Lyres are found in various shapes and sizes all over the world, but they are usually plucked with fingers or strummed with a plectrum. The bowed lyre is a much rarer beast. There are only three varieties that still exist today, including the Welsh crwth and the Estonian hiiu kannel. The third is the jouhikko from Finland, a fantastic instrument that came very close to extinction during the 20th century. Pekko Käppi has been at the forefront of its revival for the past 20 years.
The word jouhikko comes from jouhi – horsehair – which makes up both the instrument’s strings and bow. Traditionally with two strings and now as many as four, it is held between the knees and played by stopping one string with the finger knuckles while the bow also vibrates a second string as a drone. The player’s four fingers, held in a fixed position, mean that each string can only play five notes. The jouhikko’s scratchy, hair-on-hair timbre, constant drone and restricted range give it a guttural, throaty and naturalistic sound. It conjures in the mind smells of earth and woodsmoke, helped along by an evocative Nordic repertoire. It’s a sound that entranced Käppi from the start. He enthuses, “the first jouhikko I found, I plucked it, and it still gives me goosebumps to remember it. I hadn’t heard anything like that before. It sounded so old and otherworldly. It still sounds like that.”
No-one really knows how old the jouhikko is. It’s probably one of Europe’s oldest bowed instruments and there are theories that it evolved from Viking instruments, but, as Käppi laments, “there are lots of empty spots in the story of the jouhikko.” What is known is that by the turn of the 20th century, folk musicians had abandoned the instrument in favour of the more versatile fiddle and accordion. “There was only one family in Finland that kept playing,” he explains. “The fathers taught their children. The lineage was still going, but it wasn’t used in weddings or folk music any more. It had no functional use. It was practically dead.” It clung on, though, and a revival began in the 1980s amid renewed interest in the old Finnish music. It was pulled from the brink, but only just. By the time Käppi picked it up, there were still only a small handful of players, but that’s changing: “When I started to play jouhikko in 1997, there were maybe ten active players. I knew them all. But nowadays I don’t know all of them by name! It’s like the golden age of the bowed lyre, it starts to be again.”
A lot of that is down to Käppi and his contemporaries proving the range that the humble instrument can reach. Käppi himself, while also a scholar of the jouhikko’s folk repertoire, also turns it in the direction of heavy metal and punk – he even has a personalised instrument in the shape of a skull with flashing eyes. There is also Ilkka Heinonen, who finds space for the instrument among Baroque, jazz and avant-garde electronics, and Rauno Neimenen, now the premiere jouhikko maker in Finland. Together with Marianne Maans, they make up the Jouhiorkesteri, the first-ever all-jouhikko group.
The story of the past 20 years is encouraging, and Käppi has certainly played his part. He’s under no illusions, however, that the jouhikko is completely saved. For the instrument to be truly secure, it needs a next generation. Most players nowadays start in their 20s, and Käppi is searching for solutions. “There are not young kids playing jouhikko, because the jouhikkos are all too big! But a couple of years ago, we designed with Rauno a children’s jouhikko. It works really well, and my daughters have started to play. If it’s possible to start earlier, that’s a good thing for the future. That’s what makes the tradition living again, if there are younger people carrying it on. But we’ll see.”
Photo: Pekko Käppi live at WOMEX 19, by Jacob Crawfurd.