Chapter
3.1: The Kantele Traditions of
by
Carl Rahkonen © 1989 All Rights Reserved Back to Table
of Contents
Any
use of this material should contain a proper reference to this site.
CARVED KANTELES
Carved kanteles are the oldest form
of the instrument. In order to guess
what builders of the past had in mind, we can study and compare existing carved
kanteles found in museums. These old
kanteles are true folk artifacts, in that they were generally built by
individuals for their own use. Because
they are folk artifacts, virtually no two of these instruments are exactly
alike. Any general statement about
these instruments will have individual exceptions. At the same time, there are characteristics
which unite all these instruments, otherwise they could not be recognized under
a single concept of kantele.
The
Carved Kantele Among the Baltic Psalteries
The older forms of Baltic psalteries
have several characteristics in common. They
are all relatively small instruments, which were typically made by carving a
single piece of wood to form the body.
The bodies may be described as irregular triangles, with the narrow end
cut off, or as narrow irregular trapezoids.
They could be carved from the top, side or bottom. If carved from the top, a separate sound
board was added to make an enclosed resonating chamber. Typically, the sound board had some type of hole,
which could be in a wide variety of shapes, the most usual being a round hole,
a cross, or a flower. If the body was
carved from the bottom, it was frequently left open, but sometimes also was
closed with a separate board. Again, the
top of the instrument may have had a sound hole. Some Baltic psalteries, particularly those built
by Vepsians, were carved from the side, which was also left open.
The carved Baltic psalteries have a
highly variable number of strings, with as few as five and as many as fifteen,
or occasionally more. Perhaps the most
significant characteristic of the strings is that they are usually not
parallel. The strings typically are
attached at the end of the instruments to a single rod which can be U‑shaped
coming up from the body of the instrument, or can be straight and held in place
between the sides of a wide notch carved in the end of the instrument. This part of the instrument is called the varras
in Finnish meaning "spit", a metal rod on which meat was turned over
a fire. The strings fan out from the rod
to the tuning pegs at the opposite end of the instrument. The tuning peg side almost always forms an
oblique line in relation to the rod and the other sides of the instrument, thus
giving the strings graduated lengths.
The general characteristics offer
evidence that the various forms of the Baltic psalteries are related. But there are also characteristics which tend
to distinguish the instruments by nationalities.
Almost all Finnish carved kanteles
have an extension at the end of the
instrument called a ponsi, which is curved down. This extension is much rarer on other Baltic
psalteries. Some of the Vepsian
instruments occasionally have a ponsi which is curved up. On Finnish instruments, the top of the ponsi
has a wide notch carved in it, which the Finns call the ponnen lovi,
meaning "the notch of the ponsi."
The rod to which the strings are attached is held in place between two
holes in the sides of the notch.
On the tuning pin side of the
instruments the top is extended in order to allow space for the holes of the
tuning pegs, which are usually inserted from the bottom. On some Baltic psalteries, particularly
Vepsian, Setu, Russian and Estonian instruments, this extension may be quite
large. It is called lapa meaning
"blade" in Finnish, laba in Estonian meaning "blade"
or "paddle", otkrylok in Russian meaning
"stub-wing", and is frequently translated as Stutzbrett
meaning "supporting board" in German, referring to its possible
function as a support for one of the player's arms. Virtually none of the Finnish carved kanteles
have a large blade, only one large enough to accommodate the tuning pegs.
The variations in structure between
the instruments of the Finnish and Estonian regions may be the result of
different playing positions. The Finnish
instruments generally have been played in a horizontal position, with the sound
board parallel to the ground, while many other Baltic psalteries are played in
a more vertical position, with the sound board at an angle to the ground, the
long side of the instrument in the lap and the short side against the
body. Finnish folk runes say that the
ponsi was placed on the knee, so it is believed that it originally had the
function of securing the instrument more firmly in the player's lap. While this is quite likely true, it cannot be
proven. The oldest descriptions of
playing do not mention if the players placed the ponsi on the knee. Descriptions and photographs of carved
kantele players taken around the turn of the century show little evidence that
the ponsi was actually used this way (see Väisänen 1928a; Saha 1986). By the middle of the nineteenth century,
builders made larger carved kanteles, which were generally played in a
horizontal position on top of a table or other firm support.
The extended blade has been
attributed to the playing style and music of the regions where it appears. In a significant article (1977a) the Estonian
ethnomusicologist, Igor Tõnurist, argues that the extended blade was a rela-
tively late characteristic which came about because of the influence of Russian
dance music. This dance music required a
rhythmic accompaniment generally made up of chords. The playing style for this music used the so‑called
"covering technique," where the fingers of the left hand would cover
the strings not needed to produce a chord, while the right hand would strum out
the rhythm. Originally the kannels were
played horizontally, but with the new dance music and accompanying playing
style they began to be held in a more vertical position. Tõnurist believes that the primary purpose
for the extended blade was as a support for the left arm, which would lie
passively as the fingers covered the strings.
It also had a secondary function of increasing the resonance of the
instrument, hence the Setu name heluhand [sound tail?] for the blade. As Russian dance music culture spread to a
larger area, bladed kannels took the place of older kannels without the blade.
Illus.
6. Baltic psalteries carved from a
single piece of wood. Sketches by Ilkka
Kolehmainen, published in Kantele 1985 (4):7 and Viisikielinen
1987 (4):5.
The
Existing Carved Kanteles in
The old carved kanteles found in
museums around
The information collected included
measurements; the materials from which the instruments were made; the way in
which the bodies were carved; the number of strings; structural characteristics
of the sound hole, tip, ponsi, notch, rod, bridges; and the age, place built,
and other specific details, if known.
Complete information was not available in every category, but the
information which was available provided a way to compare and study the
structure of the instruments. The
information was organized in a database and used to generate the reports in
Appendix 1.
All the kanteles in the sample were
relatively small instruments. Because
their bodies were carved from a single piece of wood, their size was limited by
the size of the available trees.
The carved kanteles of the sample
may be grouped according to whether they are carved from the bottom, side or
top. This grouping follows a distinctive
pattern of geographic distribution.
Those carved from the side are the rarest. Väisänen's materials contain information on
just two such instruments and the
A second possible way to group the
carved kanteles is to distinguish between those with narrow and those with wide
bodies, which I have done basically as a subjective appraisal. Generally, the division came at around 15 cm
in width, those over this amount being wide and those under being narrow. But if the width of a kantele was less than
one third its length, I considered it narrow (Illus. 7). Most of the narrow kanteles had just five
strings, but some had as many as ten strings. [3] The wide bodied kanteles were noticeably
larger and bulkier and were obviously built to accommodate a greater number of
strings (Illus. 8).
There is a third category of carved
kanteles which did not fit neatly into the narrow or wide categories. These kanteles were relatively large
instruments, each with more than ten strings, a greater overall length and
generally had parallel sides. The end
which held the tuning pegs was quite long and at a steep angle in relation to
the sides of the instrument which made it possible to accommodate a larger
number of strings (Illus. 9).
The bodies of kanteles in the sample
were made from various kinds of wood, the most common being alder and spruce,
followed by birch, pine or aspen. When a
kantele was carved from the top it had a separate piece of wood for the
soundboard, which was usually made of spruce, followed by pine, alder, or
birch.
From Väisänen's papers on individual
instruments in the sample
Body
wood Top
wood (carved from the top)
alder 36 spruce 24
spruce
17 pine 4
birch 10 alder 3
pine 4 birch 1
aspen 1
Illus.
7. Narrow carved kanteles from the
Illus.
8. Wide carved kanteles from the
Illus.
9. Long carved kanteles from the
The shape of the bodies, when viewed
from the end, was usually square or rectangular with the sides at 90° degree
angles to the bottom. Only a few of the
instruments had the sides at a greater angle or more rounded bottoms. The
rectangular shape was probably most popular because it allowed the
kantele to lie flat on top of a table.
Those with rounded bottoms would have necessitated their being played in
the lap.
When counting the number of strings
for which the kanteles of the sample were built, the most favored number was
five (twenty‑two examples); the next most favored number was twelve
(eighteen examples). The other numbers
of strings were more evenly distributed.
This is not a count of the actual number of strings present, since most
of the kanteles were not in playing condition and lacked some or all of their
strings. The count reflects as well as
could be determined the number of strings if the instruments were in playing
condition (the chart below is based on the "Number of Strings" report
in Appendix 1).
Number of strings Number
of kanteles
5 22
12 18
9 12
8 10
7 8
10 7
11 6
The strings were missing on many of
the kanteles in the sample, but when present they were usually made of steel
(some were quite rusty) or copper.
According to folklore, strings were also made of twisted horse hair or
human hair. Some modern day carved
kantele builders have experimented with these types of strings and they do work
quite well, although producing less volume and a different timbre than metal strings.
Almost all the carved kanteles of
the sample had a ponsi, the curved extension at the end of the
instrument. There was great variation in the size, shape and position of the
ponsi, especially in its angle and the amount of curvature. On some of the narrow kanteles the ponsi
could conceivably have been functional, to help support the instrument against
the leg or knee. But on the majority of
the kanteles the ponsi could not have been used in this way, since the size or
curvature was inappropriate. Looking
from above, the shape of the ponsi was usually square, but on some instruments
it was rounded off or semi‑circular.
On most of the instruments the
strings were attached at the end of the instrument to a rod which was held in
place between the sides of a wide, carved‑out notch at the top of the
ponsi. The notch was either square or
semi‑circular in shape. Seven
instruments, which came predominantly from the
All
the carved kanteles in the sample have tuning pegs and not tuning pins. The top of the instrument is extended just
enough to allow the insertion of these pegs from below. None of the Finnish carved kanteles have a
large, extended blade as seen on many of the Vepsian, Setu, Russian and
Estonian Baltic psalteries.
Most studies of the carved kantele
mention that they do not have bridges.
The strings are stretched between two points, the rod and the tuning
pegs, and are allowed to vibrate freely.
The lack of a bridge produces a natural vibrato which the Finns
prize. The vibrato may be caused by the
knot at the end of the string which attaches it to the rod, or by the changing
length of the string as it vibrates against the tuning peg.
There were no bridges on any of the
narrow carved kanteles in the sample, but eighteen of the wide carved kanteles
had bridges, most of which came from the Ladoga Karelia area. Twelve kanteles had bridges on the tuning pin
side and four near the end of the instruments, which would presumably stop the
vibrato. Two had bridges on both the
tuning pin side and the end. The bridges
were usually made out of metal. Some
were attached to the top of the kanteles and some were a flat U‑shaped
piece of metal the ends of which were fastened to the top or sides of the
instruments. At first I thought these
metal pieces served as resting places for the arm, but in almost all cases
where strings were present, the strings passed over the metal pieces, so
they probably functioned as bridges (Illus. 10).
The "tip" [kärki] of the
instrument is the corner formed between the side holding the tuning pins and
the long side. In the sample there were
six basic varieties of tips: First, just
a normal point produced by the angle of the two sides; second, a cut off point;
third, a simple round scroll; fourth, a hook; fifth, rounded; and sixth, a
knob. The scroll, point and cut off tips
were by far the most common; the other three were perhaps variations of these.
The point and cut off tips were more common in the north, while the scroll was
more common in the south. Most of the
tips had a hole and on many instruments a loop of string was fastened through the
hole, which apparently allowed the kantele to be hung on the wall when not in
use.
Type of tip Number of kanteles
scroll 34
point 29
cut 9
hook 4
rounded 4
knob 3
Illus.
10. Carved kanteles with bridges. From top to bottom: instrument number F1178 from Korpiselkä; F443
from Suojärvi, in the
Illus.
11. Kantele tips.
The shape and arrangement of the
sound holes varied greatly. Round or
cross-shaped sound holes were most common,
followed by kanteles with no sound holes at all. Some of the instruments had arrangements of
smaller holes which made up geometric patterns, the most typical being
crosses. There were many individual
examples of other sound hole shapes.
Sound hole shape Number
of kanteles
round 24
crosses (including
cross patterns of
smaller holes) 23
none 12
rectangle
(or square)
5
flower 3
f holes 1
c holes 1
key hole 1
heart 1
pentagon 1
stars 1
swastika 1
It is impossible to date with
accuracy the majority of the kanteles in the sample. A significant number of them were acquired by
the
Change
in the Carved Kantele Structure
It is generally assumed that the
five‑string kantele is the oldest form of the Finnish kantele, but the
number of strings may not be the best way to determine age. The oldest known Baltic psalteries, which were
found in archaeological excavations in Poland and in Novgorod, include a six‑string
instrument believed to be from the 12th century, a nine‑string instrument
believed to be from the 13th century and a five‑string instrument
believed to be from the 13th or 14th century (see Simon 1957; Emsheimer 1961;
Tõnurist 1977a; Povetkin 1982).
The quality of having five strings
appears more frequently among Finnish kanteles than among any other of the
Baltic psalteries. Rune singing was done
to five pitches and moved in a pattern of five beats. The kantele was believed to have been used in
the accompaniment of rune singing.
If we assume that the five‑string
kantele is the oldest form, then at some time in the history of the kantele
there came a significant change, in that builders began adding strings and
began to increase the size of the instrument.
It is generally believed that this took place because the Finnish folk
music culture began to change. Until the
nineteenth century,
The violin was much better suited
for playing western dance music. It was a louder instrument than the kantele
and had a larger range. But most
significantly, the violin was not limited to five pitches; it could play the
entire range of diatonic and chromatic pitches called for in western tonal
music. Thus, the violin began to be
widely used in dance contexts and began to replace the carved kantele for this
purpose (see Väisänen 1955).
Among
the earliest transcriptions of Finnish folk tunes were those published by the
Italian explorer Joseph Acerbi in his book Travels Through Sweden, Finland
and Lapland to the North Cape in the Years 1798 and 1799 (1801). Beneath one of the transcribed dance tunes
played on the kantele, he marked the following comment: "This is the tune of a dance of
Finlanders played upon the Harpu; in such a limited compass of notes, it is
interesting to see how they can vary their tunes" (ibid, Vol.II:327). Under another transcribed dance, he states:
It is to be observed in this Tune, that
the whole of the first part, and four Bars of the second, are within the
compass of the five Notes of the Harpu; but the three last are two Notes out of
the compass; the Violin, or the introduction of the Fiddle, inspired this
license. It is a timid step out of their
limited circle, and for those who are fond of minute enquiries upon the
subject, it may show how the introduction of a new Instrument, less limited
than the first, introduces new ideas, and changes by degrees the character of
the ancient Music (ibid:330).
As the Finnish music culture
changed, kantele builders began to make kanteles which could play this new
music. Thus, the number of strings was
increased to expand its range. The size
was increased to accommodate the larger number of strings and to increase its
volume.
If the violin was such a superior
instrument, why did it not replace the kantele entirely? Why did kantele builders build kanteles with
more strings, rather than using the violin?
Part of the answer lies in the interaction between Finnish educated and
peasant classes.
The kantele was the musical
instrument of the peasants. Far from
being the mytho‑poetic instrument mentioned in the Kalevala, the kantele
was a typical part of everyday life. To
the peasants, it had less symbolic than practical significance. On the other
hand, most educated Finns did not play the kantele; many had never even seen or
heard a kantele, but this peasant instrument was being promoted in literature
and fine arts as the only true Finnish instrument. It became a symbol of Finnish identity among
educated Finns. Eventually the symbolic
value of the kantele was communicated to the peasants through their interaction
with scholars who came to collect folklore.
Perhaps because of the added symbolic importance placed on the kantele,
the violin did not replace it, and it continued to survive.
The few educated Finns who did play
the kantele wanted to "improve" the instrument to facilitate the
playing of western music. They began
building, or having others build,
kanteles with a greater range than five pitches. The increased number of strings was necessary
and functional in the performance of western music. Evidence of this activity is found in
footnote #11 of a chapter named "Muistutuksia meijän vanhoista
kansallisista soitoistamme" [Reminiscences of our oldest national [folk
music] performance] in the first part of C. A. Gottlund's work Otava
(1831). Gottlund features an
illustration of a five-string kantele from near his birth place in Savo and
says,
[...This is the appearance of all the
kanteles which I have seen in Savo, except those which have multiple strings
and which are only found among the upper class] (Gottlund 1831, 1987:23).
Illus.
12. Gottlund's kantele (from Otava I
1831, 1987:17).
The theory that kantele structure
changed solely for functional reasons to accommodate western music does not
provide a complete explanation. It fails
to take into account the performance practice of carved kantele players. A. O. Väisänen published a systematic study
of carved kantele players during the first decades of this century (1928). He
made the significant observation that often carved kantele players, who played
more developed kanteles, did not always use all the new capabilities. For example, he mentions that Fedja Happo,
who performed on a twelve‑string kantele, used only five strings at a
time while playing. Väisänen mentions
several other examples of players who performed on multiple‑string
kanteles, but did not use all the strings, and did not even bother to tune many
of the strings.
According to the previous theory, a
person would build a kantele with twelve strings because they knew music which
required twelve strings. But in reality,
it was common for builders to make larger kanteles, which had a greater range,
and then still perform music which did not require the new capabilities. Part of the answer may again come from the
interaction of peasant and educated classes, an example of which is provided by
Elias Lönnrot.
Lönnrot had a lifelong interest in
the kantele and not just as it was depicted in folklore. Lönnrot learned to play the instrument
himself. It was reported that Lönnrot
played the kantele at his own wedding in 1849 and he frequently played for
guests who visited his home. For
example, he was visited in 1840 by a Russian language Professor J. Grot who
made the comment:
[Immediately I noticed on the wall an
unpainted harp, which the Finns have named kantele. Before I could talk about it, Lönnrot took it
immediately from the wall, put it on his knees and began to play Finnish songs
in a Finnish style on its steel and copper strings] (Grot 1847; quoted by
Anttila 1931:205; Haavio 1970:103; and Laitinen 1982c:45).
As many other educated people of the
time, Lönnrot viewed the kantele which existed among the folk as being
musically limited, but unlike others, his approach was not to replace the
kantele with another instrument, such as the violin, but to build new and more
advanced kanteles.
Lönnrot is believed to have built
perhaps twenty kanteles himself (Laitinen 1982:45). Also, it has been reported that Lönnrot had
several carpenters in Kajaani build kanteles according to his designs (Grot
1847:167). [4] These were no longer the
simple type of kanteles carved out from a single piece of wood and limited in
the number of strings; they were advanced instruments. The bodies were larger and were fashioned
from several pieces of wood, so the number of strings could be expanded. Another significant difference was that at
least some of Lönnrot's kanteles were partially chromatic. They were clearly designed for playing
western music.
Lönnrot wrote an instruction book
for playing advanced kanteles with seventeen strings, to which a person could
add eight chromatic strings if wanted.
The book included a tuning guide and a notation system based on
numbers. In it are transcribed 230
"Finnish and foreign" pieces for the kantele. The instruction book was written out in
Lönnrot's own hand, but was never published.
It may be found today at the manuscript archive of the Finnish
Literature Society. Lönnrot was also actively
involved in promoting the teaching of kantele playing in public schools. In the first issue of a literature magazine
he published with J. W. Snellman in 1847, he wrote an article concerning "
[Along side agricultural learning, we
will place the learning of performance...Certainly not all are inclined to
performance, but hardly any, who when they learn it, don't get accustomed to it
and favor it. A normal kantele with
thirteen or fifteen strings would be a much more appropriate instrument for
teaching than the virsikantele [a bowed monochord used to accompany
hymns]: it has a sound which is sweeter and with its help one can gain a better
understanding of matters pertaining to the knowledge of performance] (quoted in
Laitinen 1982:46).
Most likely, Lönnrot and his
contemporaries had an influence on the kantele as it existed among the
peasants. Just as the idea of the kantele being a symbol of Finnish identity
eventually found its way back to folk culture, so did the idea that a kantele
with more strings was a superior kantele. [5]
Not that such an instrument is truly superior, but it was perceived
by the folk as being superior.
When a builder makes an instrument
with greater capabilities than the music he will perform requires, the new
capabilities may not be added to serve a function, but because the builder has
seen them elsewhere and believes, for whatever reason, that they produce a
better instrument. Igor Tõnurist
mentions the same phenomenon among the kannel builders of
Illus.
13. Page from Elias Lönnrot's kantele
instruction book, at the Finnish Literature Society.
Notes:
[1]
Seventy‑five of these instruments are found in the
[2]
The kanteles carved from the side included in Väisänen's papers were both from
Suojärvi, instrument numbers 188:49 and 188:50 from the
[3] For example, compare the
[4]
In a personal letter dated August 18, 1983, Stephen Reynolds writes that p. 167
of Grot (1847) "states that under Lönnrot's influence town craftsmen in
Kajaani were making kantele‑s commercially."
[5] The folk adopted the idea of increasing the
number of strings, but they did not adopt the idea of chromatic tuning. Even the most technically advanced modern
Finnish kantele, with a tuning machine, is still basically a diatonic
instrument.
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