The Story of the Mora-Harp: Museumization and De-museumization

The collections of the Zorn-museum in Mora, Sweden, include an old nyckelharpa (literary "keyed harp"), a chordophone with three strings which can be stopped with twelve keys. This instrument, today referred to as the "Mora-harp," is probably the oldest nyckelharpa preserved. The essay outlines the few details known about the Mora-harp's existence before it became a museum specimen. In contrast, its remarkable revival, which started in the 80s, is very well documented. Today, the Mora-harp is considered a well-established instrument on the Swedish folk-music scene. The transformation of an object into a museum specimen can be called museumization. This concept principally points out the change of meaning that the object undergoes. The article argues that the revival of a musical instrument from a museum collection could be described as a reverse process of museumization, a de-museumization. It analyzes the content of this process by comparing the instrument s path into the museum with its path out. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]