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Dulcimer, an Introduction
July 11th, 2008 by admin
The dulcimer, as you can see, has a trapezoidal sounding board where strings are stretched over it – thus, it’s a stringed musical instrument. Usually, the dulcimer is placed on a stand at an angle before the musician who holds small mallet hammers in each hand which are then being hit at the strings. The word dulcimer is Graeco-Roman in nature and it means "sweet song"–deriving from the Latin word dulcis (sweet) and the Greek melos (song). The dulcimer’s origin is uncertain, though tradition holds that it was invented 2000 years agon in Iran where it was originally called a Santur. The dulcimer instrument has been revived in the U.S. in the American folk music traditions while some rock bands employ the hammered dulcimer. The dulcimer is played in Wales, East Anglia, Northumbria, Southwest Asia, China, Thailand and in traditional Austrian and Bavarian folk music.
