HAMMERED DULCIMER: AN AMERICAN TRADITION
HAMMERED DULCIMER: AN AMERICAN TRADITION
A Little About Hammered Dulcimers
The hammered dulcimer in America is a traditional stringed
instrument that been in revival over the last 30 years. It can
now be heard in contemporary music, seen at folk festivals, and
bought over the Internet. For those new to the instrument, it is
typically trapezoidal in shape with many strings running over
two long bridges, the treble bridge and the bass bridge. The
instrument is mostly played with two small, wooden hammers that
are used to strike the strings.
Someone once used the following poetic phrase to describe the
magical sound of the hammered dulcimer:
"At once the flutter of Angel's wings and the crashing of
symbols."
Indeed, the hammered dulcimer is a curious and ungainly
combination of subtlety and brashness, of the outrageous and the
sublime, of beautiful lines and an awkward shape. Yet, as a solo
instrument, its emotive range is such that a hammered dulcimer
can be played in celebration at a wedding and in sorrow at a
funeral. It revels in the square dance and is somber in the
dirge. Like its younger cousin, the piano, it can find a place
in a choir-filled sanctuary, the modern recording studio, and
the small, quiet parlor of a home. In short, as a musical
instrument it is delightfully flexible and interestingly complex.
The dulcimer can also be played in a variety of ways: it can be
gently plucked with the fingers, crudely dampened with duct
tape, played with hammers that ring brightly or that soften the
blow in bell-like tones.
A Little About Dulcimer Players
Dulcimer players themselves are sometimes an odd lot. As the
world chases the newest fad in music, and pushes to the next
extreme, dulcimer players sometimes look over their shoulders.
They look for the value in a rich and deep tradition of a music
that always tells a story - often with outrageous humor and a
twinkle in the eye. In a sense, theirs is a path, in the words
of folk musicians Aileen and Elkin Thomas, for those who can't
walk straight, else why would they veer into a retro-culture of
a century and more ago.
The dulcimer player is almost always a communal person because
the dulcimer is such a communal instrument. And because the
dulcimer is not usually amplified, it draws people unto itself,
into a close circle of raucous and entertaining melody.
The dulcimer player celebrates that time in our American
history, and in our world, when, from here at least, things
looked simpler and happier and slower. While the dulcimer plays,
things are even so.
The act of playing a dulcimer is a solid, experiential link to a
time when people made their own, well, just about everything.
The dulcimer enjoyed a good part of its history not as a factory
instrument, but as an instrument crafted by the musician. The
hands that played it made it.
Today, during its revival, the hammered dulcimer is still
handcrafted around the country by a variety of luthiers; but it
is also being manufactured by companies intent on making it
lighter, smaller and more portable.
Hammered vs. Mountain
In America two instruments are called "dulcimer": the hammered
dulcimer and the mountain dulcimer. They are two completely
different instruments, but often found and played in the same
circles. The hammered dulcimer, as previously stated, is
trapezoidal with many strings, and is played with small, wooden
"hammers." The mountain dulcimer is small, often hour-glass or
tear-drop shaped, has four fretted strings, and is usually
played on one's lap by strumming somewhat like a guitar.
The hammered dulcimer has a long tradition in American history.
Here are some little-known but interesting facts about it.
Hammered Dulcimer Trivia
* The earliest record of a hammered dulcimer in America is from
May 23, 1717 in Medford, Mass. where it was played in the home
of the Rev. Aaron Porter, a graduate of Harvard College.
* Alexander Hamilton (not the statesman), playing the cello,
accompanied the hammered dulcimer on November 21, 1752 at The
Tuesday Club in Annapolis, MD.
* The first professional hammered dulcimer player (unnamed)
mentioned in American history was promoted by one Richard
Brickell in 1752 in New York.
* The word "dulcimer" was often spelled dulcimore, dulcemer,
dolsemor.
* The oldest hammered dulcimer now existing in America may only
date to 1800, and was probably made in Seneca, New York.
* Sometime in the 1830s or '40s, hammered dulcimer-maker Richard
Vernon of Stokes County, North Carolina once shipped 75
dulcimers to New Orleans on a flatboat down the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers. Early American hammered dulcimers were often
rectangular.
* The earliest recorded value of a hammered dulcimer (1844) may
have only been $1.00! It was part of the estate of one William
Moon, Madison County, Alabama.
* The tuning pins of early hammered dulcimers were hand-forged.
* The first instruction book for the hammered dulcimer was
published in 1848 by C. Haight under the title Complete System
for the Dulcimer.
* In the Great Lakes Region the hammered dulcimer was sometimes
called the "lumberjack's piano"!
* Montgomery Ward, in his 1894-1895 catalog, sold hammered
dulcimers. Sears and Roebuck followed in 1897 and sold them for
$24.90!
* Early hammered dulcimer soundboards were often made of common
woods like pine or hemlock. Today they are usually made of
Redwood, Western Red Cedar, Mahogany, or Sitka Spruce.
* Common configurations for 19-century hammered dulcimers were
9/0, 10/7, 11/6, 11/7, 12/3, and 12/11. (The left number
indicates the number of treble courses; the right number
indicates the number of bass courses. A "course" is a set of one
or more strings tuned to the same note on the musical scale.)
* 19th-century hammers typically had whalebone shafts.
* Among the earliest recording of any variety of American
vernacular music is that of the hammered dulcimer! Performed by
Roy Gibson at the Edison studio in 1910.
* A hammered dulcimer was part of Henry Ford's orchestra in
1925!
If you have any questions about this wonderful musical
instrument, please feel free to contact me at my Web site.