The one feature of the Jouhikko/Taglharpa that is said to be “standard” is the individual uniqueness of each one: no two are exactly alike. They are simple in design, so that they could be crafted by common Folk with basic materials. They are an unpretentious and sturdy musical instrument, each with a distinct identity and a deeply ancient, evocative, and moving sound…

Jouhikantele/Taglharpa is designated it as part of the Bowed-Lyre family of instruments, fitting into the narrow main class of bowed-lyre instruments, where the tuning pegs are located in parallel upon the crossbar, supported by two arms, typically having a version of a cello/viola-type tailpiece. The Jouhikko/Talharpa is somewhat removed from the ancient bowed-lyre, but more closely related to the Western-European round lyre of the Middle-Ages. When-playing, the instrument is held diagonally, upright, and the bordun note plays at the bottom of the melody…

Academics that specialize in the study of the Taglharpa/Jouhikko date it's origin as far back as the Chludov Psaltery illustration, from the Byzantine Empire, circa 850-CE (see illustration); others have sited the Commentaria in Apocalypsin, a book written & illustrated in the eighth century by the Spanish monk and theologian Beatus of Liébana (circa 790-CE) which also features musicians playing similar Bowed-instruments (see illustration). In addition to those sources, there is yet another proposed origin that theorizes the Bowed-Lyre may be as old as the horse cultures of the central steppes of ancient Eurasia, some 4,200-years-ago. The fact that the Taglharpa is anciently named after the horse & parts of the horse’s body gives credibility to this claim…

One early observation of the bowed-lyre north of the Alps is a picture of a bowed-lyre player carved into a tombstone found in Hungary, dated to 800–500 BCE. According to one theory, the native Celts spread the lyre during the first-millennium BCE from the Danube to the British Isles, from where it was transported to the native Germans around Denmark. Related archaeological research has unearthed a 7th-century Lyra tread has been found in Gotland, and an 8th-century tread has been found in Birka. According to written sources, the Celts called the lyre crwth, crewet, cruet, crot, English rote, French rote and German rotte…

The great similarities in instrument construction, performance, functions, and playing-styles leave no doubt of a common source \origin and the extensive international interactions that spread this type of distinct Folk instrument…

The most captivating aspect of this musical instrument is the understanding that it is a tangible vestige of the material culture of peoples from over 2000-years-ago; and when one generates sounds from it, playing it in the same manner it was played thousands-of-years ago, that person is palpably experiencing the unchanged musical sounds and a moment in history of the culture of those ancient peoples.