Albert Edelfelt’s kantele

October 23, 2024

In the information about the origin of the kantele SM128 in the Sibelius Museum, there is one sentence: “Tillhört Albert Edelfelt” – could this really be Albert Edelfelt’s kantele?

Albert Edelfelt (1854–1905), once the undisputed leading figure of Finnish art and internationally one of the most famous Finnish painters, was born in a noble manor and according to the journalist Marja Kaipainen (1983, 15), ‘the manor milieu was the only one he ever knew in his country’. His father, Carl Albert Edelfelt, came from a Swedish military family ennobled in 1688, and his mother, Alexandra Brandt, was born to a Porvoo merchant and shipowner and grew up living at Kiiala Manor.

In keeping with the aristocratic upbringing of the time, young Edelfelt enjoyed painting as well as music, singing, dancing, writing poetry and acting. He was also very talented in languages and, in addition to his native Swedish, spoke fluent French as an adult, knew Danish, German, English and Russian, corresponded in Finnish with Juho Rissanen and also learnt Spanish and Italian during his travels – and he had studied Greek and Latin at university. At the age of sixteen, his talents were said to indicate a career as an actor, painter, musician, linguist or writer. (Kaipainen 1983, 15, 32, 41; Kallio & Sivén 2004, 31, 199.)

The mother, Alexandra Brandt, was famously musical, and besides her, Albert’s sisters Annie and Berta played the piano, Berta also the guitar. Eliel Aspelin-Haapkylä wrote appreciatively of the 17-year-old Albert’s artistic qualities, but more critically of his piano playing:

– – Pianolla hän osasi soittaa rämpyttää vain marsseja ja laulusävelmiä, eikä hän laulajanakaan ollut merkittävä, joskin hän retkikunnan vaatimattomassa “kvartetissa” edusti ensimmäistä bassoa. Sitä vastoin hän lausui runoelmia ponnekkaasti ja ajatusvärityksellä. (Kallio & Sivén 2004, 29)

[On the piano he could only play marches and songs, and as a singer he was not remarkable, although he was the first bass in the expedition’s modest ‘quartet’. On the other hand, he recited poetry with vigour and thoughtfulness.]

In one of his letters to his mother from Paris, Edelfelt describes spending Christmas 1877 in an artists’ café on the Boulevard de Clichy. A passing remark gives the impression that making music was a natural part of Edelfelt’s life: – – joulukuusi sytytettiin, Borgin kronikka (humoristinen) luettiin ja sitten musisoitiin loputtomiin. (Kaipainen 1983, 72.) [- – the Christmas tree was lit, Borg’s chronicle (humorous) was read and then we made music endlessly.]

Against this background, “Albert Edelfelt’s kantele” does not sound so extraordinary. Especially when you consider the symbolic value of the kantele – with the status of a national instrument – among Karelianists and nationalists at the turn of the 19th century.

Among the artists of the Golden Age of Finnish Art, Pekka Halonen (1865–1933) is best known as a kantele player. He inherited his love of the instrument from his mother, Vilhelmiina Halonen (1840–1913). The kantele accompanied Halonen to Paris, where Eero Järnefelt, who was also mentioned as a talented pianist, painted the piece Koti-ikävä [Homesick] in 1891. A few years later, when the kantele had been left in Finland, Halonen built himself a 22-string kantele in Paris (a skill he had learnt from his father), because it was difficult to be without one. (Halonen 1965, 27–28, 41.)

In 1894 Akseli Gallén-Kallela ordered a five-string kantele from Pekka Halonen’s brother, Antti Halonen, and learned to play it. He wrote to Pekka about the connection he felt through the importance of art and music: Sinä käsität sellaisia asioita, joita ei voi sanoilla selittää – tuntuu kuin olisivat ne tunteet ainoastaan kuvaamataiteen ja soiton kautta mahdolliset muotoon muokkailla. (Halonen 1965, 29.) [You understand things that can’t be explained with words – it seems that these feelings can only be expressed through visual art and music.]

Eino Leino also received kantele lessons from the Halonen family (Halonen 1965, 37), and Juhani Aho‘s text Alakuloisuuden ylistys, published in 1891, leaves no room for doubt about his close relationship with the kantele.

As part of the Lake Tuusula’s artist community and on the occasion of Juhani Aho’s birthday on 11 September 1899, Jean Sibelius composed a violin obligato to Vilhelmiina Halonen’s 5-string kantele waltz, played by the Halonen brothers. (Jalkanen 2010, 343–345.)

And one more connection. In 1908, Louis Sparre donated a 10-string kantele to the Porvoo Museum (BM2948). There is no information about the origin of the kantele, but as it is hollowed out from the top, it represents the southern type. Louis Sparre made two one-week trips to Viena Karelia in 1890 with Akseli Gallén-Kallela (Mary Gallén-Kallela accompanied them on the first trip), a longer trip in 1892 with Emil Wikström, and a fourth visit with his wife Eva Mannerheim Sparre in 1893. In his book Taiteilijaelämää (1951), Eva Mannerheim Sparre briefly mentions Pahkomi Menentjev, whom they met in Akonlahti during this trip and who accompanied his runo singing on a five-string kantele.

In 1894, a year after the Sparres’ trip to Viena, Louis Sparre wrote to Pekka Halonen in Paris, describing his visit to the Halonens’ home in Lapinlahti:

– – Äitisi soitti meille kanteletta, samoin pikkuveljesi, joka oli suorastaan mestarillinen. Vaimoni oli aivan ihastunut häneen. Kovasti on puolisoni edistynyt kanteleensoitossa, luonnollisesti kantele on mukanamme täällä. Usein soitamme Pirtissä kaikkien huviksi, vaimoni kannelta ja minä toisinaan kitaraa. (Halonen 1965, 38.)

[– – Your mother played the kantele for us, as did your little brother, who was downright masterful. My wife was quite taken with him. My spouse has made great progress in playing the kantele, of course the kantele is with us here. We often play in Pirtti for everyone’s enjoyment, my wife plays the kantele and sometimes I play the guitar.]

So Eva Mannerheim Sparre, the sister of Marshal Mannerheim, was also a kantele player.

All these great names in Finnish art were connected, and all of them had a connection with the kantele.

The Edelfelt family died out in Finland with the death of Annie and Berta Edelfelt in 1934. Kantele SM128 was donated to the Sibelius Museum in 1935.

The kantele is a beautiful piece of handicraft and its construction is one example among many in the long transition period when the hollow kantele was replaced by the large kantele. The old tradition is still present in the fan-like position of the strings and the downward curving ponsi part.

The kantele has 24 steel strings. The notes for each string are written on a piece of paper placed under the strings. According to it, the kantele is tuned to harmonic G-minor, from G2 to Bb5. The tape used to attach the paper suggests that it was attached after Albert Edelfelt’s death, as the main invention of adhesive tape was not made until the 1920s.

Lähteitä:

Aho, Juhani 1891: “Alakuloisuuden ylistys” in the book Lastuja: kertomuksia ja kuvauksia. Porvoo: WSOY, 119–122.

Halonen, Antti 1965: Latu lumessa. Pekka Halosen etsijäntie. Helsinki: Tammi.

Hintze, Bertel 1953: Albert Edelfelt. Porvoo: WSOY.

Jalkanen, Pekka 2010: “Ihanteellisuuden aika” in the book Kantele, ed. by Risto Blomster. Helsinki, SKS, 311-369.

Kaipainen, Marja 1983: Albert Edelfelt. Kuihtumaton ruusutarha. Helsinki: Watti-Kustannus.

Kallio, Rakel & Sivén, Douglas 2004: Albert Edelfelt. Helsinki: Douglas Productions Oy.

Kansallisbiografia: Edelfelt, Albert (1854 – 1905)  https://kansallisbiografia.fi/kansallisbiografia/henkilo/3217

Sparre Mannerheim, Eva 1951: Taiteilijaelämää. Helsinki: Otava.

Sparre, Louis 1930: Kalevalan kansaa katsomassa. Muistiinpanoja Kauko-Karjalan retkeltä v. 1893. Porvoo: WSOY.