The Hammered Dulcimer: History and Development
Benji Rose
A stained glass window of an angel playing the dulcimer. Picardy, c.1460.
Introduction
Few instruments have such a broad geography as the hammered dulcimer: it is known across Asia and Europe in many different forms and with different uses, from the santur — the instrument of Persia, to the cimbalom — the 'concert' instrument of Central and Eastern Europe. The dulcimer is unique in that it has apparently been in continuous use since its appearance in the late medieval period while avoiding any major adaptations to the instrument's design until the cimbalom was invented in the late 1800s.
This article explores some of the variants of this instrument and examines their similarities and differences, as well as outlining the history of the dulcimer. We are focused here on European and Middle Eastern instruments, and the present article does not address in detail other variants of the instrument found across Asia such as the santoor of India, although some further reading and listening suggestions have been given at the end of the article for the reader wishing to delve more into the subject.
The dulcimer is a member of the zither family; a chordophone in the Hornbostel-Sachs classification of musical instruments.
The term 'dulcimer' is taken today to refer to two different instruments: the Hammered Dulcimer and the Appalachian Dulcimer. This article addresses the Hammered Dulcimer and its history, a subject which encompasses the psaltery. The Appalachian Dulcimer is not a focus here, neither is the bowed psaltery - both are connected to the hammered dulcimer, but discussions of them are kept to a minimum as they appear much later in history than the hammered dulcimer, being inventions of the 19th and 20th century respectively.
The Dulcimer: Its History and Development
The hammered dulcimer is one of the most widely used instruments of folk music. It is known from Ireland to China, with many different forms - all identical in that they are zithers, which produce sound by the striking of a hammer/mallet held by the player. The sound is produced then by the hammer striking the string, much the same as on a piano. The piano is in fact a descendant of the dulcimer: they are both in the same family of musical instruments - percussive chordophone.
However, the piano has its strings struck by hammers operated by keys, whereas on the dulcimer the hammers are held by the player. The piano has one hammer per note while the dulcimer has only two hammers for the entire compass of the instrument.
The dulcimer, like the piano, is a chordophone - an instrument that produces sound by the vibration of a string. The dulcimer in all its forms, like the piano, is also a zither: a string or series of strings, and a resonator (box). If we detached all parts of a dulcimer or piano we would be left with a box with strings stretched across, however, if we did the same for a violin we would have a box and a neck separate and thus no viable musical instrument: the violin then is not a zither, but it is a chordophone, as is a lute, lyre, and harp. The lyre has two arms supporting a crossbar which holds the strings, the harp's strings are placed vertical to the sound-board - as we get into the earlier history and depictions of the dulcimer, it is useful to keep these differences in mind.
Origins and Early Development
Speculations as to the origin of the hammered dulcimer, based mostly on the interpretation of iconographic sources, have produced conflicting theories. Some situate the instrument's beginning in the Middle East, others in Europe. At the present time, the arguments for Europe, and in particular Germany and France, as the point of origin seem most convincing, but interpretations are always based on scanty evidence. The instrument, as a generic form, clearly existed in many regions of Europe by the end of the 15th century, and in subsequent centuries proof of its introduction to other parts of the world become evident.
As for the precursors of the American 'folk' hammered dulcimer, regional European forms of the instrument started to appear in North America possibly as early as the 17th century, though there is scant evidence to prove that even in the middle of the 18th century the instrument had much of a presence in the Colonies. 19th-century immigrants from many regions of Europe to the United States introduced numerous varieties of hammered dulcimers to North America, and there is evidence that dulcimers started to be built in America in the early 19th century (the oldest surviving American-made hammered dulcimer was made in upstate New York sometime between 1800 and 1805). Whether carried to America by immigrants or manufactured by American makers, dulcimers were never standardised instruments. Their size, number and coursing of strings, number and location of bridges, and tuning patterns varied greatly, making it impossible to identify at any given historical moment a standard instrument.
Psaltery and Psalterion
There are no extant psalteries from the medieval period, so our knowledge of it relies on written and iconographic sources. These sources are themselves at times contradictory and confusing. Today it is generally accepted that the European psaltery was inspired by the Arabic qanun, which entered Europe via Moorish Spain. The most believable visual representations of the psaltery from the 12th through the 15th centuries suggest it took on different shapes (triangular, triangular with two incurving sides, trapezoidal, wing-shaped) and coursing (sometimes single, other times double, triple or quadruple) in different parts of Europe. Though by the end of the medieval period most psalteries were strung with wire strings, earlier ones might have had gut strings. As music became more chromatic in nature during the Renaissance, the psaltery, a diatonic instrument, appears to have fallen out of favour. It is nonetheless seen as the precursor to several later instruments, some of which are still in use as part of living folk music traditions in Europe.
The hammered dulcimer appeared relatively late in Europe, and is found from the late medieval, around the 14th century. It is supposedly a development of the earlier psaltery which is a plucked box zither which appears in Europe around the 11th century. It was probably used in both religious and secular settings, and remained in use sporadically until the 16th century, by which time it had largely died out.
The psaltery was apparently widely used, as we see from the frequent depiction of it in iconography, and famously in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:
Whan Nicholas had done this everideel,
And thakked hire aboute the lendes weel,
He kiste hire sweete and taketh his sawtrie,
And pleyeth faste, and maketh melodie.
The Middle English term sawtrie could also be spelled sautrie:
And al above ther lay a gay sautrie,
On which he made a-nyghtes melodie
So swetely that all the chambre rong;
And Angelus ad virginem he song;
And after that he song the Kynges Noote.
The psaltery was rather similar to the harp, although the harp would have strings in front of the sound-board while the psaltery had strings stretched horizontally over the sound-board.
However, despite being reasonably simple in appearance, the psaltery is neither simple to build, neither is it a loud instrument, and this suggests it was probably not an instrument of the peasant or shepherd. This is also represented in Chaucer's description of it as gay which from Middle English might be translated as gallant, ornate, bright or elegant.
Etymology and Nomenclature
The name psaltery probably comes from the Old English psealm or salm and the Old French psaume or saume, which is derived from the Latin psalmus, itself from the Greek psalmos - a song sung with a harp, and psallein - to pluck on a string instrument.
Like the dulcimer, the psaltery is supposedly of Arabic origin where it was called قانون - qanūn, kanun, ganoun or kanoon, leading to one of the European terms for the instrument: canon (Greek kanon). But it is not known whether the psaltery and the dulcimer are of Persian origin or whether they developed independently in Europe and Arabia.
The qanūn is an instrument still widely in use today in much of the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, and Central Asia; although the qanūn today is a more complex instrument than the psaltery. Today we might expect the qanūn to have 78 strings, 26 courses of 3 strings, and levers to alter the pitch by a whole-, semi- and quarter-tone.
Historical Documentation and Iconography
We can find examples of the psaltery in iconography: for example in the Romanesque Revelation of John on the exterior of Chartres, Centre-Val de Loire, France, as well as a second sculpture on the exterior of the same cathedral dated from the same period.
One of the earlier depictions of the psaltery dates from the 11th century: Le Mans, BM, 0197, f. 001-002 bis v (f. 002 bis v) from the Book of Psalms. This instrument is rectangular and held upright on the knee as one would expect from a harp. It is seen played together with a rebec and a horn.
Medieval art usually depicts the psaltery held upright, although there are some exceptions such as the Sforza Hours (BL Add. MS 34294) where the instrument is laid flat. There are four different designs of the psaltery depicted in the Cantigas de Santa Maria.
The Hammered Dulcimer: Design and Construction
The dulcimer's name also comes from the Latin dulce melos — sweet melody, and it is known by terms derived from this in western Europe: dulcimer (English), and doucemelle (France), while similar terms are found in the Mediterranean - doulcemela (Italy), and dulcema (Spain) - the term Salterio is predominantly used in Italy, Spain and Portugal. Although the English term for this instrument is dulcimer it is often hammered dulcimer to distinguish it from the Appalachian dulcimer.
In most designs in western Europe the dulcimer is found as a shallow trapezoidal box zither, with two rows of bridges, each of which consist of a single pieces of wood. Variants of this include having one or two smaller bridges that will cover 2 or 3 courses. Generally, the instrument has courses of 4 strings per note.
Unlike the psaltery, the dulcimer is always played laid flat - on a table, on the player's lap, or on a stand. Lying the instrument flat dampens the sound, and it is more resonant if placed on a stand or propped up on the table by an object such as a book under the top end of the instrument.
On the dulcimer, unlike the psaltery, the method of producing the sound is by striking the strings with hammers/mallets the design of which differs depending on region.
Playing Technique and Construction Features
The use of the hammers requires the dulcimer to be bigger than the psaltery - allowing more space between the strings, without which striking neighbouring strings by mistake is unavoidable. The rise of the dulcimer also saw closely adjacent parallel strings tuned to the same pitch being placed together in courses of two, three or even four as is usual for modern instruments. These courses however did not originate with the dulcimer, the psaltery acquired courses at around the same time as the hammered dulcimer first appeared.
Bridges for the dulcimer's strings were quite high, to prevent them from hitting the sounding board and stopping their sound. Some dulcimers had a separate bridge for each string, while others used alternating bridges on both ends, holding every other string up on one end and the alternate strings on the other end.
The hammers/mallets of Western Europe today would generally be around 20cm long, and reasonably thick and weighted at the head, with a carved grip on the handle which allows the player to bounce the hammer on the string.
Regional Variations
Historical European Documentation
Later the term psalterion which had been used by the Ancient Greeks to denote a harp, was found to refer not to a psaltery but to a hammered dulcimer, for example the psalterion term was used by Mersenne in his Harmonie Universelle of 1636. Praetorius (1619) also includes the hammered dulcimer in Syntagma Musicum, where he uses the German name Hackbreit - Hackbrett being the modern German, and other variants thereof in Germanic languages: Hakkebord (Dutch), and Cymbal (Swedish) while Norway and Denmark use the English terminology.
Both Virdung (1511) and Agricola (1532) depict the hackbrett, and both show almost identical instruments. Interestingly both Virdung and Agricola group the hackbrett with both the harp and with the psaltery which they both call psalterium and in both cases is a triangular instrument. Praetorius' hackbrett resembles those of Virdung and Agricola, all three instruments show two bridges. All three of these dulcimers have decorated circular sound-holes and this remains the norm on most dulcimers today. Mersenne's dulcimer is quite different: here we see a simple hammered psaltery, with single courses, a range of only 2 octaves and one bridge.
Central and Eastern European Variants
Țambal is a term used to refer to a family of instruments. In both Romania and the Republic of Moldova the term țambal is used. Along with the accordion - which would later replace the earlier forms of the țambal due to Roma influences in music during the Ottoman rule, it is the most widely spread folk instrument, and it appears in widely different forms depending on the region and period.
Țambal could strictly speaking be the term for the hammered dulcimer, however, in 1874 the Hungarian József Schunda elaborated upon the earlier țambal and created the (concert) cimbalom - a much larger instrument adding chromatic notes, dampers operated by a pedal, and a greater dynamic range. This concert cimbalom is now widely used among folk musicians in Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Greece.
Generally, Țambal mallets represent an interesting kind of hybrid between the weightier western hammers and the mezràb of the Middle Eastern instruments. The mezràb is very light and delicate, with felt at the striking end and a grip that is particular to these hammers. It also differs from western hammers in having the weight at the grip-end rather than the striking end. Bouncing the hammer on the string as is common in the west is not a technique employed with Middle Eastern playing.
Middle Eastern Variants: The Santur
Together with the dulcimer of Europe, the santur is one of the oldest appearances of the hammered dulcimers, and in the case of the santur it appears to be in Persia (modern day Iraq) where the instrument originated. Popular belief says that the santur can be found as far back as Assyrian and Babylonian inscriptions (669 BC), others credit Farabi (870-950 AD) with the instrument's invention, and of being from the Sassanid era (224-651 AD). These are, however, not certain to be the santur and it is not known if the santur of today developed out of these earlier instruments. It seems more plausible that these ancient instruments were harps.
The santur was a central instrument in Persian classical music, and the sphere of influence of Persian music went far beyond the borders of Iran. Initially, influencing the maqàmic music traditions which are found across the Middle East and beyond, entering into Europe in different regions and at different times, and incorporated into the folk traditions of the Balkans where the use of the cimbalom predominates the folk music.
The strings of the lower (first octave), known as the 'yellow' notes (zard) because they are made of brass, extend from the right to the left of the body of the instrument, with their bridges situated to the right side of the soundboard, resulting in the longest available vibrating length. A second set of strings, known as 'white' notes (sefid) because they are made of steel, serves the middle and upper registers (second and third octaves); they are divided by a row of bridges situated to the left of centre, essentially in the ratio 1:2, such that the left part of each string sounds essentially an octave higher than its counterpart to the right.
Unlike some Western kinds of hammered dulcimer, each of the santur's bridges is individually and independently movable, and thus the pitch can continuously be changed by several tones. Other notable differences are found in the tuning: the bridge of the treble on the santur is placed to produce an octave - rather than a fifth, on the left hand side, and the lowest string of the bass is tuned a 4th below the next string, while the other strings of the instrument are placed a diatonic step away from each other.
Asian Variants
The Chinese Yangqin
Gifford (2001) speculates that it was most likely Europeans, especially British individuals, who introduced the hammered dulcimer to the southern China coastal area around 1700 CE. This theory runs contrary to an earlier one that postulates the Persian santur, introduced during the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE), as being the instrument upon which the yangqin is modeled. Since the yangqin features rows of connected (like British models) rather than separate bridges (like the santur), and British and other European merchants and sailors were visiting the South China coast by the turn of the 18th century, Gifford's theory seems the more plausible one.
It would appear that the earliest yangqin had two partitioning bridges accommodating seven double or triple course strings each. Over time, the two bridges had additional courses added up to ten on each. More dramatic design changes were made to the instrument following the 1949 Communist Revolution when the new government established conservatories of music and encouraged instrument makers to experiment with new designs.
The Cambodian Khimm
The khimm is a struck box-zither chordophone of the Khmer people of Kampuchea (Cambodia). A hammered dulcimer, it is related to other instruments in this family. The instrument's lid, which is made from the same block of wood as its resonator, has relief carving in the style of Khmer shadow puppets. This introduced instrument (it is of Chinese origin) is used in secular music making, most often as a member of the mohori ensemble that provides music for banquets and accompaniment for newer folkloric dances.
The khimm is derived from the Chinese hammered dulcimer yangqin, which was introduced to Cambodia by Chinese residents perhaps as recently as the 1930s as part of the ensemble that accompanied their theatre entertainments. It was adapted by the Khmer for their own theatre music and eventually introduced into other secular music making ensembles. As a consequence of the general presence of Chinese peoples throughout Mainland Southeastern Asia, both historically and at the present, khimm-like instruments are also found in Myanmar/Burma (don-min), Laos (khim), Thailand (khim), and Vietnam (du'o'ng cam or dan tam thap luc).
Conclusion
The hammered dulcimer represents one of the most geographically widespread and historically persistent musical instruments, maintaining its essential character while adapting to local musical traditions across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. From its medieval European origins through its various regional developments, the instrument has demonstrated remarkable resilience and adaptability, continuing to serve both folk and classical music traditions into the modern era.
The relationship between the earlier psaltery and the hammered dulcimer illustrates the evolutionary nature of musical instrument development, where technological innovations (in this case, the use of hammers rather than plucking) can transform both the sound and social role of an instrument. Today, the hammered dulcimer family continues to thrive in diverse musical contexts, from Persian classical music to Eastern European folk traditions, testament to its enduring appeal and versatility.
Bibliography
Agricola, Martin. 1532. Musica instrumentalis deudsch. Wittenberg.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Middle English text.
Dusty Strings Harp and Hammered Dulcimer Makers. "Hammered Dulcimer Models, D10." Accessed October 29, 2014. http://manufacturing.dustystrings.com/hammered-dulcimers/models/d10/
Gifford, Paul M. 2001. The Hammered Dulcimer, A History. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Kettlewell, David. 1984. "Dulcimer." The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments v.1: 620-632.
Mersenne, Marin. 1636. Harmonie Universelle. Paris.
Praetorius, Michael. 1619. Syntagma Musicum. Wolfenbüttel.
Rose, Benji. 2020. "The Hammered Dulcimer."
Virdung, Sebastian. 1511. Musica getutscht. Basel.
Manuscript Sources
Le Mans, BM, 0197, f. 001-002 bis v (f. 002 bis v). Book of Psalms. 11th century.
Nice, BM, 001 (R. 03) f.140v. 13th century manuscript.
Paris, Bibl. Mazarine, 0017. Mid-13th century manuscript.
Marseille, Bibl. mun., ms. 0014, f. 002. 13th century manuscript.
Troyes, BM, 0144 (tome III) f.311. 14th century manuscript.
Sforza Hours (BL Add. MS 34294). British Library.
Cantigas de Santa Maria. 13th century manuscript collection.