, as if sud-
denly, Reykjavík had several state-
ly buildings and proper streets. We
want to educate people and honour
pioneers such as Hannes who con-
tributed so much to changing this
town.”
Anyone curious can explore this
beautiful house and learn about its
history as well as Hannes Hafstein.
Inside is a café that sells light lunch
and dainty cakes to enjoy with cof-
fee or tea, which comes in elegant,
old-fashioned china. Upstairs is
Hannes’s study and a few pieces
of vintage furniture that give an
idea of what the home of his family
looked like. In the loft are old toys
and a little den for children to read.
The organisation has high hopes
and plans of teaching children
about the past through play, where
they can amongst other things play
with paper dolls from certain eras
and read about what their lives
would have been like in the time of
Hannes Hafstein.
But it’s not only the youth
that can learn about the past at
Hannesarholt. Young history stu-
dent Marinella Arnórsdóttir offers
guided tours in English on week-
days, at 9:45 or by arrangement via
phone. Starting at Hannesarholt,
she tells stories about the house
and its sur-
r o u n d i n g s
while walk-
ing around
the oldest
part of Reyk-
javík, reveal-
ing what the
scenery was
like a century
ago. And in
the spirit of
Hannes Hafs-
tein, Marinel-
la doesn’t let the weather stop her
but offers tour guests sturdy um-
brellas, designed to endure Icelan-
dic weather, with Hannes’s famous
line “I love you, storm” imprinted
on their rims.
The Origin of Icelandic
Popular Music
The tour can include a lunch in the
Hannesarholt café or a short film
about Hannes, in English, shown
inside the underground music hall,
which is a new extension to the
basement of this historical house.
And that’s where magic happens
on Mondays at 17:00, when vari-
ous musicians take turns leading
the audience through Icelandic mu-
sic history in a 45 minute journey,
which is offered in English as well.
Each musician has his or her own
way of presenting what they con-
sider the gems of Icelandic popu-
lar music
but it is pia-
nist Kristján
Hrannar who
gives me
a taste of
what music
he cherishes
most the
very Monday
a f t e r n o o n
that I visit.
“In-between
songs, I tell
the story of how popular music de-
veloped in Iceland and what identi-
fies it. I also go quickly through the
traditional song melodies which
all have similar structure because
they’re basically composed for
Icelandic poetry. The chords are
rather basic even though the mel-
odies are astonishing,” Kristján
says. “Icelanders got into jazz mu-
sic in the 1940s and that’s when the
traditional song melodies started
changing. In effect, the first Ice-
landic jazz tunes are heavily influ-
enced by the traditional popular
songs.”
He then goes onto the rock 'n'
roll era and everything that fol-
lowed, the ‘80s and ‘90s in music,
ending with an example of the lat-
est Icelandic music which he states
is “of such high quality but still so
unique in an Icelandic way, like the
lopapeysa!”
On Hannesarholt’s website it
says that upon entering this his-
torical building, it’s as if the house
embraces you and that one’s heart
rate slows down inside its seren-
ity. “We want to offer people to
the past’s embrace with us, slow
down, look back and try to remem-
ber where we’ve come from.” And
that’s exactly the palpable spirit of
this house; it tells you a story if you
stand still for a while, quiet enough
to listen.
The stately building at Grundarstígur 10 in Þingholt, one of Reykjavík’s most charming neighbourhoods, was basically a palace
at the time it was built in 1915. From its south facing windows one can see an older house by the next street, a two storey timber
house, which was called “the block” at that time, as it soared high over the turfed roofs and little huts which were most Iceland-
ers’ homes one hundred years ago. Yes, we were a little behind when it came to architecture as Iceland has been relatively poor
for most of its existence (save for a spell in the ‘00s).
"We want to offer
people to the past’s
embrace with us,
slow down, look
back and try to re-
member where
we’ve come from.”
Issue 11 — 2013
Grundarstígur 10,
101 Reykjavík
Hannesarholt is open
Monday to Friday,
11:30–17:30
and Sundays, 14–17.
Monday concerts
cost 2.500 ISK/3,500
ISK(coffee/tea, cake and
concert) /9,500 (concert
+ three course meal at
Hótel Holt)
Hannesarholt
Axel Sigurðarson