The Appalachian Dulcimer by Charles Seeger

8/22/2019 The Appalachian Dulcimer by Charles Seeger

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The Appalachian DulcimerAuthor(s): Charles SeegerSource: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 71, No. 279 (Jan. - Mar., 1958), pp. 40-51Published by: American Folklore SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/537958

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THE APPALACHIANDULCIMERBY CHARLESEEGER

HE Appalachian dulcimer, dulcimoor or dulcymore, is known to folkloristsas an instrumentn fairlygeneraluse sinceI900,andprobablyor sometimebefore that, by musically nonliterate rural and small-townspeople in themountains and foothills of southeastern United States, stretching from southernPennsylvania to northern Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi,taking in West Virginia,the western counties of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, and the eastern ofKentucky and Tennessee.1 It is a fretted cordophone, in my experience usually alittle less than a meter long, from I20 to 2oo mm. at its widest and about eighty toIoo mm. in depth( Plate I).2 It is made of local woods such as pine, spruce, poplar,hickory, birch, maple, and walnut by rural woodworkers with simple hand tools.Owing partly to the encouragement of rural handicrafts by urban trained socialworkers during the last fifty years, and partly to the nation-wide folk music revivalmovement in the cities since I940, a number of makers have found a market amongurban amateurs. I have, however, never known of a factory made instrument. Norhave I ever come across evidence of its use, prior to this revival movement, as a parloror concert instrument,as was, not seldom, the true hammer dulcimeror whamadiddlethroughout the United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. TheAppalachian dulcimer may be classed as a folk instrument in the strict sense of theterm. Its making and its use have taken place within the currencyof an oral traditionof music. To the best of my knowledge, no printed directionsfor its manufactureornotations of its playing have appeared.3In Figure I, I give rough outlines of the front views of the five shapes of whichI have personallyknown enough specimens to be able to state that these five, at least,are traditional. A sixth is of a specimen reliably reported by Bryan. The side viewsare alike, except that in some cases a mere stub takes the place of a scroll at the endof the peg-stockor a handle appearsat the oppositeend.The instrument is constructedin two sections. The first is represented n the out-lines by cross-hatching.In many specimens this consists of a single piece of woodrunning the full length of the instrument, serving at once as peg-stock and scroll,finger or fretboard,tailpiece with or without the occasionalhandle, and, often as not,as endblocks within the second section over which the first is shaped to fit and beglued. Sometimes section one is made in two, three or more separatepieces, glued,pegged or even nailed together. Section two consists of a shallow soundbox that pro-trudes symmetrically on each side below section one. The front and back of thesoundbox are flat and of single boards.The two sides are single boardsbent or shapedin one of the several outlines shown.4 On some instruments there are small buttons,usually three, on the back to hold the soundbox five to ten mm. clear of a table.One common type of constructionis especially interesting.The part of section onethat serves as fretboard is hollowed out so as to form, in end crosssection,an invertedsquare U, to each of whose edges a side of the front is glued, the part of the front


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The AppalachianDulcimer

l

i z 3 4 r &FIGURE I

under the hollowedout partof the fretboardbeing cut out. The fretboard erves,thus,not only as a bridge by which the vibrations f the stringsare transmittedothe soundbox,but also as an integralpartof the soundboxtself.As on all the dulci-mers I have seen, so on this type of construction,here is, therefore,no separatebridge.The stringspassover two nuts,an upperand a lower,consistingeachof apieceof hardwood,boneor metalset intoslotsin thefretboard,with notches o thatthe stringsrunparallel o one another.A crosssectionof thistypeof constructionsshown nFigure2.

FIGURE 2

The dulcimershatI haveseenhavehad threeor fourmetalstrings, arely ive.Ihave heard thereare instrumentswith more.The stringsarenormally hin, .ooIto.002 of an inch.Bryan ecommendsuitarG andE.I mightaddB.The most commontuningof the threestringdulcimer eems o be to setthe twohighest stringson the instrument's ight5 n unison,the third a fifth lower as inFigure3a.Bryangivesthetuningin Figure3bas common orthe fourstring nstru-ment.His experiencehattheA tuning s mostcommonconfirms nswers ivento meby informantswho claimthattheytune the dulcimer"tothesamenote asthefiddle,"but meaningan octavelowerand varyingsometimesas muchas a fourth in eitherdirection.

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lournal of AmericanFolklore1 2 'N * / /

3 4

(G) (b)FIGURE 3

The fretsareplaced itherunder hechanterellemelody tring rstrings n theinstrument'sight)aloneor acrosshewhole retboard.heyareusually rrangeddiatonically:-T-ST-T-T-ST-Tor two octavesandpartof a third.This mightimply hat hebasicuningwere ora mixolydian ode.Butuponhistoricalroundsaswell as in viewof thetypeof musicmostlyplayed,heintentions obviouslyosetaconventionalajorwith he onicat the hird ret.Thecommonest anner f playingheAppalachianulcimers fortheplayerohold t crosswiseponhisspread neesorbackdownupona tableorchairnfrontof him withthepeg-stocko his left.Thismightbecalled ight-handedr normalpractice.6Mercer howsa photographf a womanplaying he dulcimerwiththebuttend in herlap,thebackpropped pagainst tablen frontof her.A turkey,gooseorotherquill s held n eitherhand-in theright, o sweepbackand orthorin onedirectionnlyoverall thestrings, littledistance bove he lowernut; ntheleft,to press he chanterelleownupon hefretboardo asto intone melodywhilethe other trings oundas drones.Thequillheldin therighthandmaybeslit aninchorso from heendto makea flexible lectrum. n index inger rguitarpickwill alsodo,whileanyhard, mooth,ittlestick,pieceof boneorevena finger- rthumbnailmayserve or the left handas a "noter."Onlyonce have I seenthedulcimerplayedwith a bow. The player, n Marion,Virginiain I936,volunteeredthathewas"theonlyone"whoplayedt so.Eaton,oo,says his s rare. haveheardof playerswhofretseveraltrings t oncewith their ingers.Bryan ites hisas"themostcomplicated"annerf playing ndsays hatchordsmaybeproducedndthestrings lucked s on a psaltery.utI am notconvincedhat his s traditionalntheUnitedStates,hough urther esearchmayprovet to be.Certainly,t is veryrare.Someurbanperformerslaya countermelodyn theinstrument hentheysingtoits accompaniment.utI havenotbeenable o convincemyself hatthis is tradi-tional, hough t mustbe admittedheeffect,whenwelldone, s pleasing.Usually,voiceanddulcimer itheralternater sound hemelodyn unison ratthe octave.Rarely, guitarliketrummings used.The timbers thin,metallic,oft,andmaywellbe describedstwangingr evenbuzzing.A vibratos possiblentonesof sufficienturation.ndeed, ependingponwhere hepressuref the noters broughtobear-inthemiddle f thefretsquare,close o orupon hefret-upontheheightof thefret,upon he breadth f thenoterand uponthe amountof pressure ownuponthe string,considerableariety fintonations possible t anyfret.Theglidingof the noterover hestringallows-perhapst wouldbemorecorrecto sayalmost ompels-slurring.hough he tone

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The AppalachianDulcimer 43fadesquickly, taccatos not characteristicf the instrument.he dulcimers fortheindividualr theintimateroup, otfor thecrowd;or thenightratherhan ortheday, houghn thehandsof a skillfulplayer,unes ivelyenoughor thesquaredance, rdinarilyarried ythefiddle, anbe rendered.Obviously,heAppalachianulcimers not, n theacceptedenseof theword,adulcimer t all,buta fretted ither(Griffbrettzither),elongingo a well-definedsubclassponwhich hemelodys played nonestring orseveraln unison revenparallelhirds)whileothers oundas drones.This subclasss wellrepresentednEuropeanrganography,speciallyn thenorthernegion, ytheIcelandicangspil,Norwegianlangeleik,Swedishhummel,Danish humle, LowlandNoordschebalk,GermanScheidholt,and French and Belgianbucheor epinettedes Vosges.It isrelated nthe onehand othetrombamarinarnun'siddleandontheotherothehurdy-gurdyrorganistrum.pecimensanbe seen n most arge nstrumentollec-tions n bothOld and New Worlds.Praetorius,7laasDouwes, heEncyclopedieMethodique,oers,Mahillon,Thuren,Norlind,Panum,de Jong,Vanderstraeten,and othersdescribeheirtuningand manners f playing n such detail hattheEuropeanroveniencef theAppalachianulcimer ndof themanner f playingtis clearlymarked. s I write his, here omesohand hroughhe kindnessf CurtSachs, noutstanding onograph,tigWalin'sDie Schwedischeummel.8 esidesmeticulous escriptionf fortySwedishnstruments,heirhistories,eferencesothem,careful coustical easurementsndreport pon orty-fivethersromnorth-ernEuropeanountries,early ll reproducedn finehalf tonefrontviews,Walingivesa survey f theEuropeanieldas a whole,withoutgettingentangledn thecontroversialackgroundf Asiatic ancestors r the foreground f Americandescendants,he atter fwhichhe didnotknow.Walindistinguisheshree orm-groups:) withstraightidesallaround,) witha bulge(Ausbauchung)n theleftside,3) withbulges n bothsides.He points utthatallspecimensn histhirdgroupandfourof thetwenty-eightn hissecond, remade ntwosections,neofwhichs fitted ntopof theother.The Appalachianulcimer bviously elongs o Walin's hird orm-group.nthe basisof theprecedingerbaldescription,t wouldseem o haveno feature is-tinguishingt from its European rototypes.ndeed,pictured s playedby OttoMalmbergotlongbeforehisdeathn 1921,Walin'sNo. G 35,although elongingto hissecondorm-group,ould asilybe taken or the Americannstrument,xcept-ing forthefrettingwiththefingers f theleft hand nstead f withthenoter.Forthe lackof rightbulgemightnotberemarkedr evenconsideredf much mpor-tance Plate Ia).Threequestionsmostcommonly skedabout he Appalachianulcimer, ndmostworthconsideringere,are:I) fromwhatpartof Europewasit broughtotheNew World; ) what, f any,are ts distinguishingeatures;) howdidit getitsname?As to question, NilesandThomas laim tsprototype asbroughtromEng-land.Shoemakertates hat Mercer iscoveredvidence f similarprovenienceIhavenot beenableto trace his) butgoeson to say:"TheFrenchHuguenotsnBerks,LehighandLebanonCountiesrought uniquenstrumentoPennsylvania,the dulcimer,dulcimore'r Hackbrett,s it wasvariouslyalled."CampbellndEaton avora German rovenience,iting he trekof Germanpeakingmmigrants


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Journal of American Folkloreto Pennsylvania southwestwards along the ridges and through the valleys of theAppalachians, a well established fact still attested to by the prevalenceof Germanicfamily names throughout the region today. Eaton also cites the Highland copying ofspinning wheels from Pennsylvania models of German provenience.In extension ofthese opinions it should be remarkedthat there was heavy Scandinavianimmigrationinto Pennsylvania throughout the nineteenth century. The Dutch were early settlersin Delaware, New York and New Jersey in localities close to the borders of Penn-sylvania. It is interesting to note that in defense of the theory of British proveniencethe use of the Appalachian (often called the Kentucky) dulcimer to accompanythesinging of the British ballad is often adduced. The very few recordingsof dulcimerplaying deposited in the Archive of American Folk Song in the Libraryof Congressindicate that as of I940 this was, to the contrary,very rare.9C. J. Sharp, who madehis extensive field collection of survivals of British song between I916-18in the veryheart of what has been known as "dulcimercountry,"statesin the Introductionof hismonumental work: "I came across but one singer who sang to an instrumentalaccompaniment, the guitar ... ," though he was informed that accompanimentbythe dulcimer (which he describes briefly) was practiced in Kentucky.10 MaudKarpeles, who accompanied Sharp on all three of his trips, states in her Preface tothe same work: "The dulcimer ... we saw and heard only in some of the Kentuckymountains-schoolsand never in the homes of the people, where it is evidently butrarely to be found." This testimony, coupled with the apparentabsence of any traceof this type of instrument in the British Isles during the colonizing period, wouldseem to prejudicethe theoryof Britishprovenience.""With respect to the claim of French Huguenot introduction of the instrumentinto Pennsylvania, I do not know upon what data Shoemakerbased his statementorwhether it is relevant. For presumablyhe refers to the true hammer dulcimer. Euro-pean evidence seems to point the other way. All of the French butchesor 6pinettesthat I have seen were small, rectangularand of Walin's first form-group,i.e., withoutbulge. To the writer in the Encyclopedie Methodique, the instrument was so "tres-peu connu" that he describes its German counterpart, the Scheidholz. Mahillondescribesa single specimen in the great Brussels collection. Choquet reportsbut twoin the collection of the Paris Conservatoire.Walin details five of French origin. Fourbelong to his first form-group; the fifth is not classified.Interestingly enough, a sur-prising number of the specimens now in museums were made by one Fleurot inValdajol, a fact that certainly points away from a well distributed folk tradition inFrance. C. Marcel-Dubois, of the Musee National des Arts et Traditions Populaires(Paris), who possessesan epinette by Fleurot much like one in the National Museumin Washington, D. C., also made by him, assures me that this type of instrument is,in her experience,known only in the extreme east of France.12The most cogent support to the theory of German provenience is borne by thecollection of Pennsylvania zitters made, documented, and reportedupon by Henry C.Mercer and now housed in the Museum of the Bucks County Historical Society inDoylestown, Pennsylvania. It consists of seven plucked and five bowed instruments(Plates III and IV) in good or fairly good statesof preservation.To be sure, like theFrench variant of the family, they are examples of Walin's straight-sidedfirst form-group. But unlike that almost miniature variant, they are full sized and about thesame length as the average Appalachian dulcimer. Unfortunately, most were bought

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The Appalachian Dulcimerfrom second-hand ealersand are consequentlywithoutpedigreewhatever;otherswere gifts. But the informationabout them was sketchyand did not antedate hemiddleof the nineteenthcentury.Similarspecimenshave been found in the atticsof old housesandsomehavebeenacquiredby municipal, ountyandothermuseums,and by private ndividuals.Eventually,we mayhope,somewill turnup with moredetaileddocumentation.Mercer,a brilliantamateur tudentof localhistory,knewoftheirEuropeanprovenience nd was in touch with such collectors s F. Scheurleerand J. W. Enschede n Holland. He diligentlysought local informantsand inter-viewedthemin detail.Severalborewitness hat bothpluckedand bowedzitterswereplayedby membersof the Mennonite ect,13o accompany ymnsinging,not in thechurch,but in thehome,as is stillthepsalmodikon, Swedishvariant"invented" yone J. Dillner in the earlynineteenthcentury,by Scandinavian-Americansn somenorthcentralstates.Mercergives excellentdescriptionsf the playingof the instru-mentsandassumeshat heKentuckydulcimersrelatedo them.Obviously,t is a farcryfrom the almostprimitivePennsylvaniaitterswith theirstraight ides,fretboard nd soundboxall in one, to the moreelaborateAppalachiandulcimerwith its oftenhollowed-outretboardndsymmetricallyuiltoutsoundbox.If we areto hypothesize connection etween hem,mightwe not reasonablyxpectto have some evidenceof the existenceof transitional r intermediateorms?Per-hapstheshelvesof localhistoricalocieties ndmuseumsmaystill reveal uch.Mercer,who evidentlycombed the antique shopsof southeastern ennsylvaniaquite thor-oughly duringthe earlypartof the centuryseems to havefound none. JohnCum-mings,Curator f the BucksCountyHistoricalSocietyand himself an expertwood-worker,has offered he ingenious uggestionhatgivena verbalorder,butno model,to make a stringedinstrumentof the zitter type, a Kentuckyfiddlemaker,orexample,might readilyhave adaptedhis customaryprocedureso the occasionandproduced mutation uchas theThomastype,oran ancestor f it, which,when seenbyothers,mighthavegiveninitial mpetus othe distinctive esignof theAppalachiandulcimer. t might even have been purposelydesigned o meet the needsof musicloving peoplewho wouldprizeit not only for its resemblanceo the beloved iddlebut alsofor the greater asewith whichits playingcould be mastered.Howeverthismaybe is, of course,purespeculation.The Pennsylvaniaitterremains,at thiswrit-ing, probably ntirelyoutof useand asonlyonepossibleancestor f theAppalachiandulcimer.On the otherhand,attentionwas calledas long ago as 19I7by JosephineMcGill,to anotherpossibleancestorof our instrument.And Maud Karpelespublishedareminderof its almost orgottenexistence ifteenyears ater."Thehistoryof its [thedulcimer's] ntroduction nto the mountains," he continues in the text alreadyquoted,"is obscure,but it may be noted that a similar nstrument, atalogued s aGermanzitherof the eighteenth entury,s exhibitedn the New YorkMetropolitanMuseumof Art (CrosbyBrownCollectionof Musical nstruments,No. 988) and ifthis classifications correct t is possible hat the instrumentwas introducedby theearlyGermansettlers,who drifted nto the Mountains romPennsylvania."14This CBC988 (brieflyreported n by Walinas VG No. 33) is no transitionalrintermediateorm but a full-fledged pecimenof what I have been designatingheAppalachian ulcimer.This canbe seenin PlateV, whereit is picturedby the sideof one of threedulcimersmadebeforeI938by NathanHicks of Rominger,North

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Journalof AmericanFolkloreCarolina,and thatis now in my possession.The resemblanceo the Thomas nstru-ment picturedn PlateI is strikingenough.The Hicks instrument,whichis repre-sentative f shape2 in the outlinesgivenin Figure and is amongthe most commontobefound n currentuse,couldalmostbeacopyof CBC988.15If CBC988is German, hentheAppalachian ulcimers a direct mportationndthere s nothingmoreAmericanabout t thanthere s about heguitarorthehammerdulcimer.The variations f its shapeaspicturedn Figurei couldnotbe consideredsignificantacculturativehenomena,as must be, for examples,he five-stringbanjoandtheTrinidadianteelpan.But is CBC988German?Unfortunately, manuelWinternitz,Directorof Musi-calActivitiesof the Museum, ellsme,neither he agentof theCrosbyBrownfamilywho acquired he instrumentorthe Collectionnortheeditorof thecataloguewhosedescription quotein full above, eftmoredocumentationhan thatpublished, xceptthat it was acquiredbeforeI889.We have,thus,no recordof where it was boughtor made.The description German,8thcentury"maybereasonablyorrectf it wasacquiredn Germany.But it mightas well havebeenboughtelsewhere n Europeoreven in the United States.Here,at least,almostany sellerwouldreadilyswearthathis "granpappy's appy"broughtit over from Germany"more'na hunderyearsgone."Yet if it camefromGermany,why are not specimens f like pattern eported-and commonlyreported-fromEuropeanmuseums?According o Eaton,JamesEdwardThomas,maker of the instrument hown in PlateI, was born in LetcherCounty,Kentucky, n I850, beganmakingdulcimersn I87I,anddiedin I933afterturningout about 500o of them. And he was by no means the only maker.l6True,for everydulcimerone might have run across n the last twenty-fiveyearsin theHighlands,one might have found a dozen fiddles,a dozen banjosand two dozenguitars.But in contrast o its neglectin Europe,cultivationof the Griffbrettzitherin theUnited States eems o becomparativelyigorous.It is worth noting that of the fourteen other exhibits listed by Walin as ofdeutschsprachigen ebiet(his Nos. VG 23-26, 8-32,34-38),nonebelongto his thirdform-groupwith Ausbauchung n bothsides.But all Appalachian ulcimerseen orreportedupon (to my knowledge) do. Only one of the Germanzithers,and thatbelongingto his firstform-group,howsheartshaped oundholes.Yet, forexample,of his five Danishspecimens VG 6-xo),twobelong o hissecondand three-the onlyones in his non-Swedishsection-to his third form-group.(Perhapswe shouldexplorethe possibilityof Scandinavianprovenience.)And of his five Norwegianinstruments,hree show heartshapedsoundholeson the front,as do threeof theFrenchspecimens ictured.If the wood of CBC 988 can be identifiedas German,our only doubtof theprovenience f the Appalachiandulcimermight be that it had been fashioned nPennsylvaniarom a pieceof imported urniture, eworked longsome suchlinesasthose suggestedby Cummings.Paintingof a formalizedwood grain upon naturalwood was commonin Pennsylvanian earlydays. There remains,of course,thechance hateven if this wood were identifiedas American,No. 988 mightstillhavebeenfashioned n the likenessof a Germanoriginal,now unknown.The trouble sthatthe geographic riginof poplarwood,I am reliablynformed,s verydifficultodetermine.Discoveryn Germanyof onlyone suchinstrument, r,uponopeningupNo. 988,of internal videnceof Germanmanufacture, oulddispel heabovedoubts.

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PLATE I. APPALACHIAN ("KENTUCKY") DULCIMERMS label on back of lower right sound hole reads: "Manufacturedby J. E. ThomasJan, 25 I918 Bath Ky." Presented by Loraine Wyman to the Bucks County His-torical Society, in whose Museum, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, it bears the numberI8514. Photograph by Maddox Photo Studio. Courtesy of the Bucks CountyHistorical Society.


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OTTO MALMBERG PLAYING THE HUMMELReproduced with permission of the author from Stig Walin, Die Schwedische Hummel(Fig. 84). Courtesy of Nordiska Museet.

JETHRO AMBURGEY PLAYING JEAN RITCHIE PLAYING( DULCIMERDULCIMER OF HIS OWN MADE BY (GEORGE PICKOWM1ANUFACTURE Photograph by Barratt

PLATE II


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PLATE III. PENNSYLVANIA PLUCKED ZITTERSPhotograph by Maddox Photo Studio. Courtesy of Bucks County Historical Society.


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PLATE VZITHER OR DULCIMER DULCIME

Crosby Brown Collection. No. 988. Courtesy Made by Nathan Hicks of Romiof the Metropolitan Museum of Art. in possession of the


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PLATE VITHE CAMPBELL DULCIMER

(See footnote II)Three original hand wrought pegs have beenreplaced by geared banjo keys. The fretboard ishollowed out at least in part.

THE GAMBLE DUPresented by its maker to WmSecretary of Berea College,The fretboard is solid andbridges. There are three serieeach string.


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The Appalachian DulcimerAs things stand at present, then, the European provenience of our instrument isclearly establishedin all but minor detail. I consider the claim of German eighteenth

century origin of CBC 988 open to question, but the claim to German proveniencefor the whole American variant, if such it is, the strongest of the several advanced.Collections of local history and popular antiquities in Pennsylvania17remain to beexplored as do also travel books and memories of living makers and players andlibrariesand institutionalrecordsof Highland settlementschools.The question of what are the distinguishing characteristicsof the Appalachiandulcimer can best be answered by comparing the plates presented herewith and theexcellent reproductionsat the end of Walin's monograph. I would say they could beexpressedas "slendersymmetry."None of Walin's instruments-excepting, of course,his reproductionof CBC 988-exhibit this particularvariant of the basic functionalconception of the Grifbrettzither. Further search in European Museums mayuncover a traditionof such a variant.For the present,the American design, especiallythe one with the hollowed-out fretboard,would seem to stand as a well defined folktradition still current among the people who carry the older and more archaic folktraditions generally. There is no telling, of course, what effect the present mildpopularityof the instrument in the cities will have upon its overall currencyamongthe peopleat large.How the dulcimer got its name is perhapsthe most baffling,though certainlynotthe most important, question that can be asked about it. Obviously, the word"Scheitholt"or "Scheidholz" cannot, with propriety, be used by, or even in closeproximity to, an English speaking community. With even less propriety can it beformally Anglicized. The word zitter might have passed into American-English as"zither."The fact that it did not is no challenge to the claim of German provenience.For the word "zither"probablydid not exist in the limited and archaic vocabularyof eighteenth and nineteenth century Highland speech. The fact that a rechristeningtook place is perhaps some support for Cummings' suggestion. And what moreattractivename could have been found for the delicate instrument by a hard-bitten,bible-readinglot of pioneers who found in music almost the sole recreation of theirsecludedlife? Is it not sanctifiedby Holy Writ (Daniel iii: io) ?Not least among the difficulties of tracing the history of the dulcimer in theUnited States is the employment of the same name for two distinct members of thestring family, the fretted zither and the hammered dulcimer. The earliest referencethat has come to my notice (this, through the kindness of Sidney RobertsonCowell)is in Samuel Sewall's Diary, in which the entry for 23 May 1717 mentions thedulcimer.s1 In estimating such references it is only too often impossible to knowfrom internal evidence which type of instrument is meant. For rarely do generalauthors give any detailed information of the object or the manner of plaving it.Apparently, there is no ground for belief that the Appalachian dulcimer was knownnorth of Pennsylvania,though of course,an individual specimencould have wanderedup there.19The hammer dulcimer, to the contrary,has long been widely known inthe Northeast, North Central and Lake States. It is knorwn n the Southeast, thoughnot as well-known as the Appalachian dulcimer. I have seen a pretty parlor modelthat stood upon four delicate legs, the whole painted in fine, aged, ivory enamel withcolored festoons of flowers, probably of eighteenth century workmanship, and saidto have been long held in Vermont. At least one craftsman, Thomas Mann. of

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48 Journal of American FolkloreOrtonville, Iowa, was still making them to order in the late 193o's.20The probabilityis that this is the sort of instrument mentioned by Sewall.No transcriptionsof dulcimer playing have come to my notice. Below, I give twoskeleton notations of field recordingsof simple playing of the instrument.Transcrip-tion of the more elaborateplaying must await recording with sound-camera,so fleet-ing or submerged in the overall twanging and buzzing are the sounds of the indi-vidual strokes of the plectrum and of the gliding from one fret to another.Notationsof DulcimerPlaying.Transcribed rom tape dubbingsof aluminumdiscs inthe Archivesof AmericanFolk Song in the Libraryof Congress,Washington,D. C., whichwere themselvesdubbingsof originalfieldrecordings n aluminum.No checksareknownto have been made either of the electrical urrentsusedor of the accuracy f the recordingequipmentused. Keys and tempos indicatedare thereforeonly approximate. indicatesprobabledown strokeof plectrum-away from player;t indicatesprobableup strokeofplectrum-towards the player. Barringand metricalsignature s a problem n this idiom.It could be determinedn any one of threeways:by down strokesof the plectrum;by footbeat;by metricalpattern.Using the notevalues n the two examples, he first woulddoublethe numberof barsandrequirea signatureof 14; the second,whichis followedhere,marksthe foot beatat the beginningof each measureand a signatureof V2; he third would useone-quarter s manybarsand a signatureof 4/2. On the whole,the idiomis characterizedby a general adherence to ritmo di una battuta. The third way is, therefore, improper. Iwould use the first if the players' foot beats marked the quarters-a technique often metwith, in which the foot taps lightly or even pounds quite strongly as often as 200 or moretimes a minute. In the present examples, the down strokes are of equal strength throughout.Occurrence of the foot beat with every other one recommends the barring and meters used.

GROUND HOGPlayed and sung by Curtis Dartey. Recorded by Walter Garwick and Jean Thomas, Ash-land, Kentucky, 1934, LC No. 3o2Ai. The drones sound continuously but it is not possibleto perceive the strokes of the plectrum upon them.Dulcimer Solo = ca. 23

Xt I 4 . i ,O E-II1+ + + + + + + + + Voice Solo

~ ! l l ! J i , J - J t t J -J+9-I~~CILlji~---/I. >- Grabbedhis axe and he

SOULRWOOD hMOUNTAINPlayed by Theodore Blevins. Recorded by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax, Smithsboro, Ken-tucky, 1937, LC No. 154132.The drones are usually weak, sometimes inaudible, but oc-casionally so strong as to give an effect of syncopation.Dulcimer Solo - ca. 176-184+4 + + + 4 simile....


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The AppalachianDulcimer 49

NOTES1Referencesare meager.No investigationwith even a pretenseof musicologicalcharacterhas,to p-esent knowledge,been made. The bestaccountI have found is: CharlesF. Bryan,"AmericanFolk Instruments,I-The AppalachianDulcimer,"TennesseeFolklore SocietyBulletin,XVIII, i

(March I952), I-5; 3 (September I952), plate opposite p. 66. Other references are: Alien W.Eaton, Handicraftsof the SouthernHighlands (New York, I937), p. I99 if.; John C. Campbell,The Southern Highlander and His Homeland (New York, I92I), pp. I43-4; John Fetterman,"TennesseeHill Country Dulcimer Builder,"Nashville TennesseanMagazine (30 May I954),pp. 8-9; JosephineMcGill, "The KentuckyDulcimer,"The Musician,XXII (JanuaryI917), 21;Henry C. Mercer,"The Zitherof the PennsylvaniaGermans,"A Collectionof PapersReadBeforethe Bucks County Historical Society, V (I926), 482-97;John J. Niles, "Deft Hands Carve theDulcimer," Louisville Courier-Journal Magazine (20 January 1952), p. 26; Jean Ritchie, SingingFamily of the Cumberlands New York, I954), p. 276;JeanThomas,The Singin' Gatherin' NewYork, I939); Dorothy Scarborough,A Song Catcherin the Southern Mountains (New York,1937), pp. 70-2; Cecil J. Sharp, English Folksongs from the Southern Appalachians(London,I953), pp. xviii-xix, xxvii; Henry W. Shoemaker,The Music and Musical Instrumentsof thePennsylvania Mountaineers (Altoona, I923); Mountain Life and Work, I, 21; XII, I9.2 1 have seen about forty specimens,some half of them in the Appalachianarea during thesummer of I936, in the hands of men and boys who played them in an apparentlytraditionalmanner.8This is a report, not upon completed investigationsin American organography,but uponsome preliminaryobservations occasionedby neglect of two bits of evidence that might haveengaged the closer attention of studentsat any time during the last fifty years,and that should betaken into accountin the field work with sound camera,which alone can reportadequatelyuponthe music rendered by the skilled player of the instrument concerned.See Ethno-musicology-Newsletter, No. 5 (September 1955), p. I7.4 Jean Thomas describesa type of construction n which a piece of sassafraswood 38" longand 3" wide is (split? and) bent to make the sides of a soundbox30/2" long and a neck 7/4"long.5 In the anthropomorphicpresentation, he instrumentis regardedas facing the viewer andhaving its own right and left, front and back, top and bottom. See Curt Sachs,Handbuch derMusikinstrumentenkunde (Leipzig, I920), p. I55.61 have not seen a left-handedplayer.A doubledulcimer,for two right-handedplayerssittingoppositeeach other was exhibitedat a National Folk Festivalin Washington,D. C. around I940.It was saidto have beenowned in Iowa.7Michael Praetorius,SyntagmatisMusici, II, De Organographia (Wolffenbiittel, I619), 57;Theatrum Instrumentorum (1620), Plate XXI, No. 8.8 Stig Walin, Die Schwedische Hummel (Stockholm, I953).9The following items are renderedby the more reliable informants and listed in the Check-List of RecordedSongs in the English Languagein the Archiveof AmericanFolk Song to July1940 (Washington, 1942). Sung and played with dulcimer accompaniment: 291 A, "Run, Nigger,Run"; 302 Ai, "Ground Hog"; 302 A2, "Turnip Greens"; 302 B, "Barbara Allen"; I342 B2, "Lit-tle Brown Jug"; I540 A2, "Henry of Knoxville"; I540 B, "Barbara Allen"; I54I A, "The Knox-ville Girl"; 2854 Ai, "GeorgeCollins"; 2855 Ai, "GroundHog"; 3I6I Ai, "Over the River,Charlie";316I A3, "SallyBrown."Playedon the dulcimer,without singing: I340Bi, "LizaJane";1342 A3, "Sourwood Mountain"; I342 Bi, "Turkey in the Straw"; I343 A5, "Water Bound";I343 B2, "Arkansas Traveller"; I343 B3, "Brown Eyes"; I343 B4, "Liza Jane"; I347 Ai, "TurkeyBuzzard"; I347 A2, "Going Down the Road Feeling Bad"; I54I B2, "Sourwood Mountain";I54I B3, "Old Granny Hare"; I553 Ai, "Buck Creek Girls"; I553 BI, "Redwing"; I553 B3, "The


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Journalof AmericanFolklore0Wreck of the Old 97"; 3160 BI-3, "WaterBound";3160 B4, "Turkeyin the Straw";3160 B5,"Bonaparte's etreat."10Accompanimentby guitarhasbecomealmost the rule in recentyears.11The British rebec and crwth adduced by Niles, and the cruit or cruet (in nineteenth cen-tury Pennsylvania) by Shoemakerwould seem to be too far removedin kinship to have bearingupon the present enquiry. It is worth noting that Walin reports no specimensof the frettedzither from the British Isles. Thurston Dart (Cambridge,England) has told me that he knewof no such instrumentin the organographyof England. PerhapsI should reportthat in January1957, Ed Cray (Los Angeles, California) acquiredfrom the estate of Stella Campbell,deceased,of Pasadena,a handsome dulcimer of the Appalachian ype, with taperednoter and quill (PlateVI). The label has not yet been deciphered.A handwrittenslip of paperaccompanyingt desig-nates it as Scotch and of the kind "madeby the Clan Campbellfor five generations."Enquiryaddressed o JohnLorneCampbellbrings the reply: "I know nothing aboutthe kind of dulcimeryou illustrate being made in Scotland,"though he does remembera hammer dulcimer beingplayed on MacBrayne'sLoch Fyne boatsto entertaintourists.Referenceof the enquiryto FrancisCollinson, of the School of ScottishStudies,Universityof Edinburgh,elicits the reply: "I havenever heard of the 'ScotchDulcimer'myself ... it is perhapsnot without significancethat thename Campbell s not unknown in Scandinavian ountries,notablySweden."Passed on to RobertStevensonof the NationalMuseumof Antiquities,the enquirybringsfurtherreplyfrom LyndesayG. Langwill, C.A., HonoraryTreasurerof the Galpin Society: "I feel sure that Miss Campbell's'Scotch Dulcimer' has no connectionwith Scotland.The fretted zither is not known here....For the present,therefore,I am inclined to discountthe claim of Scotchprovenience.12 Without more detailed study of the French epinette,it might be difficult, n some cases,todistinguishan instrumentfashionedin accordancewith a traditionknown as such by its makerand one that is a mere sportor phantasyof an individualexperimenterentirelyignorantof thattraditionor a counterpart.For in many collectionsthere are to be seen miscellaneousrectangularboxes,large,and small,with stringsstretchedover them.

13The first Mennonites came to Pennsylvania in 1720.14The descriptionof CBC988 given in the section "Europe"of the MetropolitanMuseumofArt Handbook No. I3-Catalogue of the CrosbyBrown Collectionof MusicalInstrumentsof allNations, I (New York, 1902), 51, runs as follows: "Zither.Shallow body. Sound-boardwithlong pointed ends and incurved sides, and having four heart-shaped ound holes. The peg-boxwith 3 wooden pegs insertedat the side and terminating n a moulded scroll.Three metal strings,2 in unison sounding D, passingover 17 brassfrets, the other string soundinga fifth below, G.Germany,I8th century.Length 2 feet I inch. Width 7/2 inches."PerhapsI should add: (i) thelength is 3514, not 25, inches; (2) it is painted,in black, in what seems to be imitationof pinegrain, concealing the naturalwood, which may be poplar; (3) the tuning is indicatedin blackpainted capital letters D DG on the fretboardjust below the lower nut; (4) fret squaresarenumbered in black painted figures from the top down: 6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,I in the orderof the conventionalmajorscale with the tonicsat the third, tenth and seventeenth rets; (5) thefret squaresof the tonics show a faded black paint; (6) the fretboardis hollowed out at leastin part; (7) a clusterof flowers in faded painted colors can be seen in the plucking well-anindentation on the fretboardunder the place where the plectrum in the right hand plucks orsweeps the strings.Incidentally,the CrosbyBrown Collectioncomprisesa number of fine speci-mens of the Scheitholt,hummel, epinettefamily. One, No. 2475,has a scroll turnedsidewayslikethe Pennsylvaniazitterspictured n PlateIII,but stubby,ratherthanelongated.15The description of CBC 988 fits closely the Hicks instrument, except (I) the wood(poplar) was left unfinishedby the maker, (2) no tuning is indicated, (3) there are only four-teen frets, (4) they are not numbered,and (5) the length is 35'/ inches and the greatestwidth,7 9/I6 inches. Probably,comparativestudy of the cents values of the intervalratiosproducedbythe string lengths at the various frets will yield resultsof the greatestinterestof any measure-ments of the instrument.However, individualinstrumentsvary so astonishingly hat only statisti-cal averagescan render conclusionsof musicologicalsignificance.For example,on CBC988, thecents value of the interval producedby frets I2-I3, a half step in the scale,is I68 insteadof Ioo(my measurements). The two succeeding intervals, frets I3-I4 and I4-I5, whole steps in thescale, are I49 and I63 instead of 200 each.


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The AppalachianDulcimer16 Niles lists as "trulygreat"dulcimer makers:BristolTaylor,Berea, Kentucky;W. C. Single-ton, Viper, Kentucky; Nathan Hicks, Rominger, North Carolina; (S. F.) Russel, Marion,Vir-ginia. Theodore Blevins, of Marion, Virginia, made very good pear-shapednstrumentsin the

I930's. JethroAmburgey (Plate II) learned his craft from J. E. Thomas. Eaton names LewisHinkle of Volga, Upshur County, West Virginia.Homer Ledfordhas been making dulcimersatBerea College, Berea, Kentucky. J. J. Niles and Jean Ritchie (Pickow) (Plate II) are largelyresponsible or the presenturban interestin the dulcimer.Niles has made some fine instrumentselaboratedaccording to his own fertile imagination.Jean Ritchie'shusband,George Pickow, apupil of Amburgey,has made a number of fine traditionaldulcimers.17 A list of museums can be found in Earl F. Robacker,PennsylvaniaDutch Stuff (Phila-delphia, I944), p. I55.18 "23.5. To Salem, Meadford,Lodge at Cousin Porter's:See and Hear the Dulcimer." In"Diaryof Samuel Sewall, Vol. 3," Collectionsof the MassachusettsHistoricalSociety,VII, FifthSeries (Boston, 1882), I3I. The Editors offer the following footnote to the quotation: "A musi-cal instrumentplayedby strikingthe brasswireswith sticks-Eds."

19Wesley B. Reed, of North Woodstock, Connecticut,who has the largest local collectionofmusical instrumentsI know of in New England,statesthat he has never run acrossa Kentuckyor Appalachiandulcimer though he has never gone very far afield yet. He has three hammerdulcimers n his collection, wo of aboutI875,one probablybeforeI850.20 The Libraryof Congress,Washington,D. C., has made available o the publicsome record-ings of Mann'splaying (RecordNo. AAFS 41).

SantaBarbara,California

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The Appalachian Dulcimer by Charles Seeger

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