Description
Tagelharpa Fir and Birch: Features
The tagelharpa has a structure made of thick, solid fir, the backboard and the soundobard are made of Birch plywood, a stable ad realiable material over time. The bridge and the tailpiece are made of National Walnut and worked by hand as the pegs, made one by one, individually. The three strings are realized with black horsehair, in different composition per melodic string, high drone and bass drone.
The bow is made of walnut, finished as the instrument and it mounts blond horsehair.
History
The Tagelharpa (also called Talharpa) is a bowed lyre orgined in northern Europe. It spread widely in Scandinavia after the Viking age and is still used in some of the northern territories (of particular importance the tradition of the Estonian islands). Its existence in medieval Scandinavia is witnessed by artistic and archaeological sources, such as the wall painting in Røldal (XII-XIII century) and the sculpture of Trondheim Cathedral (XIV century). Also widely spread its close Finnish relative, the Jouhikko.
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