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Fall 2004 www.nyckelharpa.org

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First… Catch your ‘Harpa

by Mike Hulme

I had never seen or heard a Nyckelharpa two monthsago, although I had been aware of its existence forsome time, via an Internet link from the HardangerFiddle Association of America. I make Hardangerfiddles, along with classic violin models, and Inoticed an increase in the number of enquiries aboutHardangers since Lord of the Rings featured one inits soundtrack. I have had to repair and set up Violad’Amores occasionally, and reallyliked the way the sympatheticstrings propped up the melodicstrings. For enjoyment I play in atraditional Irish Ceilidh band,playing fiddle and Uilleann Pipes,with an occasional Brudmarschthrown in on Hardanger.

In July I went to the St. ChartierFestival in France, primarilybecause it is a bagpipe festival. All the world and hiswife were there, playing and demonstrating everytraditional instrument you could think of – there werespontaneous concerts in the bar, the restaurant andeven the queue for the toilets. One of the maker’sstalls had a Hardanger fiddle hanging up, so I had tohave a play on it. The maker, Jean Claude Condi, saidthat he didn’t make it – he made Nyckelharpas andbows. In his stall there were five of them, and I had

to have a try on one of those too, after fighting myway through the crowds.

I now realize what is meant by instant addiction.

This thing sounded like a Hardanger on steroids!Even though I could hardly get a scale out of it –there were the usual problems: counter-rotated Cello,

reversed fingering, only half abow – I was thoroughly hooked. Ihad to have one, there and then.

Nine trips to the ATM later I hadit. I must apologize to Jean Claudefor all the 10 Euro notes – it wasall the machine could cough up!

Once you have your ‘harpa thefun really begins. How do youlearn an instrument for which

there are no teachers in your country (I live inEngland), when the land the instrument comes fromis hundreds of miles away, and you don’t speak thelanguage anyway? The answer is the Web.

Once I got home with my prize I started searchingand soon found the ANA. I joined up and startedlearning . After exploring many links to other sites Idiscovered the Peter Hedlund Nyckelharpaskola

IN THIS ISSUE

First... Catch your ‘Harpa! .........1Piano cannibalism (pictures)...... 2ANA Board election notice .........3Nyckelharpa hits Berklee!...........4Tune: Oliver’s Bedtime March....7


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DVD series. What a brilliant idea! Having hadexperience of Teach Yourself videos I couldappreciate the value of having a “Virtual Teacher,”and the first volume proved no disappointment. (Ifyou are miles from your nearest player or teacherthen this has to be the way to go!) The close up shotsof the fingering are excellent and clearly show youwhat you should be doing. You can go as fast or asslow as you like, and as long as you have thediscipline to stop when you get it wrong and retraceyour steps, this is the best solution.

I have been concentrating on the bowing and scaleand arpeggio playing rather than learning manytunes. As Peter says, the tunes are based on arpeggiosso the more you play them the more familiar youbecome with them as they pop up in the tunesthemselves. One very useful piece of advice Petergave me was that he tunes his fiddle like a ‘harpa andplayed it that way. I tried it and it is a great way ofinitially getting the notes of a tune together, playingon a similar and familiar instrument.

Anyway, after a couple of weeks of getting used tomy ‘harpa I began to appreciate its simple yetfunctional nature. As a violinmaker I just had tomake my own. I got Søren Åhker’s book and DVD,ordered a pile of wood from Bjørn Bjørn and as Iwrite I have got the makings of a Nyckelharpa sittingin a box before me.

For the moment I have two obstacles: learning to playHardrevet, and,

Given: a pile of wood –

Make: a Nyckelharpa.

* * *Editor’s Note:The following photographs were submitted with thearticle. The captions herehave been extrapolatedfrom Mike Hulme’s e-mail commentary.

I decided to have a trial run at making a 'harpa(before I spoil Bjorn's Nyckelharpa Kit) in order toget a better idea of the slightly different skillsinvolved than are used in making a violin. Oneadvantage of being a violin maker is that I have gotlots of wood, and I sacrificed half a cello back andsome ribs to get me started.

As I don't have spruce in large enough pieces to useas the sides I thought I would use the old Englishmethod of building the harpa “on the back”. Thatmeans you start with the back, and build the sides (orribs) on the finished back, and plonk the top on thefinished assembly. Using Søren Åhker's patterns Itransferred the outline to the back. For stability Irouted out a 2mm channel around the edge and insetthe ribs into that. Once the glue had dried I realizedthat nearly half the work was done! However, atraditional 'harpa has quite thick sides, so I had toglue lining strips inside the top of the ribs so therewould be enough surface for the glue to hold the topin place.

The top presented a problem – I did not have sprucewide enough for a one-piece 'harpa top. So I bought avery old piano instead, and a portable Jigsaw. I sawedout the soundboard from the piano, and now haveenough spruce for four nyckelharpas. The wood isabout 100 years old, and has a deep resonant “ring”when you tap it. It should sound pretty good! Idonated the rest of the piano to the local StudentUnion, who have a tradition of Piano Smashing onBonfire Night.

For anyone who wants to build their ownnyckelharpa, I cannot recommend Søren's book andRita Leydon's DVD too highly. I was so impressed


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with the way he used his band saw as a millingmachine for the keybox sides that I went out andbought one myself.

Bending the top was incredibly easy – this sprucewas so old and dry that it drank up the water, and mybath is almost exactly the shape of a 'harpa top.

Editor’s note: Mike hopes to have the nyckelharpafinished in a few months. Good job, Mike, and thanksfor the article and photos!

From the Board ofthe ANA

The current slate of officers of the AmericanNyckelharpa Association is:

• Sheila Morris (Denver CO) –President – through 2004

• Bill Layher (St Louis, MO) – Vice President – through 2005

• Rita Leydon (Lahaska, PA) – Treasurer– through 2005

• Tim Newcomb (Worcester, VT) – Board Member– through 2004

• Elise Peters (Minneapolis / St. Paul MN)Board Member – through 2005

As you can see, the terms of two of our Boardmembers are set to expire at the end of 2004. Bothhave expressed an interest in seeking re-election andcontinuing to serve.

Any member of the ANA is eligible to serve as anofficer, and nominations for Board members arecurrently being sought. If you are interested inserving in this capacity, please send your name and abrief bio to

[email protected] we will put your name on the ballot.

The election will be conducted in the early part of2005.

For the Board of Officers,Bill LayherVice-President.


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Nyckelharpa hits Berklee!a note fromChris and Rita Leydon

Rita writes: Bronwyn Bird started out as ournyckelharpa student several years ago. We met her asa 13 year old when she and her sister came to ourweekly Swedish dancing sessions. She passed us longago in the playing nyckelharpa department and nowwe just enjoy playing with her when she has time,hearing about her escapades, and seeing where sheand the nyckelharpa take each other. Summer of2004 she spent five weeks (on scholarship) at theBerklee College of Music in Boston. She is all set tospend the next school year at the Eric SahlströmInstitute in Sweden. What follows are two back toback breathless emails from Bronwyn reporting fromthe final days at Berklee, plus a cute drawing she sentthanking us for some ground coffee beans we hadsent in a care package.

Bronwyn’s first email:

Hey Chris,Well, I just finished aperformance with my bluegrassensemble here. I think it wentreally well. There was certainly agreat response to thenyckelharpa. I have a recordingof the concert so I will be able toshare it with you when I getback.

I am really excited because thehead of the strings departmenthas requested that I play in thefinal blowout concert tomorrownight. It's on the BerkleePerformance Center Main Stage.It's a really really big dealbecause only a very smallamount of ensembles get toperform on that and there is a bigaudition process that you usuallyhave to go through. Also usuallyit is very large rock groups andjazz ensembles that make it.However, apparently they love the nyckelharpa andwant it to have its own feature song so they haverequested that my bluegrass ensemble instructor (whoplays the banjo) and I do a duo! I am super excited

but really nervous.

My Jazz ensemble recital is on Thursday afternoon. Iam looking forward to that. I've been learning to dojazz solos on the nyckelharpa here and I will be doingsome of that in the recital. We are playing “Route66.” It's a great group. We have a piano player, atrumpet player, a trombone player, a drum player,and me, the nyckelharpa player.

Things are wrapping up here now. Tuesdays areusually my killer days because I have classes fromeight to six with no breaks. Usually I do not lookforward to them, however I am sad that this was mylast one. This experience has been more then I hopedfor. I know I owe it partly to the wonderfulrecommendation letter that you wrote, so thank youagain for that. Did I tell you I auditioned for ascholarship to come here full time after Sweden? Ithink the audition went really well, so I am keepingmy fingers crossed.

Well, I better get some sleep because I have a busyday with finals tomorrow. I will beback on Saturday and am lookingforward to playing with yousometime after that. Let me knowwhen is good for you.I miss you! Tell Rita I miss hertoo!Love BronwynP.S. Did you guys get the secondletter I sent? The one thanking youfor the wonderfully deliciousawesome coffee from House OfCoffee? I just wanted to make surecause I know the mail system wasa little hectic when I sent thatletter, due to the democraticnational convention taking placeright here in the center ofeverything.

Bronwyn’s second email:

Hey Chris,I just finished playing in thatconcert I was telling you about. Iended up getting to play a solopiece first by myself. And then I

played “Wheel Hoss” with my bluegrass ensembleinstructor (who plays banjo). I was really nervousbecause the audience was massive and all the otherensembles were very large (and loud) jazz or rockgroups. But the response from the audience was


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great. My favorite part was when the guy introducedme he said something like “I bet none of you outthere know what this unusual instrument is” and therewere all these shouts from the audience“nyckelharpa!” “Go nyckelharpa!”, “Play thatnyckelharpa!”. See because I have played with SOmany different people during the past 5 weeks,EVERYONE here knows what it is. And if theydidn't before they certainly do now.

Well, the real reason I am writing is because I havebig news. I wanted to call you right away tonight andtell you but it was already around 11:30 and I didn'twant to wake you up. I auditioned earlier in the fiveweek program for a scholarship to come here fulltime starting fall 2005. They announced thescholarship winners at the concert tonight. Guesswhat??!! They have awarded me $10,000 per year forall four years to come here!!! That's $40,000!!! Itmeans I might actually be able to come here full timeafter Sweden! I am sooo excited!

Anyway, I just wanted to share the news. Cause youknow I would never be here in the first place if itwasn't for you and Rita. I would not have been onthat stage tonight, standing there with mynyckelharpa, I probably wouldn't be thinking aboutcoming to Berklee, I wouldn't even know what anyckleharpa is!

I have a final at nine tomorrow, and it is around 2 amso I better go. Looking forward to seeing you soon!Lots of Love,Bronwyn

Above: Bronwyn Bird with Hasse Gille at the EricSahlström Institute in Tobo, Sweden. Fall 2004.


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STRINGS!


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Tune: Oliver’s Bedtime March

I wrote this simple tune for my 4-year old son Oliver Magnus Layher, who shows a great interest in the nyckelharpa.This is always the last tune I play on evenings when he is listening: it’s our signal that it is time for bed. The tune isripe with possibilities for doppning and double-stop harmonies. It should be played in a sprightly fashion, to inspirequick footsteps up the stairs to the bedroom. (Note: an elaborate trill on the penultimate note usually brings a smile.)


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The American Nyckelharpa AssociationThe ANA is a non-profit organization dedicated tofostering the nyckelharpa, its music and its dance inNorth America. We sponsor and produce music anddance workshops across the country featuring thetraditions of the nyckelharpa.

Membership dues in the ANA are $10/year formembers in the USA, $15 for all members in foreigncountries including Canada. Membership includes asubscription to this newsletter. Send to the addressbelow, and please indicate if you play thenyckelharpa and if we may publish your name in ourroster.

Write to:ANA, PO Box 661, Lahaska, PA 18931

ANA Web PageSource of information about the nyckelharpa,nyckelharpa players, a history of the instrument,nyckelharpa events and more! The URL is:http://www.nyckelharpa.org

Nyckel NotesPublished quarterly, edited by Bill Layher. Sendsubmissions to Nyckel Notes at the address below, orto: [email protected] Layher4255 Flad Ave., St. Louis MO 63110

Be an editor for the ANA!The ANA is in need of a new layout editor forNyckel Notes.Nyckel Notes is produced four times a year with helpfrom members who contribute stories and photos, andhelp to proofread the text. Nyckel Notes is puttogether in MS Word, and requires no special skills.

Please contact the editor if you are interested inbecoming the editor of this newsletter.

American Nyckelharpa AssociationP.O. Box 661Lahaska, PA18931

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