Traditional Hardanger Fiddle (Harding Fiddle), Norway
Traditional Hardanger Fiddle, Norway. The Harding fiddle is a violin peculiar to Norway. Just when and how it was developed cannot be sald with any real degree of certainty. The first Harding fiddle known to us (the Jåsta fiddle, now in Bergen Museum) bears the date 1651. This instrument is narrow, high, and small, much smaller in fact than those now in use, and has two under-strings (sympathetic strings). Whether these under-strings are derived from the viola d'amore or from some other stringed instrument is difficult to say, nor do we know to what extent the ltalian violin influenced lts shape. In time, several under-strings were used, often as many as five, but today four is the usual number. In this edition the fifth string is shown in brackets. The strings may be tuned in various ways, in fact over twenty different tunings are known. The so-called slåtts are composed for the Harding fiddle, but they can also be played on an ordinary violin, if necessary, although in doing so the sonority of the under-strings is lost. It is the under-strings that give the slått its peculiar flavour, producing a chord which responds to the tuning of the over-strings, and sounding in sympathy whenever these are plaved. Read more:
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Keywords: bergen_international_music_festival, bunad, classical_music, festspillene_i_bergen, fiddle, fiddle_maker, folk_music, folklore, hardanger, hardanger_fiddle, hardangerfjord, harding_fiddle, maker, national_costume, norway, norwegian, norwegian_heritage
