finnish/hardanger

there are some nice recordings by Hank Buen who so far is the best ihave heard on the hardanger fiddle. There is a very distrinctivestretch to the intonation in the upper register that i haven't quitefigured out. As far as i know only 4 strings are played and yes therest are sympathethic.

The finish recordings have sounded more polish to my ear than anythingand often with modern guitars etc and just not convincing. There arevery few recordings i have found.

I have quite enjoyed the harmonic flutes from your area, especially thelarge ones that start low and place the harmonics in mid range.

,',',',Kraig Grady,',',',
'''''''North/Western Hemisphere:
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
'''''''South/Eastern Hemisphere:
Austronesian Outpost of Anaphoria
',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',

-----Original Message-----
From: Petr Parízek [mailto:p.parizek@chello.cz]
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 07:52 AM
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [tuning] Re: A Rational Well Temperament

Kraig wrote:

> there are interesting intonational practices of the hardanger fiddle music which in
> the upper octive will have an differnent intonation than the lower. it far exceeeds so much
> of the so called classical repetoire of the violin.

AFAIK, the hardanger fiddle has eight (or nine?) strings, only four of which are meant to be played. The rest are short resonating strings tuned to some higher pitches which are fifths or thirds from some of the lower tones, I don’t know exactly how it works. The point is that this makes the player learn to play as much in tune as possible. A few years ago, there was a programme on the Czech tv where recordings of some hardanger violinists were played, I mean, not only in groups but also solo players. I was surprised how close their intonation was to 5-limit JI even with the tiny commatic differences -- one of them, when playing in E major, played B-G# almost like 5/3 and B-A almost like 16/9 (I didn’t actually hear the 16/9 but I could clearly hear the upper voice rising from G# to A by a nice minor second which I heard almost like 16/15). When he then changed to G major, he played B-A not as 16/9 but very close to 9/5 (which was quite logical because he was playing B-G before and it would break the harmonic series if he raised the upper voice by 10/9 instead of 9/8).
What I know much more about is the overtone flute (meaning the one without finger holes) primarily because I like playing it myself. :-D It’s surprising how many cultures také this instrument as their traditional folk instrument -- in Swedish „sälgflöjt“, in Norwegian „seljeflöyte“, in Slovak „koncovka“ (sometimes we call it the same in Czech because some of the Moravian folk melodies are also played on this flute), also in Swahili it’s „filimbi“. Not knowing what it’s called there, I’ve also read about it being used in the Solomon Islands.
I have several here at home -- one of them is played like a recorder, the rest are transverse flutes. When I first played an overtone flute in 2003, I very quickly got the opinion that the harmonic series is the nicest series of intervals that has ever existed in music. If you like to know something more about the flute, let me know.

> I have been disapoined with the ocora and the La Chant de Monde etc. recordings
> i have gotten from finland.

Why? What are they like?

> I would assume that the finnish being associated witrh russia would be a point of contention
> as they have been pretty sucessful in fighting them off!

Well, I really don’t know almost anything about the history of the events.

Petr

Kraig wrote:

> I have quite enjoyed the harmonic flutes from your area, especially

> the large ones that start low and place the harmonics in mid range.

Where have you heard them?

Petr

recordings. one is an inedit recording. i have 1500 world music Cds butthey won't be here till it looks like wednesday. So i can'tremember the others. never live unfortunately.

,',',',Kraig Grady,',',',
'''''''North/Western Hemisphere:
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
'''''''South/Eastern Hemisphere:
Austronesian Outpost of Anaphoria
',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',',

-----Original Message-----
From: Petr Par�zek [mailto:p.parizek@chello.cz]
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 01:57 PM
To: tuning@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [tuning] finnish/hardanger

Kraig wrote:

> I have quite enjoyed the harmonic flutes from your area, especially
> the large ones that start low and place the harmonics in mid range.

Where have you heard them?

Petr