New Hardanger instruments navigate folk and chamber music.

The traditional Norwegian Hardanger fiddle is an iconic instrument, but have you heard of the Hardanger viola and the Hardanger cello? These new instruments were created by musician and instrument maker Ottar Kåsa, and they carry the distinctive Hardanger fiddle sound, with sympathetic strings, transferred to the viola and cello.

Like the instruments themselves, the quartet’s music harnesses both the historical and the new.

‘The music is newly composed, interspersed with arrangements of traditional Hardanger fiddle tunes, and navigates the boundaries between folk music and chamber music,’ says Vegar Vårdal, who is the main composer of the work Istem.

Folk songs, bridal marches, and lyre tunes combine lyrical beauty with rhythmic appeal, exploring the possibilities of these unique instruments.

The quartet consists of Sivert Holmen and Vegar Vårdal on Hardanger fiddles, Nora Taksdal on Hardanger viola, and Johannes Martens on Hardanger cello. Instrument maker and Hardanger fiddle player Ottar Kåsa appears as a soloist.

Image: iStem. Photo: Knut Utler.