Musical phrasing and interpretation are affected by the way the instrumentalist moves. It often marks the difference between cold, dead music-making and compelling, electrifying results.
A lot of dynamic effect can be achieved with a very efficient and slight movement, as when a hammered dulcimer player uses mostly his fingers to flip the hammers in just the right way, with shoulders and elbows moving the hammers to the note locations.
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Wooden instruments gain new sonorities as they’re played over the years!
My performance hammered dulcimer was made in 1999 by Dusty Strings, the eighth one released of the new design, the D600; they sent it to co-designer Sam Rizzetta for approval of the new model, and he recorded it on three tracks of the album Dulcimer Boogie with it. (That’s my D600 in the photos! He played a new D550 on one other track, and his own Rizzetta Extended Range on the rest.)
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One of the most popular and beloved pieces in all of Classical music is the beautiful Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, made famous in our time by its use in a recording in 1969 and a film in the 1970s.
With its repeating chords, diatonic (do-re-mi scale) nature, and interesting lyrical melody, it seems like a perfect candidate for a hammered dulcimer arrangement.
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Over the past twenty-seven years I’ve used a number of electronic tuners to get my hammered dulcimer and other instruments in tune before a gig or a recording session, and I’ve hoped for quickness and exactness. Now, the most recently purchased tuner really stands out. I’ll tell you why after a brief history:
First, starting in 1988, I had a Sabine. There were just three little lights showing ‘flat, in tune, sharp’ and the note was sensed by a microphone or a jack for an extension cable with an alligator clamp at the other end. It did a decent job.
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Do you know what the letters ‘SATB’ mean?
That’s the shorthand for the common choir and hymnal arrangements in which there are four parts for the four ranges: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass.
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Back in the late 1980s when I was excitedly collecting melodies from old folk hymn books, especially George Pullen Jackson’s scholarly books and the actual shape-note hymnals such as The Original Sacred Harp and The Southern Harmony (in those the tune is in the tenor, by the way), one of the hymns that really caught my attention was ‘Behold the Lamb of God’ --- and I made a ‘lead sheet’ for it in a singable, playable key.
But I’ve never made an arrangement of it for hammered dulcimer until now, when I turned the camera on and explored ways of making it sing on the instrument without the words but with the words in mind.
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Most hammered dulcimer players seem to prefer using the bare wooden surfaces of hammers to get a clear, brilliant sound, and occasionally the suede side can add a soft sound for contrast.
My personal taste says that the suede side of a double-sided hammer has more potential than merely making a soft or mysterious sound, but, like a piano, it can express a full range of tone as the player articulates phrases using dramatic body language.
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