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The talharpa, also known as a tagelharpa (tail-hair harp) or the stråkharpa (bowed harp), is a four-stringed bowed lyre from northern Europe. It was formerly widespread in Scandinavia, but is today played mainly in 
Puuluup official website who use talharpas and modern
The talharpa, also known as a tagelharpa (tail-hair harp) or the stråkharpa (bowed harp), is a four-stringed bowed lyre from northern Europe. It was formerly widespread in Scandinavia, but is today played mainly in Estonia
Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...
, particularly among that nation's Swedish community. It is similar to the Finnish jouhikko
The ''jouhikko'' (Finnish: jou̯hikːo is a traditional, two- or three-stringed bowed lyre, from Finland and Karelia. Its strings are traditionally of horsehair. The playing of this instrument died out in the early 20th century but has been r ...
and the Welsh crwth
The crwth (, also called a crowd or rote or crotta) is a bowed lyre, a type of stringed instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music, now archaic but once widely played in Europe. Four historical examples have survived and are to be fo ...
. The instrument is still known in Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
.
The name talharpa probably comes from tagel - horsehair - from which the strings were made.
Background
The earliest known Norse literary mentions of a harp or lyre date to theEddic poem
The ''Poetic Edda'' is the modern name for an untitled collection of Old Norse anonymous narrative poems, which is distinct from the ''Prose Edda'' written by Snorri Sturluson. Several versions exist, all primarily of text from the Icelandic med ...
''Völuspá
''Vǫluspá'' (also ''Völuspá'', ''Vǫlospá'' or ''Vǫluspǫ́''; Old Norse: 'Prophecy of the völva, a seeress'; reconstructed Old Norse: ) is the best known poem of the ''Poetic Edda''. It tells the story of the creation of the world and ...
'', though not as a bowed instrument. However, visual representations from iconography show Gunnar
Gunnar is a male first name of Nordic origin (''Gunnarr'' in Old Norse). The name Gunnar means fighter, soldier, and attacker, but mostly is referred to by the Viking saying which means Brave and Bold warrior (''gunnr'' "war" and ''arr'' "warrior ...
charming the snakes in the snake pit
A snake pit is, in a literal sense, a hole filled with snakes. In idiomatic speech, "snake pits" are places of horror, torture and death in European legends and fairy tales. The Viking warlord Ragnar Lodbrok is said to have been thrown into a sn ...
with a ''harpa'' and a stone carving at the Trondheim Cathedral of Norway shows a musician playing a bowed lyre, dated around XIV century. In Nordic countries the bowed lyre (as opposed to the plucked harp) has continued in Finland where it is called ''jouhikantele'' and Estonia where it is called ''Hiiu kannel''.
Construction Techniques
Talharpa were traditionally built by hollowing out a single block of wood, and gluing a soundboard on top, as demonstrated by various historical finds. In modern times, many tagelharpa makers continue to build their musical instruments from solid wood, such as Rauno Nieminen. Others began to make tagelharpas following the classical school of lutherie, with each part assembled and characterized by reinforcements, bands, counter-bands, figured bottoms and blocks.Modern use
The talharpa is sometimes used in modern folk music. Most notably by the Estonian nu-folk duoPuuluup
Puuluup is an Estonian nu-folk duo that was established in 2014.
Members are Ramo Teder (Pastacas as a solo artist) and Marko Veisson.
The instruments are hiiu kannel (talharpa) and loopers
''Loopers'' is a Japanese science fiction visual n ...
Puuluup official website who use talharpas and modern
live looping
Live looping is the recording and playback of a piece of music in real-time using either dedicated hardware devices, called loopers or phrase samplers, or software running on a computer with an audio interface. Musicians can loop with either loo ...
Another band that usually uses the tagelharpa and the Kravik lyre is the neo-folk band Wardruna
Wardruna is a Norwegian music group formed in 2003 by Einar Selvik along with Gaahl and Lindy Fay Hella. They are dedicated to creating musical renditions of Norse cultural and esoteric traditions, and make significant use of Nordic historical ...
, with frontman Einar Selvik
Einar Selvik (born 18 November 1979), also known by his stage name Kvitrafn ("white raven"), is a Norwegian musician known for being the drummer in the black metal band Gorgoroth from 2000 to 2004, and for fronting the Nordic folk project War ...
, which for years has been involved in rediscovering the Scandinavian and Baltic folk musical culture.
See also
*Crwth
The crwth (, also called a crowd or rote or crotta) is a bowed lyre, a type of stringed instrument, associated particularly with Welsh music, now archaic but once widely played in Europe. Four historical examples have survived and are to be fo ...
*Jouhikko
The ''jouhikko'' (Finnish: jou̯hikːo is a traditional, two- or three-stringed bowed lyre, from Finland and Karelia. Its strings are traditionally of horsehair. The playing of this instrument died out in the early 20th century but has been r ...
*Gue
The gue is an extinct type of two-stringed Bowed string instrument, bowed lyre or zither from the Shetland Isles. The instrument was described in 1809 by Arthur Edmondston in ''View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands'':"Before ...
*Byzantine lyra
The Byzantine lyra or lira ( gr, λύρα) was a medieval bowed string musical instrument in the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire. In its popular form, the lyra was a pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, held upright and played by ...
(bowed lyre)
* Hiiu kannel
*Bowed string instrument
Bowed string instruments are a subcategory of string instruments that are played by a bow rubbing the strings. The bow rubbing the string causes vibration which the instrument emits as sound.
Despite the numerous specialist studies devoted to ...
References
External links
* * Estonian musical instruments Bowed lyres {{Lyre-stub