Kantele: Finland musical instrument

A kantele is a traditional plucked string musical instrument of the dulcimer and the zither family. The musical instrument is a native of Finland and Karelia. Relatives of the musical instrument can be found all; through the world, including Estonian kannel, Mari kusle, Russian gusli, Latvian kokle and Lithuanian kankles. These musical instruments together make up the family that is known as the Baltic psalteries. Kantele is also analopgous to the ancient Asia musical instrument like the guzheng of China and koto of Japan.

source: melodiasoitin.co.uk

The oldest form of this musical instrument have about five or six horse hair strings and a wooden body that is carved from one piece; more modern musical instruments have metal strings and usually a body that is produced from many pieces. The traditional version of the kantele does not have either nut or bridge. Although it is not acoustically organized, this construction is part of the characteristic sound of the instrument.

Modern version of the instrument with 15 or fewer strings are commonly more closely modeled on traditional shapes and form a category of musical instrument that is called small kantele, in comparison to the contemporary concert kantele. The modern concert version of the instrument can have about 40 strings on it. The playing position of the musical instrument and the small kantele are reversed; to perform the small version, the widest low pitched strings are farthest away from the instrument’s body, whereas to a concert version of the instrument, this side of the instrument is nearest and the short high pitched strings farthest away from the body. The concert version of the musical instrument have a switch mechanism for making sharps and flats, an innovation built and introduced by Paul Salminem in the 1920s.

The kantele has a characteristic sound that is like that of the bell. The Finnish version of the musical instrument commonly has a diatonic tuning, though small kantele with about five to fifteen strings are usually tuned to a gapped mode missing a seventh and with the lowest pitched strings of the instrument tuned to a 4^th below the tonic as a drone. Players of the kantele hold the instrument on their lap or on a small table. There are two main ways of playing the musical instrument; either plucking the instrument with the fingers of the hand or strumming unstopped strings.

In Finland’s national epic, Kalevala, the mage Väinämöinen makes the first version of the kantele from the jawbone of a giant pike and a few hairs that is from Hiisi’s stallion. The music produced from the instrument draws the attention of all the forest creatures near to wonder at the beauty of the music.