Instruments:
Dulcimer

The fretted dulcimer, or dulcimore, of the Craft Revival period, was a wood constructed instrument often played by the maker to accompany sung hymns or ballads. It is different from the hammered dulcimer, which resembles a piano in the way it produces a sound. Other names for the fretted dulcimer include hog fiddle, music box, scattlin; 1 Appalachian, mountain, or lap dulcimer. 2

The origin of the name—dulcimer—is said to be a combination of the Latin word, dulce (sweet) and the Greek word, melos ( song/tune.) 3 The gentle sound of a dulcimer that was greatly valued, was produced by plucking its strings with a thumb, a wooden plectrum, or goose quill, as it laid across the player’s lap. The dulcimer was intended to accompany gentle singing and was often played in the home of the maker because the sound resonated so well within a small space.  Generally, makers of the fretted dulcimer tended to be rural people that picked up constructing and playing the instrument as a pastime. The instruments were personal companions to ballads sung along with strummed tunes.

The overall shape of the dulcimer ranged from one to two bulged bellies of the sound box to narrow rectangles that could be up to a yard in length. Simple tools aided in its construction. The capacity of the sound resonation depended upon choices in material, rather than design.  Dulcimer makers made choices from well-dried walnut, maple, birch, yellow pine, cedar, poplar, white oak. 4 Different woods produced slight variations in sound, while the sound holes did not. For decorative purposes, the holes often varied in shape such as hearts, circles, and diamonds. 

The dulcimer’s structural design is similar to the German originated zither commonly found in the northern Appalachian region. The Southern Appalachian version stands apart from traceable predecessors because most were based on personal design choices and characteristics. 5 More often, the instruments in Southern Appalachia were unique, because they tended to vary from one to another in design, décor, string numbers, and size. 6 For this reason, some historians debate whether the Revival-period dulcimer could have been constructed from a faint memory of another instrument. The sound and design of fretted dulcimers were often times revealed after their construction, whereas manufactured instruments would already have a preconceived sound and design that the user would have to learn. 7

J. E. “Uncle Eddy” Thomas is one of the most notable fretted dulcimer makers, accredited to making possibly 1,500 instruments in his lifetime. Not many that were made prior to the turn of the 20th century have been found, and he may be the earliest known maker of multiple dulcimers to be identified with the Craft Revival period. Thomas serves as a an example of an instrument maker who benefited from earning a living by his skills.  His production years were estimated from 1871 to 1933. 8

- Jada Hansen

 

1. Michael Murphy, The Appalachian Dulcimer Book, (Ohio: Folksay Press, 1976) 12.
2. Joe Wilson, The Blue Ridge Music Center: A Place Near the Heart. (Silver Spring, MD: National Council on the Traditional Arts, 2000) 32.
3. Murphy, 20.
4. Allen Eaton, Handicrafts of the Southern Highlands, (New York: Russell Sage, 1937) 203-204.
5. L. Allen Smith, Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers, (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1982), 1-2; referencing Charles Seeger’s, “The Appalachian Dulcimer” from the Journal of American Folklore 71 (January-March 1958) 49.
6. Eaton, 20
7. Jean Ritchie explains the different outcomes in dulcimer sound in an introduction to Smith, Catalogue, x. See also Ritchie’s own story in Jean Ritchie, Singing Family of the Cumberlands (NY: Oxford, 1955).
8. Smith, 10.