The langspil (; meaning ''long-play'') is a traditional
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
ic
drone zither
Drone zithers or droned zithers are stringed instruments of the zither family that have few (sometimes only one) melodic strings and a greater number of drone strings. The oldest known form of drone zither is the Scheitholt.
The Scheitholt develo ...
. It has a single melody string and usually 2
drone
Drone most commonly refers to:
* Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg
* Unmanned aerial vehicle
* Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft
* Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone
Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to:
...
strings.
The langspil can be played by plucking the strings by hand, with a bow or by hammering. Langspils exist in two basic versions, straight and curved and are generally around the length of , and can be as long as or as short as . Many different types of wood have traditionally been used, including pine, fir, beechwood, birch, oak and walnut, since they were generally constructed from driftwood.
[David G. Woods, "Íslenska langspilið". ''Árbók hins íslenzka fornleifafélags''. 1993. p. 109-128.]
History
The oldest written sources describing the langspil are from the 18th century. In those times langspils are described as a long thin box, wider at the bottom end and with one to six strings. In the early 19th century a version with a curved soundbox emerged which has improved sound qualities. In 1855 the book ''Leiðarvísir til að spila á langspil'' (A guide on playing the langspil) was published. It also included information on how to make langspils, although with a slight printing error in the fretting. This book increased the popularity of the Langspil quite a lot. However, by the middle of the 20th century the instrument had become rare and few played it any more.
By the 1960s, the singer
Anna Þórhallsdóttir realized that the langspil was slowly disappearing from Icelandic musical traditions and as a response she spearheaded its revival, which is still ongoing. Today a number of bands and performers include the langspil in their repertoire, including ''Spilmenn Ríkinís'',
Sigurður Rúnar Jónsson,
Bára Grímsdóttir,
Chris Foster and
Þórður Tómasson á Skógum. The langspil also has an important place on the yearly folk-song festival on
Siglufjörður
Siglufjörður () is a small fishing town in a narrow fjord with the same name on the northern coast of Iceland.
The population in 2011 was 1,206; the town has been shrinking in size since the 1950s when the town reached its peak of 3,000 inhabi ...
.
See also
*
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer (many variant names; see below) 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 ...
*
Epinette des Vosges
The ''épinette des Vosges'' () is a traditional plucked-string instrument of the zither family, whose use was confined to two areas in the Vosges mountains of France approximately 50 km apart: around Val-d'Ajol and around Gérardmer.
Or ...
*
Hummel (instrument)
The hummel (also hommel or humle) is an old Northern European stringed instrument similar to an older type of zither and is related to the Norwegian langeleik. The name is thought to come from the German word ''hummel'', meaning "bumblebee", refer ...
*
Langeleik
The ''langeleik'', also called langleik, is a Norwegian stringed folklore musical instrument, a droned zither.
Description
The langeleik has only one melody string and up to 8 drone strings. Under the melody string there are seven frets per oct ...
*
Scheitholt
The scheitholt or scheitholz is a traditional German stringed instrument and an ancestor of the modern zither. It falls into the category of drone zither
Drone zithers or droned zithers are stringed instruments of the zither family that have f ...
*
Fiðla
The ''Icelandic fiddle'' (Icelandic: fiðla fɪðla is a traditional Icelandic instrument that can be described as a box with two brass strings which is played with a bow. The strings stretch across one end of the box to the other where they ...
, the other string instrument native to Iceland
References
{{Icelandic folk music
Bowed box zithers
Fretted zithers
Icelandic musical instruments