Hammered Dulcimer

Abstract

The hammered dulcimer, a direct ancestor of the clavichord and the pianoforte, is a folk instrument that developed from eleventh-century antecedents such as the psaltery. They are trapezoidal in shape, with a long base of 40–45 in. and height of 15–18 in. Two bridges, treble and bass, each support 11–16 courses of strings, which are struck with light wooden hammers. The treble bridge divides the strings into a musical fifth, which facilitates the fast playing of diatonic melodies. Historically, the instrument was used as a rhythmic back-up for fiddles and other lead instruments, but since being popularized in the 1970s folk revival, it has become a solo or lead instrument in ensembles. The hammered dulcimer shares many acoustic properties with the piano except that the dulcimer is smaller and undamped, and the lighter, harder hammers give a more percussive sound. A hammered dulcimer player can also play double strokes and can alter instrument timbre by changing strike location. Current instruments are lightweight, 13–30 lb, and reasonably stable, but temperature and humidity changes cause tuning problems which are related to the linear scaling that is intrinsic to the trapezoidal design.