Moraharpa
Encyclopedia
Nyckelharpa
A nyckelharpa , sometimes called a keyed fiddle, is a traditional Swedish musical instrument. It is a string instrument or chordophone. Its keys are attached to tangents which, when a key is depressed, serve as frets to change the pitch of the string.The nyckelharpa is similar in appearance to a...
. It has an hourglass shape, and looks very much like the illustration of a nyckelharpa in Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius
Michael Praetorius was a German composer, organist, and music theorist. He was one of the most versatile composers of his age, being particularly significant in the development of musical forms based on Protestant hymns, many of which reflect an effort to make better the relationship between...
's Syntagma Musicum III of 1620 (where it is called Schlüssel fiddel). It has a straight bridge, one melody string, two drone strings, and one row of keys. It is currently displayed in the Zorn Museum
Zorn Collections
The Zorn Collections, or Zornsamlingarna, is a Swedish state museum, located in Mora, dedicated to preserving the works by painter Anders Zorn....
in the village of Mora in Dalarna
Dalarna
', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, hence its name. The instrument has an inscription on the back with the date 1526, but it is unlikely to have been made that early. A Swedish scholar, Per-Ulf Allmo, has suggested that the instrument and another in the same style were probably built in Särna
Särna
Särna is a locality situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 768 inhabitants in 2005.The two parishes Särna and Idre were originally part of Norway but were occupied by Swedish farmers in 1644...
, northern Dalarna
Dalarna
', English exonym: Dalecarlia, is a historical province or landskap in central Sweden. Another English language form established in literature is the Dales. Places involving the element Dalecarlia exist in the United States....
around 1680, with Praetorius
Praetorius
Praetorius, Prätorius, Prætorius was the name of several musicians and scholars in Germany.In Germany of the 16th and 17th centuries it became a fashion that educated people named "Schulze" or "Schultheiß" or "Richter", which means "judge", put their name into the Latin language as "Praetorius",...
as inspiration, and with no close affinity with the nyckelharpa tradition in northern Uppland
Uppland
Uppland is a historical province or landskap on the eastern coast of Sweden, just north of Stockholm, the capital. It borders Södermanland, Västmanland and Gästrikland. It is also bounded by lake Mälaren and the Baltic sea...
, the stronghold of the instrument.
A number of modern reproductions of the original moraharpa have been made, and the name 'moraharpa,' in addition to referring to a single, specific instrument, has come to mean a type of nyckelharpa similar in design to the original moraharpa.