Knut Eilevsson Steintjønndalen (c. 1850 – December 2, 1902) was a Norwegian
Hardanger fiddle
A Hardanger fiddle ( no, 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 fo ...
maker from
Bø in
Telemark
Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...
,
Norway
Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...
.
Knut Eilevsson Steintjønndalen continued the Steintjønndal tradition when his brother
Jon Eilevsson Steintjønndalen left. He married and bought the Langkås farm in the Folkestad neighbourhood, and he founded a workshop there.
He experimented with making the tone more powerful by increasing the thickness of the soundboard and bottom. This feature created quite a demand for his fiddles. However, his greatest reputation came from the exquisite ornamentation on his instruments. Knut used a river pearl mussels from the river in Bø to decorate both the grip board and the tailpiece. Both the varnishing and the rose decorations had not been seen before or since.
At the end of the 1800s he was considered the leading violin maker. The musicians that he created instruments for included
Nils Tjoflot
Nils Ellingsson Tjoflot (October 13, 1865 – July 11, 1898) was a Norwegian violinist from Tjoflot in the municipality of Ullensvang in Norway's Hardanger district.
Life
Tjoflot was born at the Ytrabødn farm in Tjoflot, the son of Elling Nils ...
.
He died at age 57.
See also
*
The Helland fiddle maker family
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 O ...
References
External links
The Helland fiddle maker family
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steintjonndalen
1850s births
1902 deaths
Norwegian musical instrument makers
Fiddle makers