The hammered dulcimer once flourished in this United States. By the 1930s it was nearly extinct, but in isolated areas along the Michigan-Ohio border, it has survived to the present day. Brought to North America by early colonists from Europe, the dulcimer quickly became established in the Anglo-American folk tradition and grew still more popular during the 1800s. Portable, cheap, and easy to build, it answered the pioneer’s need for music on the western frontier. Thousands of dulcimers were produced in American homes, shops, and factories. In the early 20th century even large mail-order houses like Sears, Roebuck, and Co. and Montgomery Ward sold dulcimers through their catalogs. Hammered dulcimers are particularly interesting because, unlike pianos and organs, most were built in homes or small shops scattered throughout the country. Hence, they reflect regional and personal tastes. The hammered dulcimer occupies that musical no man’s land between the “pure folk” and “popular” traditions.

The basic shape of the dulcimer is trapezoidal, but in America instruments were often built into rectangular bodies. During the 19th century a “parlor model” developed, for which legs and a hinged cover were added to veneered or stained rectangular bodies of increasing elegance (Figure 1). The parlor dulcimer seems to have been particularly popular in more affluent regions, especially New England and the area along the Ohio-Michigan border.

There were considerable regional and individual variations in American dulcimers, but in general they were 30-48 inches in length, 12-24 inches in width, and 2-6 inches in depth. The strings, made of brass or steel wire, were arranged in groups or “courses” of two to six strings each. The strings of each course were then tuned to the same pitch. Strings could number from as few as 40 to as many as 120; the average instrument had about 60.

The hammered dulcimer has two sets of string courses —the treble and the bass. All of the strings run the length of the instrument (i.e., from side to side). The treble courses pass over the treble bridge, which is a carved strip of hardwood roughly 0.75-1.0 inch high. This bridge sits on top of the soundboard near the center of the instrument. The treble strings are tightened over it; thus the shorter lengths of the string on either side sound at higher pitches, usually a fifth apart. The bass courses pass through holes carved in the treble bridge and over the bass bridge at the extreme left of the soundboard. For these courses the full length of the string sounds, and they are consequently lower in pitch. The bass bridge, unlike the treble, usually does not run the full width of the instrument; it too has carved holes to allow the treble courses to pass through. The two sets of strings form a criss-cross pattern at the left side of the soundboard, where they are set into the hitch pins.

Instead of the long carved bridges, some dulcimers have individual turned pieces of wood set under each course of strings. This avoids the need for carved holes in the long bridges, since the alternate courses of strings pass between these “chessman” bridges (see Figure 2). Dulcimers were usually tuned to be playable in the keys of C, G, D, or A, a selection that probably reflects the preference for “sharp keys” so wide-spread among fiddlers. Although there were many variations, it was common to tune the right side of the treble bridge, from the bottom to the top, C#, D, E, F«, G, A, B, CQ, D, E, FQ, G. This

tuning resulted in a parallel series of notes a fifth higher on the left side of the treble bridge: G#, A, B, C**, D, E, F#, G, A, B, CO, D (Figure 3). Bass courses were often tuned to a D major scale, beginning an octave below the second pitch on the right-hand side of the treble bridge. If there were enough bass courses to overlap the treble notes, the C* course in the bass might then be tuned to CQ in order to increase the instrument’s chromatic possibilities. The bass courses might also be tuned a fifth below the right-hand side of the treble courses.

A few American dulcimer players placed the treble bridge farther toward the center of the sound board thus creating a fourth interval across the bridge. Chromatic tuning, with a half-step interval across the bridge, was used by many German dulcimer players. It never gained widespread popularity in America, however, though it is found on a few late 19th century factory-made instruments.

Less common among American dulcimerists was the “flat key” tuning, which made it possible to play in the keys of G, C, F, and B^ Since tuning the many strings of the instrument was a chore, players chose either the “sharp key” or the “flat key” tuning and rarely retuned.

American dulcimers usually had two toneholes on the soundboard, but some instruments had as many as six. A few were built with no toneholes at all. The number of toneholes and their design were largely matters of personal taste. Regional preferences are evident, however (Figure 4).

Because in many cases the same note could be played in more than one place on the dulcimer, and because the large number of strings could be quite confusing, many players resorted to chalking or painting the letter names of the note onto the soundboard under the appropriate courses. On shop-made dulcimers, note names often were printed on a strip of paper several inches wide which was then glued on the soundboard beneath the strings (Figure 5). Occasionally, a number or solmization system would be used in combination with, or instead of, the more common letter names.

Regardless of the type and elegance of the outer case, and despite the wide variation in their size and compass, all dulcimers are similar in design and construction. On one side of the soundboard, the strings are attached to tuning pins (Figure 6), which are mounted in a wrest plank of hardwood, usually maple, oak, or cherry. The strings are then stretched across the bridges and fastened to stationary hitch pins on the opposite side. American dulcimers traditionally were built with the tuning pins on the right-hand side and the hitch pins on the left. (On some instruments, possibly built by left-handed players, this arrangement is reversed.) Small rectangular tuning pins were apparently manufactured specifically for the instrument during the 19th century. Often, however, players “made do” with larger piano pins, smaller square zither pins, or homemade replacements of various sizes.

Mallets (or hammers) also varied widely in design. Because they were so easily lost or misplaced, it is often impossible to know whether the hammers found with an old instrument were made by the dulcimer maker or are replacements provided years later by someone else. Most players had either two pairs of hammers or one pair with reversible heads. One pair, or one side of a reversible pair, was covered with felt or yarn, which produced a soft, warm sound; the other was covered with deerskin or leather to give a loud, bright tone. The mallet heads could be spherical or hemispherical and were attached to handles 4-8 inches long. Oak, ash, hickory, and elm were the most common materials for handles, but bamboo and whalebone were also used. The latter material was obtained in the form of corset stays, and was preferred by players who wanted more “give” in the handles of their mallets. Older players are fond of telling folklorists how hard it is to obtain corset stays “nowadays,” but as one male dulcimer player slyly confided, “They were always difficult to get.”

Extracted from Smithsonian PDF. Copyright ® Nancy Groce 1983. Used with permission by Nancy Groce.