Post by Dick Glasgow on Jun 19, 2007 21:25:33 GMT 1
So what is a Kantele?
Well, this site is a good place to start finding out about this instrument:
The Kantele – Finland's national instrument
Click on the image to watch this short Video:
Well, this site is a good place to start finding out about this instrument:
The Kantele – Finland's national instrumentThe kantele is the oldest Finnish folk instrument, and is classed as a cordophone, that is, an instrument whose sound arises from a string stretched between two fixed points.
The other Finnic tribes of the Baltic used similar instruments, as did a few Finno-Ugrian peoples, in addition to the Balts and the Russians.
The history of kantele stretches back a couple of thousand years.
There is no accurate information as to its age.
The older type of instrument was made by hollowing out the trunk of a pine, spruce or alder.
The strings, of which there were usually five, were attached at one end to tuning pegs and at the other to a metal shank.
The instrument was tuned to a diatonic scale between its bass and top notes which could , depending on the tuning of the central string, be either major or minor.
The Kantele – Finland's national instrument
The other Finnic tribes of the Baltic used similar instruments, as did a few Finno-Ugrian peoples, in addition to the Balts and the Russians.
The history of kantele stretches back a couple of thousand years.
There is no accurate information as to its age.
The older type of instrument was made by hollowing out the trunk of a pine, spruce or alder.
The strings, of which there were usually five, were attached at one end to tuning pegs and at the other to a metal shank.
The instrument was tuned to a diatonic scale between its bass and top notes which could , depending on the tuning of the central string, be either major or minor.
The Kantele – Finland's national instrumentClick on the image to watch this short Video:
