Archive for the ‘Dulcimer’ Category
“The Most Dulcimer”
The Mother of Folk, , is truly an inspiration. Jean was the youngest of 14 children and slept in one room with her nine sisters in the family’s farm house in the Cumberland Mountains of Kentucky. As a child she memorized many of the songs that would be influential during her recording career. After graduating from Cumberland College she moved to New York and began to sing her family songs on albums.
The singer and scholar (she was awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship) sang primarily unaccompanied folk songs. Occasionally she would play guitar or lap dulcimer. It wound up being the use of dulcimers that distinguished Ritchie from other musicians in her genre. In fact, she got the name for her 1992 album, “The Most Dulcimer,” after fans would repeatedly ask her, “Which album has the most dulcimer?”
For those unacquainted with the dulcimer, the first line of business is to point out that two distinct instruments carry the moniker. An Appalachian dulcimer, also referred to as a mountain dulcimer, is a stringed instrument that was highly popularized in American music during the 1800s. Typically, the instrument is played by placing it on your lap, allowing for strumming and fretting from that position. While the instrument experienced a resurgence in the 1950s thanks to folk music, it has never been able to garner mainstream acclaim.
The other type of dulcimer is the hammered dulcimer, and it bares little resemblance to its counterpart. While also being a stringed instrument, the hammered dulcimer is a trapezoidal board and played by striking the individual strings with small mallets. Although the origins of the instrument remain obscure, it is believed to be a relative of the santur from Persia.