The kantele is the Finnish national instrument. It is traditionally used to accompany rune songs that make up the Kalevala — the Finnish national epic. It also features heavily within the Kalevala story, where the hero Väinämöinen crafts a magical kantele from the jawbone of a pike.
In its most basic and ancient form, the kantele is a simple five-string instrument, ideally suited to playing rune songs as they only use the first five notes of the diatonic scale.
What makes the kantele sound unique is its lack of a bridge. Most stringed instruments use a bridge — a solid piece of wood, bone, plastic or metal — to transmit the strings' vibrations to the hollow soundbox. Without a bridge, the notes produced by the kantele are very quiet with a sustained bell-like quality. With its intimate, meditative quality of music, the kantele is perhaps best suited to playing alone rather than to an audience.
In recent years, the instrument has been updated and ‘improved’ with the addition of extra strings, tuning mechanisms and electronic pickups, but the old five-string version still remains popular, as it is easy to make and play.
Kantele players featured in The Pure Drop:
