It turns out he was not saying the word correctly: nyckelharpa. I had never heard of this instrument before but it is a very old instrument of Swedish origin in the violin family and could very roughly be described as a cross between a violin and a hurdy-gurdy. Click the above link for Wikipedia entry or just check out the video below.
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
The nyckelharpa
My dad called me a little while ago to tip me that a show on KLRN was going to have a "nickel harp" performance. Unfortunately, the show is on 9.2, and although I do have a digital-capable TV, I don't have a regular antenna to hook up to it right now and we don't get any of the extra digital channels via DishNetwork. So I went a-hunting.
It turns out he was not saying the word correctly: nyckelharpa. I had never heard of this instrument before but it is a very old instrument of Swedish origin in the violin family and could very roughly be described as a cross between a violin and a hurdy-gurdy. Click the above link for Wikipedia entry or just check out the video below.
It turns out he was not saying the word correctly: nyckelharpa. I had never heard of this instrument before but it is a very old instrument of Swedish origin in the violin family and could very roughly be described as a cross between a violin and a hurdy-gurdy. Click the above link for Wikipedia entry or just check out the video below.
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The sound reminds me of the "hardanger fiddle" that is played as part of the Rohan theme in the LotR films.
ReplyDeleteWatching this video led me onto a search of early instruments on YouTube, where "peabcom" has posted several short, informative videos.
Perhaps you could answer a couple of musical questions: what is that musical instrument (a reed of some sort, I think) always played in Middle Eastern style music (I always think of it as a snake-charmer's flute)? And what is that old instrument that is played like a guitar but is ground by a handle at the bottom? Is that a primitive hurdy-gurdy?
The hurdy-gurdy is a keyed instrument like the nyckelharpa but is played by a crank handle instead of a bow. It's closer in size to a violin than a guitar. I've never seen a cranked instrument that's played like a guitar.
ReplyDeleteI had to look up the snake charmer's instrument. Here's the Wikipedia link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snake_charmer#Performance_technique
After working with Swedish machinery, I can easily believe they would invent a more complicated way to build and play a plain old fiddle. ;)
ReplyDeleteIt does make a ghostly, beautiful sound, though.
ReplyDeleteGood post.
ReplyDelete