Nyckelharpa

Traditional Swedish instrument, also called keyboard viola.

It consists of 4 strings, 3 melodic strings and the 4th which is used as a drone. The notes are obtained by pressing the keys, tangents, and these depress the strings. It has 12 resonant strings tuned in the chromatic scale.

The nyckelharpa is a stringed instrument played with a bow. The pitches of its two to four melodic strings are determined by sliding keys with tangents that stop the string, unlike the violin with its fingerboard. The principle is the same as that of the hurdy-gurdy.

The term nyckelharpa is used as a collective name for all instruments of this type, while gammelharpa - old ‘harp - is used to designate the oldest forms found in Uppland before the introduction of the modern chromatic nyckelharpa in 1929.

The only sources before 1469 are depictions of instruments. In them we see that medieval vielle-type instruments sometimes had keys and tangents in small numbers. These paintings and sculptures are typically Gothic in style and show musicians with light, wavy hair and long, flowing robes.

Similar instruments, but without keys, appear in the medieval songbook collection Codex Manesse (1300, Zurich, Switzerland), in Germany's first Gothic cathedral in Magdeburg, and in Flemish and German altarpieces.

The earliest record dates from around 1350 in the church of Källunge in Gotland.