Hardanger Fiddle

[robhanson]

Anyone know the difference between a Hardanger fiddle 4/4 violin (4*4 strings) vs a (4*5 strings)?
Is it just the number of drone strings?

Kind Regards,
Rob Hanson

[Casey Willis]

Hi, Rob. I don’t have any knowledge of Hardanger or 4*5 fiddles…4 strings are too many for me most days…

Anybody else feel free to chime in for Rob…

[Dockada]

I just looked at some Hardanger fiddle videos on U tube and some of them explain the difference. I think they are tuned differently, so you can’t just pick up a Harganger and play it like a fiddle.

[Kitegal]

hmmm, I posted a response but it is does not show here. Perhaps because there were two links in, one to the American Hardanger fiddle association and another one to a page they are having which is showing the diverse most popular tunings which also shows that the 4/5 relates to the drone strings.

Anyways – perhaps Casey can allow those links and show that post but if this is not easily possible then it is easy enough to Google those anyways – cheers! – Sylvia

[Casey Willis]

Hi, Kitegal.

Yes it looks like your message was blocked due to the links. I’ve published it, and you can see it at the bottom of this thread…cheers, and thanks for chiming in!

C

[Sunbreaker8898]

Usually a hardanger fiddle has four main playing strings and four or five resonating strings. It’s resonating strings have to be tuned perfectly to pitch or they won’t resonate properly. The instrument I itself is of Old Norse origin and (I believe) may have had influences on traditional Irish/Celtic fiddle music.

[Kitegal]

I got a Hardanger fiddle recently which is a 4/4. The 4/5 I am pretty sure relates to the drone strings, you can see that in the tuning link below. Those fiddles are being constantly tuned as the tuning is usually changed from tune to tune. Traditional Hardangers are pretty hard to tune so I got mine outfitted with Wittner pegs, that is really helpful. The strings are of interesting texture/materials too.

There is a lot of good information on the website of the American Hardanger Fiddle Association http://www.hfaa.org/ and this here is a “brief” overview over all the popular tunings, regular fiddle tuning being one of them although not often used http://www.hfaa.org/Home/articles-on-the-hardanger-fiddle/a-guide-to-tunings-on-the-hardingfele

Cheers! – Sylvia

[Author]

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