Tim, I totally agree with you, but I'm also making an assumption. And I must confess that it has been so long since I heard Jean Ritchie and her family (and I believe they were sources for Lomax's recordings) that I don't know if she used a noter or chording. And I agree that it is the younger who started the chording of the traditional Appalachian dulcimer (my guru is Larkin Bryant). But the assumption I am making, and perhaps a bad one, is that the "old boys" were making an approximation of an ancestral European instrument, and doing so within the limitations of their available resources (and memories of the music played). In fact this might be an example of what I said in my message to Roman - things can be lost and then refound. Those old boys all either immigrated, or had ancestors that immigrated. The Appalachian dulcimer has a name that is used for another instrument (one of the zither family, i.e. individual strings for each note, like the harp). Yet it has a neck, which implies stopping of the strings. So the chording may have been lost and the "traditional" that you and I know is a new tradition that is being supplanted by an older one.
So it is my humble proposal that the mountain dulcimer is a recreation of a member of the lute family, which one I don't know - and don't care to know. And that the three courses weren't invented as a drone type instrument in 19th century Appalachia, but they devolved to that as the country folk made music from an instrument they derived from their ancestry. This is no denigration of that music, I love to play the old tunes using my thumb as a noter, then go into another chorus with the chording (I have a very hardened thumb, them wires don't even make a dent in it <g>). I will guess that the modern "finger pickin' " with the right hand is modern. Given the early use of quill picks for most chordophones it is likely, but not necessary, that the ancestor of the mountain dulcimer was a strummed instrument. But I do like finger pickin' it, again as a second chorus to the strumming. BTW, for the lutenists. The full strum on the mountain dulcimer is a "thumb under" and index finger imitation of the quill pick, just that it is across the full set of strings rather than the individual note. (Don't pick on me Tim (and pardon the pun), that is inexact, but close). Best, Jon - Original Message ----- From: "Timothy Motz" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jon Murphy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "bill kilpatrick" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "lute list" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, November 26, 2004 1:40 PM Subject: Re: early recordings > Jon, > I've built Appalachian dulcimers and looked into their history. For > the old, truly folk-made, dulcimers, it was not uncommon for the frets > to be wire staples pounded into the fretboard beneath the treble > course. When fretwire is used, you make the slot for it by cutting a > kerf across the fretboard and pounding a section of fretwire into the > kerf. It would be a whole lot more work to attempt to cut the kerf > only under the treble courses than to simply set the fret all the way > across the fretboard and just not use the frets under the drones. From > what I remember of Jean Ritchie's books, she played the traditional way > using a noter. It was younger people like Richard Farina who started > chording the drone strings. In David Hajdu's book, "Positively 4th > Street," he has a description of where Farina wanted to go musically > with the dulcimer, and he was definitely breaking with traditional > playing style. > > Tim > > On Friday, November 26, 2004, at 12:21 AM, Jon Murphy wrote: To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
