Hammered Dulcimer

The hammered dulcimer, a direct ancestor of the clavichord and the pianoforte, is a folk instrument that developed from eleventh-century antecedents such as the psaltery. They are trapezoidal in shape, with a long base of 40-45 in. and height of 15-18 in. Two bridges, treble and bass, each support 11-16 courses of strings, which are struck with light wooden hammers. The treble bridge divides the strings into a musical fifth, which facilitates the fast playing of diatonic melodies. Historically, the instrument was used as a rhythmic back-up for fiddles and other lead instruments, but since being popularized in the 1970s folk revival, it has become a solo or lead instrument in ensembles. The hammered dulcimer shares many acoustic properties with the piano except that the dulcimer is smaller and undamped, and the lighter, harder hammers give a more percussive sound. A hammered dulcimer player can also play double strokes and can alter instrument timbre by changing strike location. Current instruments are lightweight, 13-30 lb, and reasonably stable, but temperature and humidity changes cause tuning problems which are related to the linear scaling that is intrinsic to the trapezoidal design.