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 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, compared to the deeper 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.
Much has been learned about early music in Norway from physical artifacts found during archaeological digs. These include instruments such as the lur. Viking and medieval sagas also describe musical activity, as do the accounts of priests and pilgrims from all over Europe coming to visit St Olaf's grave in Trondheim.
Nordic folk music includes a number of traditions in Northern European, especially Scandinavian, countries. The Nordic countries are Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland.
A nyckelharpa is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to change the pitch of the string.
Eivind Groven was a Norwegian microtonal composer and music-theorist. He was from traditional region of Vest-Telemark and had a background in the folk music of the area.
A Hardanger fiddle is a traditional stringed instrument used originally to play the music of Norway. In modern designs, this type of fiddle is very similar to the violin, though with eight or nine strings and thinner wood. Four of the strings are strung and played like a violin, while the rest, aptly named understrings or sympathetic strings, resonate under the influence of the other four.
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dancing, clogging, and buck dancing. It is played on acoustic instruments, generally centering on a combination of fiddle and plucked string instruments, most often the banjo, guitar, and mandolin.
Hedningarna is a Swedish and, for some years partly Finnish, folk music band that mixes electronics and rock with elements from old Scandinavian folk music. Their music features Yoik or juoiggus, a traditional Sami form of song.
Arve Moen Bergset is a Norwegian traditional folk singer, hardanger fiddler, and classical violinist.
Bygdedans is the regional, traditional dance of Norway. Bygdedans are the oldest and most distinctive among Norwegian folk dances.
Annbjørg Lien is a Norwegian musician, playing the hardingfele, violin, and nyckelharpa. She is married to keyboardist and professor Bjørn Ole Rasch.
Andrea Een is a violinist, violist, Hardanger fiddler, poet, and Professor Emerita of Music at St. Olaf College.
Olav Jørgen Hegge was a Norwegian Hardanger fiddler and folk dancer with American ties.
Twin Cities Hardingfelelag is an amateur folk music group in the Twin Cities, United States, specializing in Norwegian folk music played on the Hardingfele.
The Scandinavian Festival is an annual four-day celebration of Scandinavian heritage in Junction City, Oregon, United States. The small city of 6,052 people hosts more than 100,000 visitors each year. Sunset Magazine rates it one of the best in the U.S. for its emphasis on authenticity. The Oregon Heritage Tradition designation was awarded to the Scandinavian Festival in 2014.
Nils Økland is a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle player known as a bridge builder between contemporary music and folk music, and the brother of the musician Torbjørn Økland.
The Norwegian folk music series is a scientific collection of traditional Norwegian dance music, divided into two separate series, a hardanger fiddle series, and a regular fiddle series. The Hardanger fiddle series is already published (Hardingfeleverket), and the fiddle series is in production. Together, the two series are meant to represent most, but not all, of Norwegian fiddle music as collected and written down.
Torleiv Bolstad was a Norwegian musician and Hardanger fiddle player. He won the Norwegian Landskappleiken four times, in 1947, 1957, 1970 and 1971.
Nils Ellingsson Tjoflot was a Norwegian violinist from Tjoflot in the municipality of Ullensvang in Norway's Hardanger district.
Vivian Tomlinson Williams is an American fiddler, composer, recording artist and writer. She has won national fiddling titles, including the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest, and in 2013 she was inducted into the North American Old Time Fiddlers Hall of Fame.
