The basic design is traditional, but Lennart likes to incorporate his own ideas in features that don’t affect the sound. The instrument he is currently working on is for a customer passionate about mediaeval instruments, so the keys reflect shapes of the era. The nyckelharpa itself has been around since the 1300s in various forms. Eighteen years ago, Lennart and Jan felt the need to escape the city and bought 25 acres on the top of Mount Mellum. It was an ex-banana farm full of weeds and degraded soil, but they loved the location with views to Moreton Bay, close enough to Brisbane and the coast, and could see its potential. The first project was to build a workshop. “There was a flat area on top made by the bobcat driver when he was building the road through the property. “It was 9 x 12 metres, so I decided that would be where the workshop would go. The flat area became an outside space and the workshop, also 9 x 12 metres, was built out from the side of the hill.” There was a very good reason for such a large structure. Lennart wanted to host folk dances on his property, and so he instructed that the timber floor be made extra strong without the usual plywood bracing underneath. “I wanted it built the old-fashioned way so it would be springy for dancing. I succeeded. I had to mount the CD player on a rubber mat,” he laughed. Once a year, the whole workshop is cleared, the floor swept, and around 20 people gather to dance the night away. “We hold the Danish mid-winter celebrations here, and a week or so later we hold a dance for our friends—two dances for the price of one clean up.”
The Danish Dance Group display their traditional dances
These are fantastic nights. I have been to several. We dance for a couple of hours, then sit around tables in the outside area, warmed by braziers and the food we bring to share. Then it’s back on the dance floor until we tire. Perhaps Lennart and Jan’s greatest achievement, however, is the transformation of their block. With mind-numbing dedication, they have turned a weedinfested block into a forest wonderland where water tumbles over moss-covered rocks through rainforest—each tree planted by themselves. Walls of lantana are now cleared grassland studded with mature trees. They have built bridges over the creek and footpaths that wind through the forest. And over it all drift the distinctive notes from the nyckelharpa as Lennart plays his beautiful Swedish music. For further information: www.nyckelharpaaustralia.com
Lennart and Jan have created a forest haven
Right: Lennart is a meticulous worker
Left: Kupaleja enjoy playing for dancers: Lennart, Kurt, Jan and Pat
HINTERLAND TIMES – FEBRUARY 2016
7