Kantele

Kantele national instr. of Finland, already mentioned in the Kalevala and still in use today. The kantele is a psaltery of irregular trapezoid shape with 2 long sides that almost meet at the bottom and with a diagonal upper side. The tuning pegs are inserted along the diagonal side. Originally the kantele was furnished with 5 horsehair strings and tuned to the scale of G A B♭ C D, but with time the number of strings increased; today the number is variable, and they are now of metal. The instr…