WANTED: A Familiar Version of “Ge Mig En Dag”

Last updated on: March 17, 2017 at 2:59 pm by Joseph Susanka

WANTED: A Familiar Version of “Ge Mig En Dag” 2017-03-17T14:59:37-06:00 Joseph Susanka

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YouTube has failed me. I can’t find the version of “Ge Mig En Dag” I want, and it’s driving me nuts. Instead, all I can find is this:

Pretty, no? Ring any melodic bells?

Recognition is made slightly more complicated by the fact that this is hardly its most famous setting. The one that springs most readily to mind when I hear the name “Gi Mig En Dag…” …OK, so nothing springs to mind when I hear that title. But the particular version with which I am familiar definitely brings back memories. It’s the musical opening/closing of Garrison Keillor’s wonderful “Writer’s Almanac.”

What’s the music that accompanies The Writer’s Almanac?
The music that begins and ends The Writer’s Almanac is a Scandinavian folk tune called “Ge Mig En Dag” (“Give Me a Day”).

A confession: I love The “WA.” But I’m very unfaithful in my listening. Or at least I’m very unfaithful in my DAILY listening. I’ll go weeks without a single brush, and then I’ll listen to about 10-12 at a time. Great stuff.

But you know what’s not great? YouTube’s inability to give provide me with a competent (and simultaneously familiar) version. All I can find are vocal settings like the one above (which is very nice. though foreign to me) and a couple examples of this (which is just…I can’t even…WAHT.) And this, I suppose (but I’m cheap).

Is a recording of Rich Dworsky’s piano version too much to ask for? Is it? Or any ol’ piano version, for that matter?

I love the fact that the answer to the question “What is this music?” is the first one that appears on the TWA Help page. It’s fitting, I suppose, since I haven’t been this frustrated by a piece of NPR theme music since the day that I realized I disliked almost the entire third movement of Bohuslav Martinu’s Piano Quartet No. 1. All except for the bits Jim Svejda used for the opening of his show. (Ironically, guess what the very first question that appears on KUSC’s FAQ page is? “What is the piece used by Jim Svejda as the theme for his evening show?”)

UPDATE: Fellow Patheotte Joanne K. McPortland points out that while “Ge Mig En Dag” might well be Scandinavian, its musical roots are Scottish. Hear for yourself.

(Yep. That’s Dworsky.)

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