Nyckelharpa

Nyckelharpa (Swed.: keyed harpa), *bowed instr. of Sweden, depicted since the late 15th c., equivalent to the N. Ger. Schlüsselfiedel, which it has outlived to the present. The body is shaped like an elongated figure 8, the neck merges with the slider box as in an organistrum, and terminates in a flat pegdisc holding rear pegs. The strings are stopped by sliders similar to those of the organistrum, but they are bowed. Early specimens have incurved waists. The flat bridge permits all bowed…