The moraharpa is a modern name for an early predecessor of the nyckelharpa keyed fiddle; [1] the primary example instrument dated 1526, was found in Mora, Sweden. A number of modern reproductions of the original moraharpa have been made since the 1980s, [2] and the name moraharpa, in addition to referring to a single, specific instrument, has come to mean a type of nyckelharpa similar in design to the original moraharpa.
The instrument on display at the Zorn Collections in the village of Mora in Dalarna, Sweden—hence its name—has an inscription on the back of the apparent year "1526", [2] though it is unlikely to have been made that early. A Swedish scholar, Per-Ulf Allmo, has suggested that the instrument (and another in the same style) were likely built in Särna, northern Dalarna, more likely around 1680, with Praetorius as inspiration, and with no close affinity with the nyckelharpa tradition of northern Uppland, the stronghold of the instrument.
The soundbox has an hourglass shape and looks very much like the illustration of a nyckelharpa in Praetorius's Syntagma Musicum III of 1620 (where it is called Schlüssel fiddel). It has a straight bridge (as opposed to the arched, cello-like bridge of the nyckelharpa), one melody string, two drone strings, and one row of keys, while lacking the 10-12 underlying sympathetic strings of the nyckelharpa—which has three or four primary melody strings and features up to 25 wooden keys.
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.
In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners.
The hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that produces sound by a hand-crank-turned, rosined wheel rubbing against the strings. The wheel functions much like a violin bow, and single notes played on the instrument sound similar to those of a violin. Melodies are played on a keyboard that presses tangents—small wedges, typically made of wood or metal—against one or more of the strings to change their pitch. Like most other acoustic stringed instruments, it has a sound board and hollow cavity to make the vibration of the strings audible.
Anders Leonard Zorn was a Swedish artist who attained international success as a painter, sculptor, and etching artist. His portrait subjects include King Oscar II of Sweden and three American Presidents: Grover Cleveland, William H. Taft, and Theodore Roosevelt. At the end of his life in 1920, he established the Swedish literary Bellman Prize.
Zither is a class of stringed instruments. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body.
The theorbo is a plucked string instrument of the lute family, with an extended neck that houses the second pegbox. Like a lute, a theorbo has a curved-back sound box with a flat top, typically with one or three sound holes decorated with rosettes. As with the lute, the player plucks or strums the strings with the right hand while "fretting" the strings with the left hand.
The nyckelharpa, meaning "keyed fiddle" or "key harp"(lit.), is a "keyed" bowed chordophone, primarily originating from Sweden in its modern form, but with its roots in Medieval Europe. It is similar in appearance to a fiddle or violin but larger, which employs key-actuated tangents along the neck to change the pitch during play, much like a hurdy-gurdy. 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. It is primarily played underarm, suspended from the shoulder using a sling, with the bow in the overhanging arm.
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings, originally played in the Appalachian region of the United States. The body extends the length of the fingerboard, and its fretting is generally diatonic.
Anders Norudde is a Swedish folk musician, multi-instrumentalist, and luthier. After finishing school, Anders took a job at the ironworks in Degerfors, where, in his spare time, he practiced orienteering and played rock music on the guitar. After hearing the band Kebnekajse on the radio, Anders became interested in the melodies of traditional Swedish folk music. He began attending folk music festivals in Ransäter, Värmland and was particularly inspired by the music of Anders Rosén and Mats Edén of Groupa.
Vansbro is a locality in Dalarna and the seat of Vansbro Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden. It had 2,026 inhabitants in 2010, out of a total municipal population of 7,000.
Mora is a locality and the seat of Mora Municipality in Dalarna County, Sweden, with 10,896 inhabitants in 2010.
Dalecarlian is a group of North Germanic languages and dialects spoken in Dalarna County, Sweden. Some Dalecarlian varieties can be regarded as part of the Swedish dialect group in Gästrikland, Uppland, and northern and eastern Västmanland. Others represent a variety characteristic of a midpoint between West and East Scandinavian languages, significantly divergent from Standard Swedish. In the northernmost part of the county, a characteristic dialect reminiscent of eastern Norwegian is spoken. One usually distinguishes between the Dalecarlian Bergslagen dialects, which are spoken in south-eastern Dalarna, and Dalecarlian proper. The dialects are traditionally regarded as part of the Svealand dialect group.
The lira da braccio was a European bowed string instrument of the Renaissance. It was used by Italian poet-musicians in court in the 15th and 16th centuries to accompany their improvised recitations of lyric and narrative poetry. It is most closely related to the medieval fiddle, or vielle, and like the vielle had a leaf-shaped pegbox with frontal pegs. Fiddles with drone strings are seen beginning in the 9th century, and the instrument continued to develop through the 16th century. In many depictions of the instrument, it is being played by mythological characters, frequently members of angel consorts, and most often by Orpheus and Apollo. The lira da braccio was occasionally used in ensembles, particularly in the intermedi, and may have acted as a proto-continuo instrument.
The title of riksspelman is a generally recognized badge of mastery for Swedish folk musicians. It is an honor bestowed upon bearers of the silver or gold Zorn Badge, awarded annually by the Zorn Jury, a panel of experts under the auspices of Svenska Folkdansringen. The silver Zorn Badge is the highest award attainable for musicians who play before the Zorn Jury in their annual Zorn Trials. The gold Zorn Badge cannot be sought, but is reserved for one or two master musicians pre-selected by the Jury.
Swedish folk music is a genre of music based largely on folkloric collection work that began in the early 19th century in Sweden. The primary instrument of Swedish folk music is the fiddle. Another common instrument, unique to Swedish traditions, is the nyckelharpa. Most Swedish instrumental folk music is dance music; the signature music and dance form within Swedish folk music is the polska. Vocal and instrumental traditions in Sweden have tended to share tunes historically, though they have been performed separately. Beginning with the folk music revival of the 1970s, vocalists and instrumentalists have also begun to perform together in folk music ensembles.
The spelmanslag is an amateur organization of Swedish folk musicians, usually dominated by fiddles, who play tunes together. Often these groups play tunes from the specific area of Sweden with which they are affiliated. The term has also the same meaning for Norwegian folk music. Spelmanslag meetings tend to serve social function as much as they do musical ones; and money from paid performances generally goes to the group, rather than its constituent individuals.
The mandore is a musical instrument, a small member of the lute family, teardrop shaped, with four to six courses of gut strings and pitched in the treble range. Considered a French instrument, with much of the surviving music coming from France, it was used across "Northern Europe" including Germany and Scotland. Although it went out of style, the French instrument has been revived for use in classical music. The instrument's most commonly played relatives today are members of the mandolin family and the bandurria.
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.
Karl Lärka was one of the more important 20th-century documentary photographers in Sweden. Lärka's prime concern was to document the peasant culture that he understood was beginning to disappear, and especially the culture of the lands around lake Siljan in Dalarna; one with agriculture, forestry and many people with stories about older times. Most of his photography was done from 1916 to 1934, and he combined it with lecture tours about the countryside of Siljan. He also documented many of the stories elderly people in the villages told him and was very active in the Swedish local heritage movement that started in the 1920s. More than 4,200 of his photographic plates are today in the municipal archive of Mora.
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