The Kantele – Finland's national instrument

Ewa Kurzak

• The kantele (or kannel) and rune-singing both symbolise ancient Finnish culture. In the Kalevala, Elias Lönnrot had constructed an image of a mythic kantele, made of the jawbone of a pike, as the typically Finnish musical instrument of the epic hero Väinämöinen. In the final stages of the work, the kantele is an essential part of the power of Väinämöinen's song. It was thus, through the Kalevala, that the kantele became, in the 19th century, the Finns' national instrument.

• The kantele is the oldest Finnish folk instrument, and is classed as a cordophone, that is, an instrument whose sound arises from a string stretched between two fixed points. The other Finnic tribes of the Baltic used similar instruments, as did a few Finno-Ugrian peoples, in addition to the Balts and the Russians.

Pupils from Naasin Koulu do national instruments - Kandelas.

„Vejnemejnen play kandele”