Nordic · Norway· coming soon

The
Tagelharpa

A Nordic bowed lyre with three or four horsehair strings, played upright on the lap, in a tradition that nearly disappeared and was rebuilt from museum fragments in the twentieth century.

ForSolitudeMoodAncient · bowed · firelight

In preparation

Quick answer

The tagelharpa is a bowed lyre from the Nordic and Baltic world — a rectangular wooden frame with an open hand hole, strung with twisted horsehair and bowed rather than plucked. Because the strings sit in a flat plane, the bow tends to catch more than one at a time, so the instrument naturally produces a rough two-note drone under any melody. Its close relative in Finland and Karelia is the jouhikko, and the sound of both is ancient, scraping and firelit.

The tagelharpa (Swedish; also jouhikko in Finnish) is a small bowed lyre from the Nordic and Karelian regions, with three or four strings traditionally made of tagel — horsehair. It is played upright, held against the knee, with the fingers of the left hand touching the strings from behind rather than pressing them onto a fingerboard. Its sound is rough, archaic, slightly hollow — closer to a bowed drone instrument than to any modern violin family member.

By the twentieth century the playing tradition had nearly vanished. The instruments survived in folk-museum collections; the technique had to be reconstructed by ethnomusicologists working from sparse field recordings and oral memory. Today it is enjoying a slow revival, often paired with the kantele in the same Finno-Karelian runo-song repertoire. Our piece, when it arrives, will sit in that revived tradition — bowed long tones, the dark resonance of horsehair on horsehair, and the kind of firelight quiet that the instrument was built to fill.

A new piece for this tradition is in preparation. Subscribe on YouTube to be notified when it releases.

Common questions

Questions people ask about the tagelharpa

How is a bowed lyre played?

The player reaches through an opening in the frame and stops the strings from behind with the backs or sides of the fingers, rather than pressing them onto a fingerboard. There is no fingerboard at all — the strings are stopped in mid-air.

Is the tagelharpa the same as a jouhikko?

They are close relatives within the same family of Nordic and Baltic bowed lyres, with regional names and slightly different shapes and string counts. The playing principle is the same in each.

Why does it sound so harsh compared with a violin?

Horsehair strings, a flat bridge and no fingerboard all push the instrument toward a raw, drone-heavy sound. It was never refined toward the smooth tone the violin family pursued, which is exactly why it suits solitude and firelight.

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Questions people ask about the tagelharpa

Be the first to hear the tagelharpa.

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