David R. Peterson - davidp@cc1.uca.edu
Mathematics Department
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, Arkansas, 52035
USA
Popular version of Paper 4aMUb5
Presented Thursday morning, December 5, 1996
3rd Joint ASA/ASJ Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii
Embargoed until December 5, 1996
The word dulcimer, derived from dulce (sweet) and melos (song), aptly describes two different families of American folk instruments, the lap dulcimer and the hammered dulcimer. Though they are completely different instruments with somewhat incompatible musical temperaments, both are widely popular and are jointly featured at "dulcimer festivals" throughout the United States.
The lap (or mountain) dulcimer belongs to the fretted zither family of European origin. A typical instrument has a pair of melody strings and two drone strings on an thick, elevated fretboard. The narrow body is shaped like a hourglass. Although the frets are arranged to give a diatonic scale, by selectively tuning the drones, players can conveniently play in several modes: Ionion, Mixolydian, and Dorian being the most popular.
The stiffness of the body and the narrow soundboard limit the lower frequency responses and potential sound volume of the instrument, which is also heavily damped by the players lap. The resulting tone is somewhat weak and "nasal" sounding, but entirely pleasing for simple melodies and ballad accompaniment.
The thousands of folk craftsmen who build instruments sometimes focus on visual appearance rather than acoustical properties when selecting woods and design for lap dulcimers. The sound holes and scrolls sometimes become elaborate personal artistic statements and/or sales gimmicks.
The modern hammered dulcimer is a large (up to 42"x18") trapezoidal-shaped instrument with 24 to 30 courses of treble and bass strings, creating a partially chromatic range of D3 to D6. The treble strings are divided by a middle bridge in a ratio of 2:3 so that each course provides two notes a musical fifth apart.
Players hit the strings, hence the name, with light (10 grams) wooden hammers. Although acoustically similar to the piano, the distinctly different bridge/soundboard placement and hammer/string interactions give the hammered dulcimer a unique percussive sound. The resulting tone is strong, generally undamped, but sometimes "muddy" because of decay times of several seconds. But for these reason, before electrical amplification of instruments, hammered dulcimers were popular lead and rhythm instruments in folk dance bands.
There has been recent increased interest in the hammered dulcimer as a concert and recording instrument (often as filler on PBS stations). Instrument builders, almost exclusively folk craft people, and players themselves, have responded with new designs and a changed tonal personality. Builders have reduced the number of strings per course since volume is not as important as it once was. They make the body lighter and more flexible and use plastic bridge caps (rather than metal) in an effort to reduce reverberation times and to improve bass tones. String courses and auxiliary bridges have been added to make a chromatic instrument.