Hardanger Fiddle - Tunings

Tunings

See also Scordatura in folk music

Unlike the violin, the Hardingfele is a transposing instrument, meaning that sheet music for the Hardingfele is written in a key other than the one in which the instrument sounds when it plays that music. Specifically, the Hardingfele is a "B-flat instrument" (as is, e.g., the trumpet), meaning that the Hardingfele's "written C" corresponds to B♭ (about 466 hertz on an instrument tuned to the usual 440 Hz for the first A above middle C). The notes given below for tunings are therefore relative to the Hardingfele's written A, not to a concert A.

The understrings are tuned to vibrate according to the main tuning. For example, when the main strings are tuned A-D-A-E, the understrings are tuned B-D-E-F♯-A. The tuning largely depends on the region in which the instrument is being played, or the requirements of a particular tune.

In Norway, more than 20 different tunings are recorded. Most hardanger tunes are played in a common tuning (A-D-A-E). The hardanger fiddle can also be played in "low bass", the word "bass" referring to the lowest string, (G-D-A-E), the normal violin tuning. In certain regions the "Gorrolaus" (F-D-A-E) tuning is sometimes used.

Another tuning is called "troll tuning" (A-E-A-C♯). Troll tuning is used for the fanitullen tunes, also called the devil's tunes, as well as the tunes from the Kivlemøyane suite (thus associated with the hulderpeople as well as the devil); in the Valdres district of Norway, using this particular tuning is called "greylighting", a reminder that the fiddler tuned his fiddle like this when the morning was near, and he had played himself through a number of other tunings.

Legend has it that the fiddler learned fanitullen tunes from the devil. This tuning limits the melodic range of the tunes and is therefore sparsely used.