History of the Nyckelharpa - Scandi Folk Nerd #21

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A summary of the long, complex and debated history of the nyckelharpa, nowadays traditional swedish instrument.
Please let me know of possible mistakes, surely there are some left despite checking many times ! Also feel free to discuss different historical/technical hypothesis in the comments. Finally, I have tried to give all image credits in the video but couldn't find some, so if you know about them please post the infos in the comments !
Une excellente vidéo sur le sujet en français, par l'Instrumentatrium de l'Insolite : • Nyckelharpa - L'Instru...
A much longer and detailed presentation on the topic by Vicki Swan : • Nyckelharpa: Voice of ...
Special thanks to Olov Johansson who allowed me to use his pictures and to the gentle friends who have supported me through rough editing hours.
Homepage : www.emeliewaldken.com
Patreon : / emeliewaldken
Facebook : / emeliewaldken
Spotify : open.spotify.com/artist/3ecxq...
Looking for a nyckelharpa builder ? www.emeliewaldken.net/builders...
Or for teachers / courses ? www.emeliewaldken.net/courses-...
Background nyckelharpa music all played by me :
- Dimmisjonspols av Sturla Eide & Sparve Lille efter Magnus Olsson från Värmland (a weird shortened version I didn't remember I had ever played)
- Eikelandsosen by Emelie Waldken, taken from the album 'Bestioles' by my previous band Knep : knep.weebly.com/shop.html
- slängpolska efter Anders Gustaf Andersson från Mörkö, Sörmland
- Hogapolskan av Hilding Nordin från Forsa, Hälsingland & polska ur Sven Donats notbok nr. 84 från Målerås, Småland, variations by Emelie Waldken
- sen polska efter Göran Lång från Haverö, Medelpad : • Huldra (Sen Polska) - ...
Recorded april 2020 in Uppland, Sweden.
Sources :
nyckelharpansforum.net/nyttlj...
www.nyckelharpansforum.net/om...
www.nyckelharpa.fr/instrument/...
www.nyckelharpa.org/about/what...
pedagogie.ac-toulouse.fr/lotec...
sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyckelh...
Karen Myers (2006) : The Swedish Nyckelharpa in its Historic Context, A presentation for the Fylgia Lodge, San Francisco, CA bluerose.karenlmyers.org/medi...
Boris Koller (2010) : „Die Schlüsselfidel“ oder „Wie man ein historisches Musikinstrument erfindet.“ nyckelharpansforum.net/2013/D...
www.dt.se/artikel/harpan-som-...

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27 апр 2020

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Комментарии : 68

@davidcpugh8743 Месяц назад

Delightful. Lived two years in Lidingo, surrounded by Swedes, and enjoyed them all.

@swedisheinherjer Год назад

I just have to be honest with you Emelie if you notice my comment. That was the cutest ''Hej Då'' I've heard in a very long time!😊

@YTmantschi 4 года назад

Danke, Emelie, für diesen interessanten Ausflug in die Geschichte der Nyckelharpa! Schön, dass Du es trotz der Hindernisse geschafft hast. Alles gute, Christian.

@TinaBebeHansen 2 года назад

thank you. it was very interesesting. I am also in love with this intrument. Hope to play in day in a festival with you maybe:)

@yeoldfart8762 4 года назад

Nice! Good to hear from you again.!!!

@josephkemler4488 Год назад

Thanks!.. wonderful instrument..

@katelynkitzrow8609 Год назад

Just stumbled upon your page while looking into traditional Swedish folk music. Your videos are great! Thank you so much for creating them and I look forward to more!

@EmelieWaldken Год назад

Thank you too, glad you like my work =)

@JirkaHajek 4 года назад

Fantastic video! Very useful information :)

@EmelieWaldken 4 года назад

Thank you !

@squeakeththewheel Год назад

Thank you for telling us about Drakskip. I found their music and it is really nice.

@charliespinoza1966 8 месяцев назад

Thank you!

@vinterstemme 2 года назад

Thank you Emilie for this solid expert explanation ❤️

@jerzyboy24music 2 года назад

Thank you so much for this video I just found out about today and you have is the history that I love I can't wait to see what else I you do with this beautiful instrument I'm also looking to buy one myself

@nerfnerfification Год назад

Many thanks Emelie - I was invcolved in UKJ/US folk revival and music since the 60's but have only just heard of this instrument - wish I'd heard it earlier/learned it. I especially like the Slangspolka you played by Gustav Anders in your other video on the plywood version of the Nykelharpa.

@Alkusanat 4 года назад

This video was amazing! Great work and I loved this more documental format. Congratulations :)

@EmelieWaldken 4 года назад

Thanks a lot ! This kind of format is sooooo much work than facecam ^^' not sure I'll do this often. But here I felt it was good to give as many pictures as possible !

@TM-yq4wk 8 месяцев назад

I wish to learn the Nyckelharpa since four years. I never had the money to buy one, as they are really expensive here in germany. But 350€ are a quite resonable price for trying out an instrument. So i will buy one I think. And if i fall in love with the playing i will wait until i can get one build one for my by a professional here in germany. 😊 Was for the nerdyharpa video but i got stuck in a playlist... whoopsie 😅

@EmelieWaldken 8 месяцев назад

I'm glad to hear this instrument could help you start on nyckelharpa, that's the idea with it =)

@ProfesserLuigi 4 года назад

Thorough and excelent. Thank you.

@ros8737 Год назад

My guess is it originated already from mounting keys on kemences/Cretan lyres from the Byzantine, where 2 strings are stopped by fingernails and one string act as a drone. It predates the viol family and would only be cousins with the rebec that have a fingerboard to stop the strings on.

@Kenta249 Год назад

Vilken superbra video det här är, ett stort tack för denna informativa & intressanta film :) Har alltid velat kunna spela nyckelharpa men spelar istället gitarr & bas av någon anledning 😅

@EmelieWaldken Год назад

Sånt händer ^^ Det är aldrig för sent att börja !

@markwalraven8829 2 года назад

Interesting video presenting in-depth info. Enjoyed watching it!

@EmelieWaldken 2 года назад

Thank you !

@pagophilus 4 года назад

Thank you for this history. I think it's a pity that the "standard" nyckelharpa is the 3-row tuned CGCA (uneven intervals). It makes sense though with folk music but less sense with chromatic and other music. I do see some people on RU-vid playing GDAE harpas and I've seen people with CGDA harpas. I personally have a Tord Johansson GDAE nyckelharpa from 2005 with more keys than the one on the picture you showed (I think it's 11,11,11,17). I visited him in his home, together with an English lady who acted as my translator, who also had one of his harpas. He also had other instruments on his wall, such as a 5-string CGDAE instrument with a fingerboard and sympathetic strings, slightly larger than a regular viola. (He also gave me several cassette tapes of him and his friends playing folk tunes. I don't currently have a cassette player to be able to listen to them or convert them to mp3 etc). My gripe with my harpa is that the G string is harsh on the keyed notes. The other strings are fine. One day, if I feel my playing is good enough, I may upgrade to a better 4-row harpa, either GDAE or CGDA as I have also taken a liking to violas. But it seems nobody builds nyckelharpas anymore with reverse fingering (violin-like finger patterns) as Tord Johansson did.

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

Indeed, I have only ever heard about Tord Johasson for the reversed keyboard concept. My guess is that it's not such a difficult adaptation when coming from fiddle/cello to learn to move the fingers the other direction than on fiddle/cello, it requires just a little practice (from my experience, changing the direction of the BOW, as when switching to cello from fiddle/nyckelharpa is MUCH harder). And I can imagine the reversed keyboard to be more complex to build. I personally prefer 4-rows nyckelharpas (and tuned CGDA because for the higher register I prefer the sound of fiddle and hardingfela) but there are so incredible musicians on 3-rows, so the traditional chromatic 3-rows is in my eyes not at all a "lesser" instrument.

@ianrowe9337 3 года назад

Emelie, its always great to learn of new things , your research & video was most enjoyable , now i need to find a left handed Nyckelharpa !!!

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

They exist ! But they're prolly even harder to come by than usual ones. You might have to order one from a maker. Check also FB groups about nyckelharpas, people often announce instruments for sale in these. Good hunt.

@ianrowe9337 3 года назад

@@EmelieWaldken Yes thats good advice , i will take a look on Ebay .

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

@@ianrowe9337 Don't expect any good indtrument from Ebay !! Ask nyckelharpa players and builders, which you will find in communities - such as Facebook groups. Look for "All Nyckelharpa. All the time."

@vindruvor 4 года назад

Intressant!

@akurosagi 4 года назад

Super vidéo ma chère! 😘

@EmelieWaldken 4 года назад

Merci Sera =)

@gerardonavarromoran Год назад

L💜V E Instrument

@beatrizfelizardo3465 Год назад

As an accordion player who is doing research on the nyckelharpa for a school project I feel deeply offended by 7:40 🥲

@Otri86 Год назад

Nice video thank you 😊 but Jouhikko and Talharpa is played with the back of the fingers. Not the nails. In sweden it was also common to play with the part directly under your nail 😊

@studiogimli7645 Год назад

having a relatively small bow seems so much nicer lol

@instrumentarium_insolite 4 года назад

Félicitation pour cette version anglaise ^^

@EmelieWaldken 4 года назад

Merci ! Félicitations à toi pour la version française, j'ai beaucoup apprécié !

@tohaason 10 месяцев назад

Everybody knows this I assume.. but of course "nyckel" in nyckelharpa directly translates to "keyed".

@JoseMolina-ij3xx 3 года назад

Something happened to the Nyckelharpa in 2010s. I noticed a much higher prevalence of Nyckelharpa videos, particularly revolving around The Grizzly Hills theme from World of Warcraft.

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

That's interesting ! I didn't follow the nyckelharpa scene as much back then as today, so I didn't notice it. I guess just one viral cover of a well-known theme can have a huge impact - or something along these lines =)

@JoseMolina-ij3xx 3 года назад

@@EmelieWaldken It gets more interesting, because there are more violinists trying to do Nyckelharpa solos as well. Some musicians with the Nyckelharpa are also doing classical music. I've seen quite a few with Bach.

@smuecke 4 года назад

Maybe I've overlooked it, but have you ever made a video about microtones in Scandinavian Folk music, like the use of neutral intervals? I find that fascinating, but can't seem to find satisfying sources.

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

@smuecke I haven't talked about that actually ! It's something I would love to nerd about one day, but I feel it's a subject I don't know half well enough to talk about - yet.

@maandalen 3 года назад

@@EmelieWaldken Mats Edén knows a lot about this subject, check with him! 🎻

@EmelieWaldken 3 года назад

@@maandalen I know, I learned a great deal from him when he was guest teacher at Malung =) He's amazing. I'll ask him, thanks for the reminder about his knowledge !

@IsaacKuo 2 года назад

I wonder about something like a nyckelharpa, but in a symphonia box form factor - your left hand reaches over the instrument (hurdy gurdy style) so the sounding box can run the full length. The lack of a hurdy gurdy wheel would make it simpler to construct and give more volume to the sounding box. But then ... I also wonder about using finger holes and your fingernails instead of a key mechanism. That way, the top of the instrument box simply has a bunch of holes over each string. You poke your fingertip into a hole to press your fingernail against the string. The entire box body is the sounding box. In addition to the finger holes, there are two larger holes for you to run the bow string through.

@EmelieWaldken 2 года назад

That sounds really interesting, I think I visualise most of what you describe. I'm not sure about the combination hand over the keyboard & bow though, bowing is one of the trickiest parts of holding the nyckelharpa, as there isn't much space left for it already, so if you add a left arm in the way too... For the playing holes, not fully sure either. It could work, but you need either something hard to press on the strings (tangents or nails) or enough pressure with the soft tips against something hard (fingerboard) to get a clear sound. At least for most instruments (then jouhikko works too, so that's not an absolute rule). I'm afraid the holes would be too restrictive for the fingers and require too much time to get the fingers down to the strings, therefore reducing the possible speed of playing. But please try, build weird/creative instruments ! Even if they might not fully work ; it's so interesting !

@IsaacKuo 2 года назад

@@EmelieWaldken Yeah, I was trying to figure out bowing, and it's not obvious. The best I figure is to orient the instrument like a cello or bowed dulcimer - but tilted to the side enough for gravity to drop the keys. So, you bow across your belly. I'm not sure about whether the finger hole idea can be workable, as you note. Maybe instead of individual finger holes, there's are slots parallel to the strings. The upper edge of each slot is bumpy. The bumps guide your fingers so your fingernail is aligned to the desired note. So, you only need to remove/insert your fingers if you wish to change which strings are fingered. Otherwise, you just slide along the slots.

@EmelieWaldken 2 года назад

@@IsaacKuo Okej, I'm not following the idea about the holes/slots anymore ^^' but please keep me informed if you build this system, it sounds really intricate and interesting !

@IsaacKuo 2 года назад

@@EmelieWaldken Thanks! Honestly, I think they already figured out the best way to do this ages ago - frets on a fingerboard. I was only imagining alternatives to frets because of your video explaining the history of pressing fingernails against strings. But frets seem better.

@timmypeko 4 года назад

Do you happen to know the name/source for the last polska that plays in the background before the video ends? I've heard it so many times now and for the life of me I can't find any info on it.

@EmelieWaldken 4 года назад

It's said in the description =) Sen polska efter Göran Lång från Haverö, Medelpad region, Sweden. Popularized by Göran Månsson and Ahlberg/Ek/Roswall.