The Appalachian Dulcimer Author(s): Charles Seeger Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 71, No. 279 (Jan. - Mar., 1958), pp. 40-51 Published by: American Folklore Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/537958 . Accessed: 17/06/2014 03:56 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. American Folklore Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of American Folklore. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 198.17.145.39 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:56:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions THE APPALACHIAN DULCIMER BY CHARLESSEEGER HE Appalachian dulcimer, dulcimoor or dulcymore, is known to folklorists as an instrumentin fairly generaluse since I900,and probablyfor some time before that, by musically nonliterate rural and small-townspeople in the mountains and foothills of southeastern United States, stretching from southern Pennsylvania to northern Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, taking in West Virginia, the western counties of Maryland, Virginia and the Carolinas, and the eastern of Kentucky and Tennessee.1 It is a fretted cordophone, in my experience usually a little less than a meter long, from I20 to 2oo mm. at its widest and about eighty to Ioo 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 social workers during the last fifty years, and partly to the nation-wide folk music revival movement in the cities since I940, a number of makers have found a market among urban amateurs. I have, however, never known of a factory made instrument. Nor have I ever come across evidence of its use, prior to this revival movement, as a parlor or concert instrument, as was, not seldom, the true hammer dulcimer or whamadiddle throughout the United States during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Appalachian dulcimer may be classed as a folk instrument in the strict sense of the term. Its making and its use have taken place within the currency of an oral tradition of music. To the best of my knowledge, no printed directions for its manufacture or notations of its playing have appeared.3 In Figure I, I give rough outlines of the front views of the five shapes of which I have personally known 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 views are alike, except that in some cases a mere stub takes the place of a scroll at the end of the peg-stock or a handle appearsat the opposite end. The instrument is constructed in two sections. The first is represented in the out- lines by cross-hatching. In many specimens this consists of a single piece of wood running the full length of the instrument, serving at once as peg-stock and scroll, finger or fretboard, tailpiece with or without the occasional handle, and, often as not, as endblocks within the second section over which the first is shaped to fit and be glued. Sometimes section one is made in two, three or more separate pieces, 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 the soundbox are flat and of single boards. The two sides are single boards bent or shaped in 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 construction is especially interesting. The part of section one that serves as fretboard is hollowed out so as to form, in end cross section, an inverted square U, to each of whose edges a side of the front is glued, the part of the front This content downloaded from 198.17.145.39 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:56:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The AppalachianDulcimer 41 I l i z 3 4 r & FIGURE I under the hollowed out part of the fretboardbeing cut out. The fretboardserves, thus, not only as a bridge by which the vibrationsof the stringsare transmittedto the soundbox,but also as an integralpart of the soundboxitself. As on all the dulci- mers I have seen, so on this type of construction,there is, therefore,no separate bridge. The stringspass over two nuts, an upper and a lower, consistingeach of a piece of hardwood, bone or metal set into slots in the fretboard,with notchesso that the stringsrun parallelto one another.A crosssection of this type of constructionis shownin Figure2. FIGURE 2 The dulcimersthat I have seen have had threeor four metal strings,rarely five. I have heard there are instrumentswith more. The stringsare normallythin, .ooI to .002 of an inch.Bryan recommends guitar G and E. I mightadd B. The most commontuning of the three stringdulcimer seems to be to set the two highest strings on the instrument'sright5 in unison, the third a fifth lower as in Figure 3a. Bryangives the tuning in Figure 3b as commonfor the four stringinstru- ment. His experiencethat the A tuningis mostcommon confirms answers given to me by informantswho claimthat they tune the dulcimer"to the samenote as the fiddle," but meaning an octave lower and varyingsometimes as much as a fourth in either direction. This content downloaded from 198.17.145.39 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:56:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 42 lournal of AmericanFolklore 1 2 '3 N * / / 3 4 (G) (b) FIGURE 3 The fretsare placed either under the chanterelle(melody string or stringson the instrument'sright) aloneor acrossthe wholefretboard. They areusually arranged diatonically:T-T-ST-T-T-ST-T for two octavesand partof a third.This might implythat the basic tuning were for a mixolydianmode. But upon historical grounds as well as in view of the typeof musicmostly played, the intentionis obviouslyto seta conventionalmajor with the tonic at thethird fret. The commonestmanner of playingthe Appalachiandulcimer is for the playerto hold it crosswiseupon his spreadknees or backdown upon a tableor chairin front of him with the peg-stockto his left. This mightbe calledright-handed or normal practice.6Mercer shows a photographof a womanplaying the dulcimerwith the butt end in her lap,the backpropped up againsta tablein frontof her.A turkey, gooseor otherquill is heldin eitherhand-in the right,to sweepback and forth or in one directiononly over all the strings,a littledistance above the lowernut; in the left, to pressthe chanterelledown upon the fretboardso as to intonea melodywhile the otherstrings sound as drones.The quill held in the righthand may be slit an inchor so fromthe end to makea flexibleplectrum. An indexfinger or guitarpick will also do, whileany hard,smooth, little stick, piece of boneor evena finger-or thumbnailmay servefor the left hand as a "noter."Only once have I seen the dulcimerplayed with a bow. The player,in Marion,Virginia in I936, volunteered thathe was"the only one" who played it so.Eaton, too, says this is rare.I haveheard of playerswho fretseveral strings at oncewith theirfingers. Bryan cites this as "the mostcomplicated" manner of playingand says that chords may be producedand the stringsplucked as on a psaltery.But I am not convincedthat this is traditionalin the UnitedStates, though further research may prove it to be. Certainly,it is veryrare. Someurban performers play a countermelodyon the instrumentwhen they sing to its accompaniment.But I havenot beenable to convincemyself that this is tradi- tional,though it mustbe admittedthe effect,when well done,is pleasing.Usually, voiceand dulcimereither alternate or soundthe melodyin unisonor at the octave. Rarely,a guitarlikestrumming is used. The timberis thin,metallic, soft, and may well be describedas twangingor even buzzing.A vibratois possibleon tonesof sufficientduration. Indeed, depending upon wherethe pressureof the noteris broughtto bear-in the middleof the fretsquare, closeto or uponthe fret-uponthe heightof the fret,upon the breadthof the noter and upon the amountof pressuredown upon the string,considerable variety of intonationis possibleat any fret.The glidingof the noterover the stringallows- perhapsit wouldbe morecorrect to sayalmost compels-slurring. Though the tone This content downloaded from 198.17.145.39 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 03:56:58 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The AppalachianDulcimer 43 fadesquickly, staccato is not characteristicof the instrument.The dulcimeris for the individualor the intimategroup, not for the crowd;for thenight rather than for the day,though in the handsof a skillfulplayer, tunes lively enough for the square dance,ordinarily carried by the fiddle,can be rendered. Obviously,the Appalachiandulcimer is not,in the acceptedsense of the word,a dulcimerat all, but a frettedzither (Griffbrettzither), belonging to a well-defined subclassupon which the melodyis playedon onestring (or severalin unisonor even parallelthirds) while otherssound as drones.This subclassis well representedin Europeanorganography, especially in the northernregion, by the Icelandiclangspil, Norwegian langeleik, Swedish hummel, Danish humle, Lowland Noordschebalk, German Scheidholt,and French and Belgian buche or epinette des Vosges.