German immigrants brought their Scheitholtz with them when they settled in Pennsylvania. The Scheitholtz then worked its way down south along the Philadelphia Road into Virginia. Here a Scheitholtz was place on a larger sound box providing a transition between the Scheitholtz and the Dulcimer.
It was further south along the Wilderness Road in southwestern Virginia that the Dulcimer we know today was born. Someone experimented with the Scheitholtz and simplified it.
They took just the fretted fingerboard of the scheitholtz and put it on a larger sound box. They eliminated the 3 chords and just used 2 drone strings constantly played forming a major chord.
Introduction into the Orient came much later. The Chinese version is still known as the yang ch'in, or foreign zither. Though its use in China is reported to date from about the beginning of the 19th century, Korean tradition claims association with the hammer dulcimer from about Although the early keyboard string instruments could have been derived from either psaltery or dulcimer, it seems logical that the dulcimer provided much of the inspiration for the piano.
The dulcimer is capable of considerable dynamic nuance; a wide range of effects from loud to soft can be achieved, depending on the manner in which the player strikes the strings. Harpsichords were quite limited in this quality of expressiveness and the clavichord was severely limited in volume. The pianoforte was the result of attempts to overcome these restraints, and the solution was to excite the strings with leather or felt hammers as on the dulcimer.
One early form of the piano even bears the name of a 17th-century Prussian dulcimer, the pantaleon. The most elaborate of dulcimers is certainly the cimbalom, developed around the end of the 19th century in Hungary.
This instrument is a mainstay in the music of the Hungarian gypsies and is used as a concert instrument. The cimbalom is equipped with a damper mechanism and has a range of four chromatic octaves. Most other dulcimers are tuned to a diatonic scale with ranges of two to three octaves.
Dulcimers were reasonably common domestic and concert instruments in the United States during the 18th and 19th centuries. No doubt they were first brought to the colonies from England where they were used in the street music of the time. Portability and simplicity made the dulcimer much more practical than the piano for many settlers. These attributes probably led to its association with the lumber camps of Maine and Michigan. It is still referred to as a "lumberjack's piano" in the North.
As names for the dulcimer go, however, the American appellation "whamadiddle" must be ranked as most colorful, with a close second in the German term "hackbrett," literally "chopping board! It is interesting that in this era of folk instrument revivals the Appalachian dulcimer, which never had a very widespread distribution in the past, is getting considerable attention from urban performers, while the once well-known hammer dulcimer has faded into relative obscurity.
Occasionally, old dulcimers can be found in the Appalachians, Maine, New York, and in various parts of the Midwest. Several dulcimer factories were thriving in western New York during the s and s.
Even so, along its long and arduous journey through varying countries around the world, the hammered dulcimer has maintained its existence, and relative obscurity since then. What is your opinion on the origination of the hammered dulcimer? Let us know in the comments below! We here at Songbird Dulcimers want you to experience this beautiful instrument. Discover the joys of playing the dulcimer, just as generations around the world before you!
Visit our hammered dulcimer store to be a part of its modern-day revival. Piano strings image: torbakhopper , CC BY 2. She helped with odds and ends in the business, attended folk music festivals, and learned the importance of hard work. These days, you can find her belly dancing to instrumental Arabic music, learning the Serbian language, making short films with friends, and cuddling her cat Georgie. Fantastic article! This is the most well written and condensed history of the dulcimer.
I know, as I have taught a few workshops on hammered dulcimer history, so I have done a bit of research. Thank you! This is a wonderful reference piece. Do you know when that innovation appeared? Thanks, Chris! I do not know when that innovation took place, but know it was well established by the Renaissance.
I have seen actual instruments from then that look very much like ours. Interesting article. But I have wondered — how much of the resurgence of the HD and mountain dulcimer, for that matter has been enabled by the advent of the electronic tuner?
I, for one, would not even consider maintaining a HD if I had to tune it by ear and a tuning fork. Your email address will not be published. Strings were generally metal and borrowed from other instruments, but strings specifically for dulcimer are now manufactured. The fingerboard was divided by metal frets into two and a half to three octaves of a diatonic scale, rendering the dulcimer a modal instrument.
The two most commonly used modes seem to have been the ionian major scale beginning on the third fret and the mixolydian, beginning on the open string. The dorian 4th fret and aeolian 1st fret were probably also used. The frets on earlier dulcimers were placed under only the first two strings, but most dulcimers made after have frets extendng the full width of the fingerboard, an innovation that allows wider ranges for melody lines and chording on the other strings.
On traditional dulcimers the strings are tuned according to the mode being used. Two common ionian tunings had the melody and middle strings at the same pitch, a fifth or octave above the bass string.
Other tunings included the melody and bass strings an octave apart with the middle string a fifth above the bass or the strings tuned to create either a major or minor chord. Contemporary players have devised even more tunings and have adopted the use of capos to change keys without retuning. Traditional playing styles on the dulcimer were probably varied, consisting of adaptations of other instrumental techniques, notably the bowing of the scheitholt and fiddle and the strumming by hand or plectrum of the banjo and guitar.
The instrument was usually placed horizontally across a table or the player's lap with the right hand sounding the strings with fingers or a plectrum made from wood or a feather quill while the left hand played a melody line by pressing down on the fretboard with a noter usually a rounded stick or twig or fingers. Generally melodies were played on the first string only the other strings functioned as drones resulting in a musical effect similar to that of bagpipes.
Sophisticated techniques for utilizing all the strings for melody, for playing chords, and for finger-picking have been developed by both traditional and contemporary dulcimer players, notably Frank Proffitt, Jr.
Noters and picks specifically for dulcimer are now manufactured. The older British-derived repertoire was emphasized by the romanticists of the instrument, and the dulcimer is still associated today with those styles of music, although contemporary players have expanded the repertoire enormously. Because of its soft volume, the dulcimer is thought to have been used either as accompaniment to singing or for instrumental solos, but it was also used in string bands and instrumental duets where it functioned as a melody instrument and also provided harmony and a rhythmic background through the slapping of the pick against the strings.
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