Swedish sifferskrift (partly) explained

GRANDFATHER’S PSALMODIKON, OR THE
PSALMODIKON IN AMERICA
Ardith K. Melloh

Reprinted with permission from The Swedish Pioneer Historical Quarterly
October 1981. On the Nordic American Psalmodikonforbundet website at http://www.psalmodikon.com/articles/index.htm

A description of modes, etc., that might be enough to tell how to play the Swedish sifferskrift:

A recent book on [Johan] Dillner by Leif Eeg-Olofsson states
that a psalmodikon and numerical notation were used as early
as 1822-23 in Denmark, but were discontinued after about
five years. In Norway, Christian Gottried Bohr published
numerical music in 1825. Its widespread use there, however,
was due to Lars Roverud who improved the instrument and
made changes in the notation. Like Dillner, he deplored poor
congregational singing and the two men could have
exchanged ideas when Roverud visited Stockholm in 1828.
Dillner also made changes to simplify and
improve the instrument and its notation, but basically the Norwegian
and Swedish instruments were the same: a single
string stretched over a long wooden box with a fretted, hardwood
fingerboard marked in half-steps and the notation numbers
marked beside the fingerboard. On Swedish psalmodikons
the spaces between the frets were colored white and black.
Dillner’s notation used numbers one through eight together
with some simple signs; Norwegians used numbers one
through seven. Placing the instrument and music on a table,
the
standing or seated player looked from the music to the numbers
beside the fingerboard and pressed down the single
sheep-gut string in the correct place as he played it with a violin
bow. Being a monochord, only one
melody line could be played on an instrument. When more
parts were needed two to four instruments were used. To
change key, Norwegians used a set of thin boards with different
scales that could be easily attached beside the fingerboard. Dillner omitted these transpositional boards by having the
player retune the string. A capital letter placed
below the number of the psalm was the note on the organ to
which the open string should be tuned and it was followed by
the scale of the mode in which the
music was written. Players and singers had to
memorize the six mode scales just as they do key
signatures today. However, as most songs were in the Ionic
mode, there was little need for retuning the string. The use
of modes even made exact tuning
unnecessary when the instrument was played alone and the
string only needed to be loosened or tightened to suit the
player or the singer.

Also this, which gives a hint regarding performance practice:

Even after seeing a psalmodikon I never really expected
to hear one, but that came true on July 28, 1978, at the
Nordic Fest in Decorah, Iowa, when Henry Storhoff of
Lanesboro, Minnesota, played his Norwegian salmodikon.
He does not know who made it, but it has been in his
family for about a hundred years and was given to him by
his grandparents Kulsrud of rural Lanesboro about thirty
years ago. It had been used in their farm home and also
to lead the singing at the local parochial school. It is made
of spruce with some pine wood and is 40 by 3 ½ by 1 ½
inches with a single string and a finger board marked by
metal frets. After making necessary repairs he taught
himself to play it, aided by an instruction book from
Norway. Being a fiddler, he used both a violin bow and
technique to produce vibrato, as he pressed the string
down just behind the fret. This gives a smooth melody,
pleasing to present-day listeners. Although he has a
Norwegian book with music in numerical notation, he plays
by ear and has marked the letters on his instrument. To
produce more volume for large audiences, he uses a steel
string tuned to G below middle C and rests the instrument
on a stand constructed to hold it with a minimum of
physical contact. This gives more resonance than the
traditional way and he is able to produce a volume of
sound somewhat less than that of a good violin. From
comments made by people in the audience and the way
they joined in singing the last hymn, “What a Friend We
Have In Jesus,” there was no question that others enjoyed
hearing it as much as I did.