View Full Version : Hardangermandolin
Jim Garber
Oct-25-2005, 3:31pm
This (http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/classifieds.cgi?search_and_display_db_button=on&db_id=16099&exact_match=on&query=retrieval) is a beautiful-looking instrument, at least from the one photo.
Jim
John Flynn
Oct-25-2005, 4:39pm
It is beautiful! That price comes out to about $6,196.83 US. Now I have "HMAS!"
Garrett
Oct-25-2005, 5:11pm
Man I want that thing so bad! That is just the coolest mandolin I ever saw, and I love the sound of Hardanger fiddle.
Check out Aly Bain an Ale Moller's "Fully Rigged" to hear Aly crack out "The Hangman's Reel" on Hardanger Fiddle. Possibly my favorite example of an alternate tuning set.. he's tuned AEAC# if I'm not mistaken, and the Hardanger's sympathetic strings are just unearthly on there. The fiddle equivalent of a 10-string bouzouki!
Jim Garber
Oct-26-2005, 7:05am
I participated in a few workshops of Hardanger fiddle styles. Thefingerboard is flatter and the melody strings are much different than std violin strings. They are essentially a Norwegian folk version of the viola d'amore.
There is a Hardanger Fiddle Association of America (http://www.hfaa.org/). Lots of info and sound clips there.
Jim
You know, taking this back to mandolins.. I saw a bizzare vintage piece once that was shaped sort of like a martin A.. similar to the Hardanger idea of drone strings Below the soundboard, it had tuning forks in side that would humm along with you. There was a little button to engage a felt mute as well!
Wish I'd bought it, it was a little sorry-looking though
Jim Garber
Oct-26-2005, 7:41am
The (in)famous Joseph Bohmann of Chicago made a number of instruments with sympathetic tuning fork-liek tine inside. He used them on some of his violins, mandolins, guitars and harp guitars.
There is a good article by Gregg Miner on Bohmann here (http://www.harpguitars.net/history/bohmann/bohmann1.htm).
Perhaps the most famous Bohmann instruments are the “sympathetic string” instruments. Though most owners or writers have refered to these internal sympathetics as "strings," I'm all but positive that they are all, in fact, the metal rods specified in Bohmann’s patent # 1,128,217 of 1915. The rods were stiff, made out of specific materials (for each described note!) and tuned with wing nuts to these specific pitches just like a string. There was also a damping bar, activated via a push button in the guitar top. This invention was applied to mandolins and standard guitars, of which some examples are known. Three harp guitars of this type are known, which all appear to be from the 1914-1916 timeframe, as they include all the features included in Bohmann's next patent, # 1,179,499 of 1916. These include the sloped shoulders to provide “cutaway” access to higher frets, a bizarre hand rest, and the incredibly thick convex top and back (part of the earlier patent also).
Jim
Jim M.
Oct-26-2005, 10:10am
I think that Hardanger mando is very cool looking too, but I wonder how much effect you get from the drone strings when you are picking instead of bowing?
Well I'll be darned. I should have bought the thing then, the guy only wanted a little bit for it. Yes, it was a square-rodded metal, and had a nice ring. It worked.. I'll pass the information to Gregg to see if he can tack it down.
John Flynn
Oct-26-2005, 12:30pm
Another great example of Hardanger fiddle playing that is closer to home is Mike Compton's wife, Sadie Compton, on her CD "Trouble Come Knockin." She plays Hardanger on most of the tracks, backed up by some great musicians, including Mike on the mando. Highly recommended! Except for one vocal track, it is all instrumental, Southern fiddle tunes.
glauber
Oct-26-2005, 12:33pm
Well I'll be darned.
Hello, Danborino! You'll be hardang-diddly-danged!
http://us.ent4.yimg.com/tv.yahoo.com/images/he/photo/tv_pix/fox/the_simpsons/harry_shearer/char_flanders.jpg
Bob A
Oct-26-2005, 11:46pm
I suspect you get a lot of reverb out of it. I get plenty of sympathetic vibe on bowlbacks if I don't damp; a carved-top has a lot more mass to move, but it should still ring like a gong.
Still, six grand is a lot of money. But you'd be the only player in your state with one; maybe the only guy on your continent. Surely that would count for something.
Jim Garber
Oct-27-2005, 5:09am
I heard from the seller/builder, Harald Hougaard:
The string length is 360 mm. The strings are ordinary GHS 010 strings. The understrings are tuned to the key you are playing, often the key of d- major - in this case the understrings are tuned d-e-f#-a
And yes it actually really works, putting that extra flavour to the sound.
One thing I can't see from the pics he sent was where the tuners for the understrings are.
Jim
On the peghead Jim, there are 12 keys up there
I asked for some more images from the seller, I'm sure he won't mind if I post them here.. gorgeous!
original image from the classifieds
glauber
Oct-27-2005, 7:30am
I imagine it would sound like a sitar.
Jim Garber
Oct-27-2005, 8:06am
I imagine it would sound like a sitar.
It shouldn't unless there is a sitar-style bridge.
Jim
http://chandrakantha.com/articles/indian_music/sitar/media/bridge1.jpg
Eugene
Oct-27-2005, 9:13am
Those extra pictures make quite an impresssion. It really does look to very successfully ape the aesthetic of folksy hardanger fiddles. Yum! If only I could here the hardanger thing.
Not that it's wholly relevant, but some easy places to hear hardanger fiddles are in the soudtrack to The Two Towers and in Edvard Grieg's incidental music for Peer Gynt.
glauber
Oct-27-2005, 10:19am
I imagine it would sound like a sitar.
It shouldn't unless there is a sitar-style bridge.
Does the sitar bridge interact with the sympathetic strings somehow? I don't see what makes the sitar's bridge special, in that picture.
I don't see what makes the sitar's bridge special, in that picture.
The string buzzes against the material of the bridge and creates that distictive sitar sound (there must be a technical name for it but it escapes me at the moment)
glauber
Oct-27-2005, 11:08am
Oh, got it, thanks! I can see that. I was thinking of the sympathetic vibrations, not the buzzing that's also part of the sitar sound. I guess one could emulate the buzzing by setting the action very low. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Jim Garber
Oct-27-2005, 4:39pm
I just checked the ad and Harald says:
PS. This mandolin was sold after about ten minutes, but the good thing is that I can make another and even customize it to fit the musicians needs.
All right, who is the lucky person who bought this and when can we hear the report.
Jim
Keith Miller
Oct-29-2005, 5:23am
How would you change the strings that are underneath ?
Keith
glauber
Oct-29-2005, 9:35am
Carefully.
hougaard
Nov-08-2005, 2:56pm
Hello I am Harald, the maker of the hardangermandolin. This is my first message here on mandolincafe. Thank you all for the interest of the instrument.
Yes, it is quite expencive. The reasons for this are - the complexity of the instrument, all parts has to be constructed, a lot of decorations, pearl inlays etc, best possible quality of materials. Also , Norway is expencive and right now the dollar is veak compared to the Norwegian kroner.
I could make a cheaper instrument without the decorations, but then it would lose the caracteristics of the Hardangerfiddle.
About tuning - I chose a - d - a - e. The resonating strings are tuned to accompany the key you play. It really works, giving that little extra "flavour" to the sound.
It is quite tricky to change the understrings, you have to drag them through the bridge and the channel under the fretboard.
Hardangerfiddlemusic you could try - www.timaios.com, the fiddle can be heard in the background on "Lord of the rings".
Harald
Hello Harald, welcome to the cafe. A gorgeous piece of work you made there, I'd love to try one some day.
I have to admit, a lot of what I tried to get with unusual tunings & capo tricks using bouzoukis was with a hardanger fiddle in mind. The droning sound & self-accompaniment are quite haunting, as you say.
in the bouzouki & mandolin world, I've had some good success with open tunings that are still 5ths or 4ths.. A few exotic ones to try on a normal mandolin:
AEAC# (with different string gauges!).. this is great for "The Hanged Man's Reel", and boy can Aly Bain play the stink out of it on a hardanger on "Fully Rigged", his CD with Ale Moller.
GDGD or capoed to AEAE is another fun one, very big for Cape Breton or Scottish tunes.
ON an octave, I'd use standard Irish bouzouki tuning of GDAD. Now.. if you put a 4-course capo accross just 3 of the string pairs at the 5th fret (leave G open) you get (G)GDG.. that's a pretty cool sound.
You can go on and on and on...
allezlesbleus
Nov-10-2005, 7:49pm
Having played a couple of Hardingfele (Hardanger Fiddle in Norwegian) I can say that the bowed variety is absolutely haunting to play. You know that sound you get when you play on the 5th fret, that ring from the next string? Imagine that but more intense and on every note...it's like having a cathedral inside your instrument.
I'd suggest listening to the real Norwegian music that was written for the instrument. Players like Knut Buen, Annbjorg Lien, and our own (for us Americans) Loretta Kelley really show what the instrument can do.
ALB