Episode: 3931
Title: HPR3931: What Instrument was played in hpr3905?
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr3931/hpr3931.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 17:33:51

---

This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 3931.
From Monday the 28th of August 2023, today's show is entitled, What Instrument was played
in Hacker Public Radio 3905.
It is the first show by Newhost Fred Black, and is about 34 minutes long.
Fred carries a clean flag.
The summary is a reveal what instrument was played in Hacker Public Radio 3905.
Oh hey there, it's that weird guy who a folky interviewed in a episode 3905 here approximately
a month after that show to reveal the right answer to what instrument I played in the
intro to this show.
I'm going to do it by reading the Wikipedia article for this instrument.
A little bit like Archer 72 did in episode 3767 with the LLP, but I forgot the context
to that show so well, anyways, the instrument I played was a little bit more than I played
the Nickel Harpa, and well, here comes the Wikipedia article for the Nickel Harpa.
I'm going to start with Cybar, Nickel Harpa, or other names, I'm not going to say all of
them, only the ones that I might be able to pronounce the right way.
So in English, key harp, or sometimes key fiddle, then Danish, Negeharp, German Schlüsselfiel,
Italian, Viola da Kiavi, or Chiavi, I don't know, and Spanish is probably Viola, they take
us.
The classification is a boat-screened instrument.
The Hornbill Bastelsack's classification, I don't know what that is, is 321.322-721.
There is no definitive inventor, it's a folk instrument developed approximately in the
12th century.
And related instruments, it's the Hurdy-Gurdy.
So now the actual article.
Depending from Sweden, the Nickel Harpa, Swedish, Nickel Harpa, plural, Nickel Harpa, meaning
key fiddle or key harp, is a boat-cordophone similar in appearance to fiddle or violin,
which implies key actually to 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 perpendicular to the keys, reaching
above the strings.
Upon keys to actuation, the tangent is pressed to meet the corresponding string, much like
a fret, shortening its vibrating length to that point, that changing the pitch of the
string.
It is primarily played under-arm, suspended from the shoulder using a sling, with the
bow and the overhanging arm.
The origin of the instrument is unknown, but its historical foothold is much larger in
Sweden than other countries.
Many of the early historical depictions of the instrument are found in Sweden.
The earliest possibly the fiction found, on a really off-located, on a 14th century
church portal.
While historically not to come on of an instrument in Sweden, the violin outshining it in use
such among Spielmann, or players, of Swedish folk music, the Nickel Harpa became a popular
folk instrument in Swedish province of Upland during the 17th century, subsequently leading
to its popularization and spread throughout Sweden following centuries.
By the 19th century, it had become a fine instrument, being played at concerts in Stockholm.
And by the early 20th century, it had become an art typical instrument alongside the violin
for Swedish folk music.
Today, it is considered by many to be the quintessential national instrument of Sweden.
The oldest surviving Nickel Harpa is dated 1526 and is part of the Zorren Collections
Immunuran Municipality Sweden.
Besides Sweden, early depictions of Nickel Harpa can also be found in Denmark, Germany, and
Italy.
Among other countries, the earliest of these is found in a 1408 fresco by Tadeo di Bartolo
at the Palazzo pubic or chapel in Siena, Italy, which depicts an angel playing a key
viola.
Recently, there has been a push by Luthiers, or I don't know how it's pronounced, and
they like to make recreations of these older repictions of Nickel Harpa, akin to reconstruction
archeology, but also new instruments based on the Nickel Harpa concert concept of a
keyed bowed instrument.
Technique.
The Nickel Harpa is usually played with a strap around the neck, stabilized by the
right arm.
D.D.
François, violinist and Nickel Harpest from Belgium, is noted for using an unusual playing
posture, holding the Nickel Harpa vertically in front of the chest.
This allows a wider range of motion for both arms, it also affects the tone and sound
of the instrument.
Some players may use a violin bracket to keep the Nickel Harpa away, so that it can't
swing freely, causing it to sound more open as its resonance is not dampened.
So as you might have understood there, you can play it however you like.
There is more or less more right or wrong in the way how you play it.
Now into history.
History.
Middle Ages, the 1350-1600.
Development of keyed string instruments appears to have started during the early Middle Ages
with instruments such as the duo played organist, a herdigardi, starting in the 1900s.
Such were popular in southwestern Europe and eventually evolved into the solo played
symphonic, herdigardi in the France or Spain in the 1200s, featuring diatonic tangans.
Somewhere along the line it appears the keyed section of herdigardi was integrated onto
a bowed string instrument, producing the first proto-Nichelharpa instrument.
It is unclear where the instrument first appeared, but the spread of herdigardi and bowed string
instruments during the later Middle Ages makes it possible that the instrument was invented
independently by several people.
The earliest possible, but not confirmed depiction of Nichelharpa, known, can be found in
a relief on one of the portals to the Helleunga Church located on the Swedish island of Gotland.
Dating from circa 1350.
It depicts two musicians with both stringed instruments, suspiciously looking like Nichelharpa.
Appearance have keyboxes, a cover above the strings, like a herdigardi.
The relief is, however, eroded and damaged from time, making it hard to confirm them
as Nichelharpa.
The earliest confirmed depiction of Nichelharpa appears in an Italian church painting found
in Sjena Italy dating to 1408.
It depicts an angel playing a violin looking Nichelharpa featuring five keys, a keybox
above the strings.
Throughout the 15th century, more depictions of Nichelharpa started appearing in church
paintings, notably in Swedish and Danish churches, such as the Emus Love Church, which has
a painting of a Nichelharpa musician dating to 1450 to 1475.
Others include the toll of that church in Sweden, which has two paintings of angels
playing Nichelharpa, dating to approximately 1462 to 1525, interestingly most, if not
all Swedish Nichelharpa depictions, on church painting, lack keyboxes.
Only Danish Nichelharpa depictions, such as the one found in the Ringkeby church, dated
to circa 1560, all feature keyboxes.
The earliest known recorded name for Nichelharpa can be found in early German music, or in
German music lexicon, by Martin Agrikola, maybe his name is pronounced like that, dating
to 1529, there it is called a schlüsselfiedel, or key fettel.
The corresponding image features a keybox on the instrument, an early modern period,
1600 to 1900.
The German term schlüsselfiedel, key harp, is mentioned in the Theatrum instrumentorum,
a famous word written in 1620 by the German organist Michael Preitorius.
At this time the Nichelharpa was not too common of an instrument in Sweden, the violin
outlining it in Swedish folk music use.
Back from the early 17th century, however, the Nichelharpa got a foothold as a popular
folk instrument, among spielmen, players of Swedish folk music, in the Swedish province
of Upland, which came to be the stronghold for Nichelharpa music.
The following centuries, including musicians like Biskalla, or Carl Alson Böserp, 1883
and 1847, from Elvkalla B.
From Upland, the popularization of the instruments spread to the neighboring provinces and eventually
throughout Sweden.
By 19th century, it had become a fine instrument, which came to be played at concerts and stockhold.
And that spielman called Biskalla, there is a pretty known and popular tune called Slingpolska
if the Biskalla, I might mention it later, well, now onto the modern period, 1900 to onward.
The popularization of the Nichelharpa continued and by the early 20th century it had become
an arachnotype called an instrument for Swedish folk music, equivalent to the violin.
From this point, the instrument would see a wide range of developments to make it a more
modern instrument for a modern audience.
Chained us by August Bullion, 1877 to 1949, in 1929 or 1930, then Nichelharpa chromatic instrument
with a straight bow, making it a more violin-like, no longer a ball, a ball done instrument.
Composer, player and maker of Nichelharpa, Eriks Holström used this new instrument and helped
to repopolarize it in the mid-20th century.
Despite of this, the Nichelharpa's popularity declined until the 1960s roots revival.
The 1960s and 70s saw resurgence in the popularity of the Nichelharpa, with notable artists such
as Marco Ambroseini, it's Lee and Germany, Styrs Holström, Jille, Peter Pumma Headland
and Neil's Nordström, including the Nichelharpa in both early music and contemporary music offerings.
Continued refinements of the instrument also contribute to the increased popularity with
instrument builders like Jean-Claude Condi and Annette Osain bringing innovation to the
bow and body.
In the 1990s, the Nichelharpa was recognized as one of the instruments available for study
at the Folk Music Department of the Royal College of Music and Stockholm, Kunglia Music
Herk Schuhlann.
It has also been a prominent part of several revival groups in the later part of the centuries,
including the Trio Vessen, the Morrican Temporary Group, Hedningana, the Finnish Folk
Music Group, Hyperborea and the Swedish Folk Music Group, Drom and Nordmann.
It has also been used in non Scandinavian music contexts, for example by the Spanish player
Anna Alkaede, the English singer and multi-instrumentalist Anna Tam and Sandra Schmidt of Stormseeker,
the pirate metal band from Germany.
The first world, the first world Nichelharpa Day, took place on the 26th April 2020, just
as the world had gone into lockdown.
All the events took place online, either as live streams or pre-recorded videos in YouTube.
This now is a yearly event taking place on the Sunday closest to the 26th of April.
This being the birthday of the great Nichelharpa player, Biskalla.
This event is co-ordinated by British Swedish Nichelharpa player Vicky Svan.
English composer Natalie Holt used Nichelharpa for background score of the Disney Plus series
Loki from 2021.
Reconstructual archaeology.
In the 21st century there has been a growing interest in my enthusiasm to resurrect the early
historical Nichelharpa designs.
This has led to countless recreations of preserved historical copies, such as the Muraharpa
and Esaharpa.
Among others, but also pushed to recreate Nichelharpa designs, only found in historical
paintings, such as the one depicted in Siena Italy.
Such projects can be seen as a reconstruction of archaeology, although reproductions are
not always one to one clones of what is depicted in the old paintings.
Yeah, it's probably because you never know which tuning they had back then, or maybe
it's recorded.
The Nichelharpa, depicted in Siena Italy, has been dubbed Viola Akiavi di Siena, Italian
for Siena Key di Viola, as already stated before.
I might be wrong in a lot of pronunciations reading, or simply Siena Harpa.
Also styled Siena Harpa without a dash or space between Siena and Harpa.
For short, relating to the Swedish naming theme Siena Harpa.
And such a reconstruction was produced as part of an international research project around
2020.
Built by professional Luthier Alexander Pilz, a seasoned maker of Nichelharpa working
out of Leipzig, Germany.
The popularization of the Italian design has led other Luthiers in recent years to produce
reproductions of the depiction as well.
Variants.
There are several variants of the Nichelharpa being produced and played today differing from
the number and arrangement of keys, number and arrangement of strings, and general body
shape.
There can be divided into types with resonance strings and types without resonance strings.
There are also a variety of derivatives which belong to the key to the keyed boged, chronophone
family, but do not necessarily have to be classified as Nichelharpa.
List of types below refer to Swedish Nordic types as variants with other types being referred
to as derivatives.
Variants with resonance strings.
The most common types of Nichelharpa are distinguished by having resonance strings.
There can be divided into several subvariants by the four main variants are as follows.
Chromatiske Nichelharpa or Chromatic Keyharp.
Most predominant type of Nichelharpa, the three rows are called Chromatic Nichelharpa,
the melody strings to A1, C1, G, and a drone C from the highest to below string.
That is only touched occasionally and 12 resonance strings, one for each step of the chromatic
scale, starting with G and ending with an F-sharp.
I don't know if I tuned it before recording this, so please mind that.
Then there is the contraboss harpa, double bass harp.
This popular during the 17th and 18th centuries, typically the top has a high arch and there
are two oval shaped sound holes in the lower bout called ux-erpa.
The name contraboss harpa refers not to the pitch being any deeper than a standard Nichelharpa's
because it isn't, but to the unstubbed drone string, which always resonance below the
melody strings during regular play.
The two melody strings are set up on either side of the drone string, such that melodies
can be played as double stops between a single melody string and the open drone string
without the two melody strings ever clashed.
Then there is the silver bass harp, or the silver bass harp.
This popular in the 19th and early 20th century, so named because of the bass string and
bass strings which are traditionally wound with silver.
It is the immediate predecessor of the modern Nichelharpa in the string configuration
is identical, however it retains the older top with a more pronounced arch as well as
the two ux-erpa.
The main difference is that only the top two strings are stopped, meaning that the
bottom C and G strings cannot play any other notes, and so nearly all of its repertoire
is in the key of C.
In addition, some silver bass harp may be diatonic and not chromatic, and some keys may
stop both melody strings at once.
And then there is the octave harp, or the octave harp, invented by Leonard and Johann
Hiddien in 1996.
It is essentially a modern three-row Nichelharpa tuned and octave down, almost identical to
a cello.
It is the lowest pitched variant of the Nichelharpa.
The resonant strings, or sympathetic strings, which were added to the instruments during
the second half of the 16th century, are both directly resonated with the other strings.
There can be anywhere from six to twelve of them, depending on the construction and tonality
of the instrument.
Some Nichelharpa have been made with four, even five rows of keys, or they are not
to be in popular enough to replace the three-row Nichelharpa as the standard.
And the side note, there is like the tuning of the chromatic Nichelharpa written in this
article, that's the traditional way of tuning it.
But there is also the modern tuning, which is C at the bottom, then instead of another
C, it's D, much like the viola, and then the A string.
But I don't have a one with modern tuning, and it's pretty hard to change the tuning
because you have to tune every single key for that string, so that all of the notes
are the right ones.
So, next ones.
The variants with odd resonant strings.
Beyond the common variants with resonant strings, there are a variety of Nichelharpa designs
without such.
Some of the examples include the Muraharp, the most common Nichelharpa derivative, based
on a unique Nichelharpa found in the Swedish town of Murah, municipality Sweden, dating
to 1526, although presumed to be from the later 17th century.
This design has a straight bridge, one melody string, two drone strings, and one row of
keys, with body resembling a lute.
There is the Esaharp Swedish for Esaharp, or Ehethevenharp, Finnish for Ehetheveharp, and
sorry if I just butch that pronunciation, I'm not native Finnish.
Which is Finnish, Finnish, Swedish, Nichelharpa derivative, based on Nichelharpa examples from
Finnish Swedish former municipality Esah, Finnish, Ehetheveh, in the Finnish region of
Osterbotnija, Swedish Österbotten, it is small and cone shaped with four, sometimes
three strings, and one row of ten or fifteen keys.
Then there is the Wefsenharp, Wefsenharp, Norwegian Nichelharpa derivative, based on Nichelharpa
examples from the Norwegian municipality Wefsen, Swedish Wefsen, in the county of Northland,
similar to the Esaharp, but inward curves, but with inward curves on the bottom.
Nonter derivatives, which aren't Nordic, those in which are the Viola at Javidi Siena,
as I've already said before, I don't speak Italian, so I might have said that wrong,
or Siena Harp for short, is Nichelharpa derivative, based on the previously mentioned 14
eight fresco by Tadeo di Bartolo, at Palazzo Publico Chapel in Siena Etoli, featuring an angel
playing Nichelharpa. As part of Reconstructural Archaeology, this recreated design has three
melody strings, one drum string and one row of strings. Viola Damore Akjavi, key Viola Damore
is a Nichelharpa derivative, seemingly invented by professional Luthier Alexander Pilz,
a seasoned maker of Nichelharpa from Leipzig, Germany. It has got strings and is especially
built for Renaissance Baroque music. It has a different sound than traditional Swedish
Nichelharpa closer to the Viola da Gamba, therefore has the name key Viola Damore. Some
further reading on the Nichelharpa are Gunnar Aubek, Gunnar Ferrelius, different typologies
for the Nichelharpa, typologics and terminologies in short, olika typer for Nichelharpa
and typologics and terminologies in short, on Nichelharpa's forum.net in Swedish. Archaead
from the original on 2003, 2006, 2006, retrieved 2003, 2006, 2006. From the same authors
Nichelharpa's typologics in Swedish, Nichelharpa's forum.net retrieved 2003, 2006, 2006. And well,
that's pretty much it. As I might have mentioned before, there is a pretty popular slingpulska
after Biskalle, which Vassen, who were also mentioned in the Wikipedia article, have recorded.
So here it comes in a slower manner, just so you might be able to learn it. And then I'll
probably speed it up a bit after I've played it. So, well, goodbye until next time. I'm just
going to move to the other side of the room.
You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at HackerPublicRadio.org. Today's show was
contributed by a HBR listener like yourself. If you ever thought of recording podcasts,
click on our contribute link to find out how easy it really is. Posting for HBR has been kindly
provided by www.monsthost.com, the internet archive, and our syncs.net. On the Sadois stages, today's
show is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
