Stardust composer Gaute Tønder sets the Advent season for young and old, but the music for NRK's new Advent calendar is free of sleigh bells and hymns. – I have scored a drama series, without a focus on Christmas.
/ 02/12/2020 / Willy MartinsenOn Tuesday, NRK launched its brand new Advent calendar, Stardust. True to tradition, we get to take part in a 24-part countdown to Christmas Eve, filled to the brim with both interpersonal nerves and grand adventure.
The magic of Christmas would of course not be complete without an accompanying musical universe. But for composer Gaute Tønder, it has been a point to stay at arm's length from the festive mood.
In Stardust, the viewer is introduced to two worlds. The boy Jo has recently divorced parents and must find his way to a new life in a new city. In North part The Star People live here, and from here comes the girl Elly with magical abilities.
The dichotomy between the familiar human and the magical characterizes the entire series. This has also been a fundamental element in Tønder's musical approach.
I'm not a Christmas composer.
Gaute Tønder
– The music is a mix of symphonic and electronic acoustic. It reflects the wide range of the series, both geographically and thematically.
Tønder hopes the music can both support the grand adventure and communicate to children and young people who identify with Jo's situation.
– I myself come from a home with divorced parents, and I am a divorced man with children. So I have seen it from both sides. It has been important to me that music can contribute to the communication of the new and melancholic, without being too sad or leading.
Stjernestøv is produced by NRK Super for NRK and is broadcast every day from December 1 to 24 on NRK1 and NRK Super. The series is also available on https://tv.nrk.no/serie/stjernestoev
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Even though advent calendars on TV are a key factor in many people's Christmas spirit, Tønder has not actively advocated for creating Christmas music. Quite the opposite.
– It has been important for me to treat this as a drama series. I have focused on the plot, not on Christmas as a circumstance. It is thematically heavy and adventurous music, but I have refrained from using sleigh bells, cello or choral movements in the music.
It's nice to think that someone might get a nostalgic feeling from the vignette for Stjernestøv ten years from now.
Gaute Tønder
Ironically, this is not the first time Tønder has written music for Christmas TV. He is also the composer behind the series Home for Christmas which went on a winning streak on Netflix in 2019.
– I had to laugh a little to myself that I have worked on two Christmas series on the rap. But not to Home for Christmas I wrote Christmas music. I've thought of them as two drama series that happen to have Christmas as a backdrop. I'm not a Christmas composer.
Season 2 of Home for Christmas premieres on Netflix on December 18, 2020.
However, this does not mean that Tønder himself does not enjoy Christmas. He considers himself very Christmas tea, and there is no doubt that music is a key mood-maker.
– Music is the alpha and omega. The devotional moment when we turn on the cartoon Karl-Bertils Jonsson's Christmas Eve and the intro music plays: As it is Christmas for the whole Tønder family. Think of the melancholic jazz song as the very definition of Christmas spirit. The musical expression has nothing to do with Christmas, other than my connotations.
You risk the exact same thing happening with the Stardust music now. You haven't tried to make Christmas music, but it will be in the context.
– I never thought about that until you said it now, but it's actually true. It's really nice to think that someone might get a nostalgic feeling in their body when they hear the vignette for Stardust in ten years. It's really nice. Then you might have contributed some good memories to someone.