To Be Nothing: Conversations with Knut Hamre, Hardanger Fiddle Master

Dialogues between student and master about music, learning, teaching, the healing power of art, and the art of life itself.

Knut Hamre has devoted his life to playing the Hardanger fiddle–a unique folk violin with resonating strings beneath, like a sitar’s–and to teaching new generations the secrets of this ancient music, rooted in a stark and beautiful land. Benedicte Maurseth is one of his most accomplished students, an internationally known artist who has recorded for the ECM label. In a book that brings to mind such classics as Zen and the Art of Archery and Wabi Sabi, the student and her master together explore the quest for excellence and originality in the heart of a living tradition.

At once mystical and practical, To Be Nothing is a series of dialogues about music, learning, teaching, the healing power of art, and the art of life itself. With photographs evoking the rugged landscapes and people from which this music springs and the exquisite beauty of the fiddles themselves, this is a work as serene as a fjord, and as deep.