The nyckelharpa (no gender in Swedish) is a Swedish acoustic wooden instrument, a member of the bowed viol family and a cousin of the hurdy-gurdy. From "nyckel" key and "harpa" harp in Swedish, its name is commonly translated as viol or violin with keys - or keyfiddleIn french nyckelarpa too, in german schlüsselfidel, in spanish viola de teclas …

It is a string instrument bowed with a short bow, and the notes are obtained by a system of keyboards with keys - the nycklar. On these keys are inserted pieces of wood called tangeantes which, under the action of the fingers pressing the keys, come to rest against one of the strings (or several, depending on the model). This shortens the vibrating length of the string, enabling a new note to be produced. Unlike the fingers on a violin, which press directly against the strings with their fingertips, muffling the upstream part of the string, in this case the entire string vibrates and there is a resonance upstream of the plunger.

It is not so easy to date and place the appearance of Nyckelharpa, but theoldest representation is a bas-relief sculpture dated 1350 showing two musicians on one of the doors of the church of Källunge on the island of Gotland in the Baltic. In 2016, at an archaeology meeting in Växjö, Sweden, the remains of a wooden key found north-west of Stockholm, in Sigtuna, were presented. Dated possibly to the 13th century and possibly from an ancient nyckelharpa, research has not yet gone far enough to prove that nyckelharpas were already present in Sweden at that time.

From its diatonic version (moraharpa, vefsenharpa, essenharpa) with a single melodic string and one or two drones, to the arrival of sympathetic strings from India and the Middle East in the 16th century, the history and evolution of the nyckelharpa is fascinating. Several books are available on the subject (Framlades then stora Nycklegijga by Per-Ulf Allmo, in Swedish only, Nyckelharpan – ett unikt svenskt kulturarv by Esbjörn Hogmark, in Swedish only).

The chromatic 3-row nyckelharpas with three melodic strings and a residual drone from the medieval period date from the 20th century and are generally tuned in D-G-D-A. They have sympathetic strings, generally 12 in number, which are neither rubbed by the bow nor operated by the keys. They resonate as soon as a note is played, giving the instrument a natural reverberation. These more modern instruments are the work of Auguste Bohlin (1877-1949), Eric Sahlström (1912-1986) and Hasse Gille (1931-2012). All three were Swedish musicians and luthiers who helped popularise the nyckelharpa. Tobo, in Sweden's Uppland region, is home to the Eric Sahlström Institute, renowned for its teaching of the nyckelharpa and nyckelharpa making.

Today, the 4-row model offers the pleasure of lower melodies and is often tuned in C-G-D-A, not to mention the perpetual evolutions and new creations by luthiers and musicians who are always researching.​

Marguerite owns two different models: a 4-row Billy keyboard viola (with more keys on the C-G-D strings) and a micro-tonal 4-row viola, adapted from a 3-row model. She offers individual lessons for beginners and false beginners.

Visit the Jean-Claude Condi website.