A Hardanger fiddle (Norwegian: hardingfele) is a traditional stringed instrument considered to be the national instrument of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings (rather than four as on a standard violin) and thinner wood. The earliest known example of the hardingfele is from 1651, made by Ole Jonsen Jaastad in Hardanger, Norway.[1] Originally, the instrument had a rounder, narrower body.[2] Around the year 1850, the modern layout with a body much like the violin became the norm.
The F-holes of the Hardanger fiddle are distinctive, oftentimes with a more "sunken" appearance, and generally straighter edges (unlike the frilly, swirly F-holes of a violin). Four of the strings are strung and played like a violin, while the rest, named understrings or sympathetic strings, resonate under the influence of the other four. These extra strings are tuned and secured with extra pegs at the top of the scroll, effectively doubling the length of a Hardingfele scroll when compared to a violin. The sympathetic strings, once fastened to their pegs, are funneled through a "hollow" constructed fingerboard, which is built differently than a violin's, being slightly higher and thicker to allow for these extra strings. The resonant strings lie on the center of the special bridge, attached to extra hooks (or fine-tuners) on the tailpiece. Carved out within the center of the bridge is a smaller secondary "bridge", or opening, designed specifically for these resonant strings to pass through. This is where the resonance is picked up and reverberated; as notes are played, the vibrations are sent through the bridge, where the sympathetics echo those notes.
The Hardingfele's bridge is unique compared to other bowed instruments. It is somewhat taller and wider, resulting in the strings being slightly lower and farther apart; this allows for the easy execution of double-stops (playing of two strings at once). A similar technique is seen in some American old-time and bluegrass fiddlers, who intentionally move their bridge back a few millimetres closer to the tailpiece, for better double-stops.
The hardingfele is used mainly in the southwest part of Norway, whereas the ordinary violin (called flatfele, 'flat fiddle', or vanlig fele, 'common fiddle') is found elsewhere. The hardingfele is used for dancing, accompanied by rhythmic loud foot stomping. It was also traditional for the fiddler to lead the bridal procession to the church.
The instrument is often highly decorated, with a carved animal (usually a dragon or the Lion of Norway) or a carved woman's head as part of the scroll at the top of the pegbox, extensive mother of pearlinlay on the tailpiece and fingerboard, and black ink decorations called 'rosing' on the body of the instrument. Sometimes pieces of bone are used to decorate the pegs and the edges of the instrument.
Unlike the violin, the hardingfele is a transposing instrument, meaning that sheet music for the hardingfele is written in a key other than the one in which the instrument sounds when it plays that music. Specifically, the hardingfele is a D instrument,[3] meaning that the hardingfele's written C corresponds to D on a non-transposing instrument, such as the piano. The notes given below for tunings are therefore relative to the hardingfele's written A, not to a concert A.
The strings on a hardingfele
The understrings are tuned to vibrate according to the main tuning. For example, when the main strings are tuned A-D-A-E, the understrings are tuned B-D-E-F♯-A.[4] The tuning largely depends on the region in which the instrument is being played, or the requirements of a particular tune.
In Norway, more than 20 different tunings are recorded.[5] Most hardanger tunes are played in a common tuning (A-D-A-E). The hardanger fiddle can also be played in "low bass", the word "bass" referring to the lowest string, (G-D-A-E), the normal violin tuning. In certain regions the "Gorrlaus" (F-D-A-E) tuning is sometimes used. Many well-known players (such as Annbjørg Lien) frequently employ E-scale tunings; i.e., instead of A-D-A-E, with tunes being mainly played in a D-scale, the instrument will be tuned to B-E-B-F#, so the tunes are mainly in an E-scale. Going higher still, the player Knut Buen recorded several albums in an F-scale tuning, C-F-C-G. This is possible only on a smaller-bodied instrument (such as a Hardanger fiddle), being rarely attempted on a standard full-sized violin. As a substitute, many fiddlers who play standard violins will simply tune their G string to A, using the A-D-A-E tuning, enabling them to play the same style of music.
Another tuning is called "troll tuning" (A-E-A-C♯). Troll tuning is used for the fanitullen tunes, also called the devil's tunes, as well as the tunes from the Kivlemøyane suite (thus associated with the hulderpeople as well as the devil); in the Valdresdistrict of Norway, using this particular tuning is called "greylighting", a reminder that the fiddler tuned his fiddle like this when the morning was near, and he had played himself through a number of other tunings.
Legend has it[6] that the fiddler learned fanitullen tunes from the devil. This tuning limits the melodic range of the tunes and is therefore sparsely used.
Technique
The technique of bowing a hardingfele also differs from that used with a violin. It's a smoother, bouncier style of bowing, with a lighter touch. The player usually bows on two of the upper strings at a time, and sometimes three. This is made easy by the relative flatness of the bridge, unlike the more curved bridge on a violin. The objective is to create a continuous sound of two (or more due to the sympathetic understrings) pitches. The strings of the fiddle are slimmer than those of the violin, resembling the strings of violins from the baroque period. Many classically trained violinists use a baroque bow when playing the hardingfele in order to counteract the extra weight that classical violinists naturally place on the string.
Here is an example of technique shown by Rose Logan with an instrument held at St Cecilia's Hall.[7]
The Hardanger fiddle and religion
The hardingfele has had a long history with the Christian church. Well known early fiddle maker Isak Botnen is said to have learned some of his craft from church lay leader and school master Lars Klark, as well as the methods for varnishing from pastor Dedrik Muus.[8] In many folktales the devil is associated with the hardingfele; in fact many good players were said to have been taught to play by the devil, if not by the nix. During religious revivals in the 19th century, many fiddles (regular and Hardanger)[9] were destroyed or hidden both by fiddlers and laypeople who thought "that it would be best for the soul that the fiddles be burned", as it was viewed as a "sinful instrument that encouraged wild dances, drinking and fights."[10] This happened in Norway, as well as other parts of Europe, and until the 20th century playing a Hardanger fiddle in a church building was forbidden.[11] Some fiddlers, however, played on, in spite of all condemnation, and thus valuable traditions remained intact. The first folk musicians to perform in a church were the fiddlers Johannes Dahle from Tinn, and Gjermund Haugen from Notodden. Dahle performed in the 1920s.
Known modern fiddler Annbjørg Lien has played with church organist Iver Kleive,[12] but even she has experienced prejudice before performance from the religious side.[13] Also, the oldest known fiddles still in existence can be heard accompanied by the oldest playable church pipe organ in Norway (originally built for an 18th-century church) on the album "Rosa i Botnen" by Knut Hamre and Benedicte Maurseth.[11] While the use of a hardingfele in church in Norway may still be a bit sensitive for some, fiddlers in other parts of the world have no problems playing in churches for all types of occasions, including weddings.[14][15]
Influences
Edvard Grieg adapted many Hardanger folk tunes into his compositions, and composed tunes for the Hardanger as part of his score for Ibsen's Peer Gynt Suite No. 1. The opening phrase of "Morning" from Grieg's Peer Gynt music is derived from the tuning of the sympathetic strings of the Hardanger fiddle: A F♯ E D E F♯ and so on.[16]
In recent years, the instrument has gained recognition in the rest of the world. Japan has been one of the countries that has found an interest in the hardingfele and Japanese musicians travel to Norway just to learn to play this instrument. In 1997, the Australian classical composerLiza Lim wrote the piece Philtre for a solo Hardanger fiddle, and she also includes the instrument in her work Winding Bodies: 3 Knots (2013–14).[17][18] Her string quartet The Weaver's Knot (2013–14) is inspired by the sound and performance techniques of Hardanger fiddle playing. Another recent work is "mobius II" for hardanger fiddle and electronics by the British composer Rose Dodd (2011, premiered at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival by Britt Pernille Froholm).
In March 2010 Olav Luksengård Mjelva won the Spellemannprisen Traditional music/Norwegian folk category (the Norwegian equivalent of the Grammy Awards), for his album Fele/Hardingfele, Røros/Hallingdal.[citation needed]
Use in film
The Hardanger fiddle was used in the soundtracks of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King composed by Howard Shore, to provide the main voice for the Rohan theme. The use of the Hardanger fiddle in this movie, however, is far from traditional since the theme does not make noticeable use of the usual practice of bowing on two strings at a time for harmony as well as the fact that the violinist used vibrato, which is not traditionally used since the slight variance in pitch interferes with the sympathetic resonance of the under-strings. It was also used by composer John Powell and played by Dermot Crehan in the DreamWorks film How to Train Your Dragon for the main romantic theme.
The Hardanger fiddle is also featured in the soundtrack of Armageddon (composed by Trevor Rabin), and in Fargo (composed by Carter Burwell). In the latter, the context is a little more traditional—the main theme it plays is an arrangement of a Norwegian folk song entitled "The Lost Sheep".
A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially synonymous, the style of the music played may determine specific construction differences between fiddles and classical violins. For example, fiddles may optionally be set up with a bridge with a flatter arch to reduce the range of bow-arm motion needed for techniques such as the double shuffle, a form of bariolage involving rapid alternation between pairs of adjacent strings. To produce a "brighter" tone than the deep tones of gut or synthetic core strings, fiddlers often use steel strings. The fiddle is part of many traditional (folk) styles, which are typically aural traditions—taught "by ear" rather than via written music.
The violin, sometimes referred as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino piccolo and the pochette, but these are virtually unused. Most violins have a hollow wooden body, and commonly have four strings, usually tuned in perfect fifths with notes G3, D4, A4, E5, and are most commonly played by drawing a bow across the strings. The violin can also be played by plucking the strings with the fingers (pizzicato) and, in specialized cases, by striking the strings with the wooden side of the bow.
Granvin is a former municipality in the old Hordaland county, Norway. The municipality existed from 1891 until its dissolution in 2020 when it merged with Voss Municipality. The municipality was located in the traditional district of Hardanger. The administrative centre of Granvin was the village of Eide, which is also called "Granvin". About half of the residents of the municipality lived in the municipal centre. The rest lived in the rural valley areas surrounding the Granvin Fjord or the lake Granvinsvatnet in the central part of the municipality.
Sympathetic strings or resonance strings are auxiliary strings found on many Indian musical instruments, as well as some Western Baroque instruments and a variety of folk instruments. They are typically not played directly by the performer, only indirectly through the tones that are played on the main strings, based on the principle of sympathetic resonance. The resonance is most often heard when the fundamental frequency of the string is in unison or an octave lower or higher than the catalyst note, although it can occur for other intervals, such as a fifth, with less effect.
Traditional Nordic dance music is a type of traditional music or folk music that once was common in the mainland part of the Nordic countries — Scandinavia plus Finland. The person who plays this kind of music might be called speleman (Swedish/Norwegian), spelman (Swedish), spel(l)emann (Norwegian), pelimanni (Finnish) or spillemand (Danish). Finnish traditional dance music is often called pelimanni music in English, while there does not seem to exist a similar, widespread term for the corresponding music from the other countries. It is often more meaningful to distinguish between the traditional dance music from different regions than between music from the countries as such. Some concepts in the field can be defined as Norwegian or Finnish, but most are either common to all four countries or local. Besides the dance music tradition, all countries also have other traditions of folk music that are not shared to a similar extent.
The Helland family from Bø in Telemark is a Norwegian dynasty of Hardanger fiddle makers who made the most significant and important contribution to the development of the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle tradition. The celebrated Norwegian fiddler Ole Bull played on Helland fiddles.
Erik Jonsson Helland (1816–1868) was a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle maker.
Knut Eilevsson Steintjønndalen was a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle maker from Bø in Telemark, Norway.
Annbjørg Lien is a Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele, violin, and nyckelharpa.
Bruce C. Molsky is an American fiddler, banjo player, guitarist, and singer. He primarily performs old-time music of the Appalachian region.
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh is a fiddler, born in Dublin, Ireland, who attended Trinity College Dublin, becoming a scholar in Theoretical Physics (1999) and earning a first-class BA degree in 2001. He is known for developing a drone-based fiddle style heavily influenced by the uilleann pipes and the music of Sliabh Luachra.
Twin Cities Hardingfelelag is an amateur folk music group in the Twin Cities, United States, specializing in Norwegian folk music played on the Hardingfele.
Låtfiol is an expression and concept that originates from the 1980s when Swedish folk musicians became more interested in violins with sympathetic strings and were trying to find a Swedish equivalent to the Norwegian hardanger fiddle. The Norwegian violin maker Kåre Leonard Knutsen built a number of instruments for Swedish musicians, some were copies of older instruments with 8 sympathetic strings in Swedish museums, but even more of Knutsen's instruments were provided with two sympathetic strings based on oral sources that such things would have occurred in Sweden in the past. It is in particular violins with two resonant strings that have been called låtfiol by some, but the term is far from widespread. The oral sources for the existence of violins with two sympathetic strings have not been verified, however, more and more double-deckers have appeared, even those with less than 8 sympathetic strings but in those cases either 6 or 4 sympathetic strings. There are written sources about Swedish violins with sympathetic strings but all those instruments have more than two sympathetic strings.
Sigbjørn Bernhoft Osa was a Norwegian fiddler and traditional folk musician. He was one of the best known Norwegian performers of folk music in the 1900s.
Sjur Larsson Helgeland was a Norwegian hardingfele fiddler and composer.
Baba Yaga is the fourth studio album by Norwegian fiddler and multi-instrumentalist Annbjørg Lien, released on 1 November 1999 by Grappa Music (GMCD 4158). In a departure from her previous records—such as Prisme (1996) and Felefeber (1994)—, which feature more acoustic, traditional sets, Baba Yaga is comprised primarily of Lien's own compositions, arranged in a more "modern", futuristic style, and utilizing synthesizers, programming. and various digital effects effectively. The tracks tell their many stories against lush arrangements, with longtime collaborators Bjørn Ole Rasch and guitarist Roger Tallroth.
Benedicte Maurseth is a Norwegian traditional folk singer and musician.
Ola Bøe was a Norwegian fiddler.
Hauk Buen was a Norwegian hardingfele fiddler and fiddle maker.
Double-decker or Dubbelplansfiol is a recent and colloquial name of the dominant variant of preserved Swedish violins with sympathetic strings, what they were called when they originated in the 18th century is not known. The Swedish collector of musical instruments Daniel Fryklund writes in 1921 that "In Sweden, the author has found several violini d'amore of a peculiar type with 4 strings and 8 resonance strings, of which the later are attached to small pegs, which are placed behind the larger screws for the playing strings in a pegbox which is extended backwards and such an arrangement of the pegs is not observed by the author on any other violin". Thus, Fryklund suggests it is a specific instrument type typical for Sweden but since he only has observed five instruments he does not conclude it and calls it with the more unspecific name violino d'amore. Today more specimens have been found and out of 27 preserved Swedish violins with sympathetic strings in total, 23 are Double-deckers. Also three of the four preserved instruments that are not Double-deckers are built during the 20th century, while the vast majority of the Double-deckers with a known origin are built during the 18th century which indicates that the Double-deckers are both earlier and dominant
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