[scraping sound]
- The most common question we get out in public
when we have these is
somebody walks up and says, "What's that?"
[music]
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My name is Earl Holzman
and I am a luthier who builds nyckelharpas.
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A nyckelharpa is a Swedish traditional folk instrument.
And in Swedish, nyckel means "key" so it's a keyed harp
and it's played with a bow.
In the United States, we currently think that
there are between 400 and 500 of them.
Well, my wife and I met folk dancing in about 1981.
We later got married and we had a son
who we raised to be a fiddler.
And when he was about 11 years old,
we were at a Swedish music and dance weekend
and he gets an opportunity to play a nyckelharpa.
And in about ten minutes, he's ripping out tunes.
And he decides, "Dad, I want one."
[drilling sound]
So we ordered a kit.
And I helped my son build a nyckelharpa because
I had been doing woodworking as a serious hobby for many years
so I had a full shop.
And he came out of it
with pretty much a playable instrument.
[upbeat string music]
The standard instrument is just over three feet long.
The keys hang down and you press them up with your left hand.
You play with a bow.
There are typically just four strings
that are played with the bow.
The standard Swedish instrument,
three of those strings have rows of keys.
Then there are 12 sympathetic resonation strings.
So as you play a tune, those resonation strings start to hum.
And it fills out the sound.
So you have this acoustic instrument with built-in reverb
and it's all natural.
[folk string music]
It's an instrument that basically can play
just about any type of music you can play on a violin.
[solemn string music]
Extremely versatile.
[lingering sound of last note played]
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A couple of years after helping my son build the instrument,
I was in a car accident, which really messed up my lower back.
[sanding sound]
So any time I would do something,
my back would start to hurt
and I was using that as an indication of what I can't do.
So I've got this extensive list of things I can never do again.
And I've got a full cabinet shop in the basement.
And I'm going crazy because
I need something to do to keep busy.
So I remembered I had this set of plans for a nyckelharpa.
So in 2011, we made arrangements
to spend two weeks with Esbjorn Hogmark in Sweden.
And Esbjorn Hogmark is a master nyckelharpa builder
who teaches people how to build nyckelharpas.
I spent two weeks in Sweden
and I'm on the airplane coming back and thinking about it.
And I think, you know, I can do this.
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I, at this time, appear to be
the only full-time nyckelharpa builder in the country.
Not deep enough yet.
I'm aware, right now of, I think, four other people
who are actively building a couple a year.
[sanding sound]
Currently I'm building
between six and eight instruments in a year.
[sanding sound]
[upbeat folk string music]
What gives me the most enjoyment is when I hand the instrument
to somebody who's actually a really good player.
Who can put the instrument through the paces and kind of
prove to me that everything works and it sounds good.
That's what gives me the biggest charge.
People ask me, "Well how did you get into this?"
I say, "Well the short answer is
this is back therapy that got out of hand."
I guess perhaps this was meant to be.
I've had a couple people tell me that,
"Oh, this is what I was supposed to end up doing."
I can't argue with it, but I'm having fun.
[scraping sound and upbeat string music]