"Kantele" or "Finnish Harp"

Kantele is a string instrument from the zither family, related to Russian gusli, Latvian kokle and Lithuanian kanklės. All four of these instruments together form the family named Baltic Psalteries.

In its original form, kantele has 5 or 6 horsehair strings and a wooden body, carved out of one piece. Modern versions of this instrument have metal strings and a body is most often made from several pieces of wood.

Kantele has a characteristic bell-like sound. Players hold it in their laps or place it on a small table. Two main techniques to play are:

• plucking the strings using fingers or
  
• strumming unstopped strings which is sometimes done with a matchstick

Kantele src="http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/ii86/fbahrami/Kantele.jpg" width=682 border=0>

In recent years kantele is more and more popular in Finland again. So much so that a Finnish luthiery, Koistinen developed an electric kantele. That one exercises pick-ups similar to those of electric guitars. And the most unusual fact is that Finnish harp was even adopted by some Finnish heavy metal musicians - like Amorphis in video "My Kantele" below.

Loituma - Levan Polka

Levan Polka (the official video)

Polka - Finnish style... :) And the video below has more than 3.5 million views on Youtube (same song, same group, no instrumental music).

In 1989, when the new students started a new school year at Sibelius Academy - Folk Music Department (the only music university in Finland), is when Loituma was first formed. Originally a seven-member group called themselves Jäykkä Leipä (Stiff Bread). Loituma invented and preserved its original style, sometimes even using improvisation, while at the same time skillfully adapting influences of other sources.

In Finnish folk music one of the corner stones is the skill of song/singing. According to Finnish tradition, stories and feelings are best expressed with man's own instrument - voice. Another corner stone is a folk instrument from the zither family, called kantele or Finnish harp (more about it in my next article). It sounds unbelievably beautiful and versatile.

All of the members of Loituma group sing and the song is an ever-present, underlying current in their music, carrying Finnish tradition. They also compose/arrange their tunes themselves, using lyrics in Finnish from traditional sources.

In 1997, Loituma were selected Band of the Year at the 1997 Kaustinen Folkmusic Festival.

Their song Ieva's Polka was an instant hit in Finland (released in May of 2006) and has since spawned viral remixes and video sites across the Internet. Loituma Compilation in the video below is just one example.

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