Stråkar till nyckelharpa
Fiol · Viola · Cello · Kontrabas · Div. instrument · P&H reservdelar · Ukulele Trästråke för nyckelharpa och Viola D'Amore. The nyckelharpa Swedish: [ˈnʏ̂kːɛlˌharːpa] , plural nyckelharpor , meaning "keyed fiddle" or "key harp" lit. The keys slide under the strings, with the tangents set perpendicularly to the keys, reaching above the strings. Upon key-actuation, the tangent is pressed to meet the corresponding string, much like a fret , shortening its vibrating length to that point, changing the pitch of the string.
The origin of the instrument is unknown, but its historical foothold and modern development is much larger in Sweden than other countries. Many of the early historical depictions of the instrument are found in Sweden, the earliest possibly depiction found on a relief located on a 14th century church portal. While historically not too common an instrument in Sweden relatively speaking , the violin outshining it in usage among spelmän players of Swedish folk music , the nyckelharpa became a popular folk instrument in the Swedish province of Uppland during the 17th century, subsequently leading to its popularization and spread throughout Sweden the following centuries.
Stråke Nyckelharpa
By the 19th century it had become a "fine" instrument, being played at concerts in Stockholm , [ 4 ] and by the early 20th century it had become an archetypal instrument alongside the violin for Swedish folk music. Today it is considered by many to be the quintessential national instrument of Sweden. Besides Sweden, early depictions of nyckelharpor can also be found in Denmark, Germany and Italy, among other European countries.
The earliest of these is found in a fresco by Taddeo di Bartolo at the Palazzo Pubblico chapel in Siena , Italy, which depicts an angel playing a "keyed viola". Recently there has been a push by luthiers and the like to make recreations of these older depictions of nyckelharpor, akin to reconstructional archaeology , [ 6 ] but also new instruments based on the nyckelharpa concept of a keyed bow instrument.
Development of keyed string instruments appears to have started during the High Middle Ages , with instruments such as the duo-played organistrum a hurdy-gurdy , starting in the late s or early s. Such were popular in Southwestern Europe and eventually evolved into the solo-played " symphonia "-hurdy-gurdy in France or Spain in the s , featuring diatonic tangents.
Somewhere along the line, it appears the keyed section of a "hurdy-gurdy" was integrated onto a bowed string instrument , producing the first keyed fiddle or proto-nyckelharpa instrument. It is unclear were the instrument first appeared, but the spread of hurdy-gurdy and bowed string instruments in Europe during the later Middle Ages makes it possible that the instrument was invented independently by several people.
The earliest possible depiction of nyckelharpor, or rather "keyed vielles " by appearance, known can be found in a relief on one of the portals to the Källunge Church , located on the Swedish island of Gotland. Dating from circa , it depicts two musicians with bow stringed instruments suspiciously looking like nyckelharpor, appearing to have keyboxes a cover above the strings like a hurdy-gurdy.
The relief is however eroded and damaged from time, making it hard to confirm them as nyckelharpor. The earliest confirmed depiction of a nyckelharpa appears in an Italian church painting found in Siena , Italy, dating to It depicts an angel playing a vielle -looking nyckelharpa a common nyckelharpa motif for the period , featuring five keyes and a keybox above the strings.
Throughout the 15th century, more depictions of nyckelharpor start appearing in church paintings, notably in Swedish and Danish churches, such as the Emmislöv Church , which has a painting of a nyckelharpa musician dating to — Interestingly, most, if not all, Swedish nyckelharpa depictions on church paintings, lack keyboxes. The earliest known recorded name for nyckelharpor can be found in an early German music dictionary German: Musiklexikon by Martin Agricola , dating to There it is called a Schlüsselfidel "key vielle".
The german term, Schlüsselfidel , is mentioned in Theatrum Instrumentorum , a famous work written in by the German organist Michael Praetorius — At this time the nyckelharpa was not too common of an instrument in Sweden, the violin outshining it in Swedish folk music use. Starting from the early 17th century, however, the nyckelharpa got a foothold as a popular folk instrument among spelmän players of Swedish folk music in the Swedish province of Uppland , which came to be the stronghold for nyckelharpa music the following centuries, including musicians like Byss-Calle [ sv ] Carl Ersson Bössa, — from Älvkarleby.
By the 19th century it had become a "fine" instrument which came to be played at concerts in Stockholm. The popularization of the nyckelharpa continued and by the early 20th century it had become an archetypal instrument for Swedish folk music, equivalent to the violin.
Harts – vackert och oumbärligt
From this point the instrument would see a wide range of developments to make it a more modern instrument for a modern audience. The s and s saw a resurgence in the popularity of the nyckelharpa, with notable artists such as Marco Ambrosini Italy and Germany , Sture Sahlström, Gille, Peter Puma Hedlund and Nils Nordström including the nyckelharpa in both early music and contemporary music offerings.
Continued refinement of the instrument also contributed to the increase in popularity, with instrument builders like Jean-Claude Condi and Annette Osann bringing innovation to the bow and body. In s, the nyckelharpa was recognised as one of the instruments available for study at the folk music department of the Royal College of Music in Stockholm Kungliga Musikhögskolan.
It has also been a prominent part of several revival groups in the later part of the century, including the trio Väsen , the more contemporary group Hedningarna , the Finnish folk music group Hyperborea and the Swedish folk music groups Dråm and Nordman. The first World Nyckelharpa Day [ 12 ] took place on 26 April just as the world had gone into lockdown.
All the events took place online, either as livestreams or pre-recorded videos on Youtube. This now is a yearly event taking place on the Sunday closest to 26 April — this being the birthday of the great nyckelharpa player Byss-Calle. In the 21st century there has been a growing interest among enthusiast to resurrect the early historical nyckelharpa designs. This has led to countless recreations of preserved historical copies, such as the moraharpa and esseharpa, [ 17 ] among others, but also a push to recreate nyckelharpa-designs only found in historical paintings, such as the one depicted in Siena , Italy.
Such projects can be seen as reconstructional archaeology , although reproductions are not always 1—1 clones of what is depicted in the old paintings.
The nyckelharpa depicted in Siena, Italy, has been dubbed viola a chiavi di Siena Italian for "Sienan keyed viola" , or simply Siena-Harpa also styled Sienaharpa for short, relating to the Swedish naming-theme "Siena harp" , and such a reconstruction was produced as part of an international research project around , built by professional luthier Alexander Pilz, a seasoned maker of nyckelharpor working out of Leipzig , Germany.
The nyckelharpa is usually played with a strap around the neck, stabilised by the right arm. Didier François , a violinist and nyckelharpist from Belgium, is noted for using an unusual playing posture, holding the nyckelharpa vertically in front of the chest.