Norwegian Folk Instruments on 1978 Postage Stamps

Norwegian Folk Instruments on 1978 Postage Stamps

Traditional musical instruments are a common focus of postage stamps from around the world. There are a number of reasons that they are so popular. They can highlight cultural pride among different groups of people within a country. Or, perhaps they feature the cultural traditions of an ethnic minority and make them feel an important part of a country. On a practical level, they tend to make very attractive sets!

The Stamps

In 1978, the country of Norway created a set of postage stamps that feature folk instruments. Three of the four stamps feature only an instrument by itself. The fourth stamp, shows a performer playing on a flute. The stamps are quite beautiful, each a monochromatic color printed on a white background.

Scott Number NO 734

The first stamp features a folk flute known as the seljefløyte, or in English the willow or sallow flute. The most important feature of the instrument is a small fipple, or a notch with a sharp edge into which the player blows air. There are no fingerholes on the instrument and so it can only create pitches from the overtone series based on the length of the tube. The musician blows into a notched opening, called a fipple, which has a sharp edge that produces a whistling sound. Different pitches are created by the force of the air. A player can also change the series of pitches by using their finger to block the end of the flute.

Hardanger Fiddle

Scott Number NO 735

The second stamp is dedicated to the Norwegian hardingfele, or a hardanger fiddle. The hardanger is very similar to a violin. The biggest difference is that in addition to the four playing strings, there are additional sympathetic strings that lay below the fingerboard and tailpiece.

Hardanger Fiddle, Wood, mother-of-pearl, ebony, bone, Norwegian
Hardanger Fiddle, 1756
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Open Access

When the bow plays the main strings, these additional strings ring “in sympathy.” This gives the fiddle a “shimmering” quality to the sound and an additional richness to its sonority.

Hardanger fiddles are richly decorated. They usually have a carved and painted peg head, fantastically inlaid fingerboards and tailpieces, and additional ink decoration on their bodies.

Langeleik

Scott Number NO 736

The third instrument in the stamp series is the langeleik. It is a type of zither with one melody string and additional drone strings. On the soundboard under the melody string are metal frets to demarcate the individual pitches of a diatonic scale. The additional strings are tuned to a major triad.

Langeleik
late 18th or early 19th c.
Metropolitan Museum
Open Access

The langeleik is related to other European droned zithers such as the German scheitholt and the Swedish hummel. These kind of zithers may be as old as the sixteenth century. In North America, the Appalachian dulcimer is a related instrument.

The region of Norway known as the Valdres as well as the area formerly known as the Vardal are the only places that have a continuous and living tradition of the langeleik. Musicians use the langeleik for playing folk music and it has had a resurgence throughout the country in recent years.

Langeleiks can be plain, or have decorative features such as inlaid binding around the soundboard, or decorative cut out soundholes.

Bukkehorn

Scott Number NO 737
Bukkehorn, Ram's horn, Norwegian
Bukkehorn, ca. 1883
Metropolitan Museum
Open Access

The final stamp in the series features an ancient instrument, the bukkehorn, or in English, a billy goat horn. The instrument is made from a ram’s or goat’s horn and has several finger holes. The player blows air and buzzes their lips into the small end, like with a trumpet, to create sound. Shepherds and milkmaids in Norway use the instrument to play signals between mountains.

What do the instruments sound like? Make sure to check some of them out. Here is a traditional example of the hardanger fiddle. I hope you enjoy.