MUSICALINSTRUMENT:OF THE WORLD

226 Dulcimers

A dulcimer is a board zither struck with hammersor beaters. Like the plucked board zither it cameto Europe from the-Middle East in the i i thcentury. It enjoyed considerable popularity withfashionable European audiences from the i j th tothe igth centuries but now survives only as a folkinstrument. The struck board zither was unknownin the Far East until about 1800, when it wasintroduced by Europeans.

Left Flavins the dulcimer.The player uses small beatersor hammers to strike thestrings.

Below Smaller dulcimers.The Persian santir ( i ) ,Russian chang ( 2 ) , andIndian santoor (3) haveindividual movable bridges.The Korean yangum (4)and Swiss hackbrett (5) havelong bridges shaped to allowstrings over or under them.The Yugoslavian dulcimer(6) has both sorts of bridges.

Right Examples of differenttypes of dulcimer beater.Common styles includestraight beaters (a), curvedbeaters (b], and paddedsticks (c). Wood is the mostusual material. (Thehammer action of the pianois a sophisticated develop-ment of the struck dulcimerprinciple.)

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