InstrumentsInstruments
 | There is a mention of a Viking Age string instrument in Arabic written sources from the 10th century. The Arab Ibn Fadlan recounts a burial of a Rus Viking leader at the river Volga in Russia in 921 A.D. The leader got his bowed harp with him in the grave. We don´t know how his harp looked like but in Carelia (Northwest Russia) has the use of an old fashioned bowed harp survived. To the right you see a 12th century picture of a musician playing a bowed harp. The strings are of horsehair. Typical for the sound is the bordune tone in the melody. To the left you see a drawing of the Carelian bowed harp used by Tsakku. |  |
We make a big part of the instruments ourselves. To the right you see Marja-Riitta Topcu making a horsehair stringed kantele. This is the best way to learn the construction of the instruments and hence find out how the music of ancient times has sounded.The kantele belongs to the family of zither instruments. The old kantele has five strings which means it gives the right number of tones for the melody of the Kalevala, the Finnish national epos. This instrument came to Finland about 1000 years ago from Balticum. It was never adopted in Western Europe. The kantele is nowadays the Finnish national instrument.
In the Viking Age, people in western Finland adopted a flute type from the west. In this flute the player used his tongue as a fipple to direct the airstream. To the left you see a drawing of a flute which was found during the excavations of the Viking town Birka, near today´s Stockholm. This is made of sheepbone and has two finger-holes. A similar flute has been found in Saltvik on Aland. We use a modified sheepbone flute with five finger-holes.
The use of drums is ancient and goes back to witchcraft and pagan rituals. With Christianity the drum was abandoned but it has later got back its role as rhythm instrument. The primitive frame drum, formed as a shield, has survived among the arctic shamans. Tsakku uses a wooden shaman drum with a kid and a handle of seabird motif.
The seabird was an important symbol in the old Permic culture.
You can get more information about ancient drums from our drum maker Jouni Kurki,
email: jou.ku@iobox.fi
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