The Hammered Dulcimer is an ancient antecedent of the Harpsicord and the Piano.  Many scholars believe the Hammered Dulcimer is derived from an instrument known as the Psaltery whose origins date as far back as 5000 years in what is now modern day Iraq.  This Psaltery type instrument was usually rectangular though some may have been in the shape of a trapezoid and consisted of multiple strings to make up the tonal octaves.  The strings were stretched across a shallow sound box with bridges on either end.  This instrument was plucked rather than struck with a mallet.  The Psaltery is an instrument that was known in Biblical Old Testament times and referenced specifically in the book of Daniel.  This fits well to its origins in Persia (modern day Iraq) since the book of Daniel is set during the Hebrews’ exile in Persia.

The Persian king Nebuchadnezzar erected a golden stature perhaps of himself and made an edict that all people of his empire fall down and worship it or be cast into the furnace.

Earlier references to the Psaltery in the Biblical record such as in the age of David the shepherd who played for King Saul to soothe the king’s troubled mind or later after David became king and references in the collection of the Psalms are probably instruments more like the harp of probably ten strings.  Modern Biblical scholars are mixed in opinion about the Greek translation that was used for instance in the 16th century translation of the Septuagint (Greek Translation of the Old Testament) into English known as the King James Bible.  Modern Biblical scholars have questioned the translation of the Greek word Symphonia as Dulcimer in the King James Version of the Old Testament.  The word Symphonia in the Greek referred to an ancient bag pipe type instrument.  Dulcimer is derived from Greek and Latin by the combination of two words: Dulce –meaning sweet and Melos- meaning tune so combined is sweet tune.

The Hammered Dulcimer as we know today does indeed make a sweet tune, but the term Dulcimer could be applied to any number of instruments.  The Hammered Dulcimer as we have it today is more closely related to a class of instruments known in Greek as the Psalterion which most likely refers to a variety of stringed instruments of folk origin which took on a variety of shapes and sizes and in the number strings.  As the instrument was introduced into different tribes and cultures it was adapted to each group being made out of regional materials and tuned and played to fit the taste of each group.  This class of instrument shared a common attribute in that it was a stringed instrument with a number of strings each representing a note in the octave or octaves of notes.  They all were strung across a shallow sound box with bridges at both ends of the box.  From there the instrument took on a variety of elements defined and adapted by each culture throughout the Middle East.

The trapezoidal shaped instrument that is struck with small mallets rather than being plucked finds its first recorded reference in Syria in AD 963.Some scholars opine that though not recorded the instrument could be dated as early as AD 800 and they site that in the oldest versions of the “Arabian Nights” an instrument called the Qanun was referenced.This instrument still called Qanun is used in North Africa by Sephardic Jews which has striking resemblance to the Hammered Dulcimer.These scholars believe that the Persian instruments called Santir were likely developed from the Qanun around AD 900.However though the instruments are remarkably similar and are still in use today, the Qanun isplucked and the Santir is played with the striking of the strings by small mallets.  In Greece the Hammered Dulcimer is called the Santouri and in India it is called a Santur.

The instrument as we know it today was most likely brought to Europe by the Moors who brought it to Spain as early as AD 1100.  There is a relief of this early instrument depicted on the walls of a Spanish cathedral in AD 1184.  It spread both east and west throughout Europe as Crusaders arrived back home to their native lands.  It is believed however that the instrument came to Ireland even before it appeared in Spain.  In Ireland there are earlier references to the instrument which they call the Tympanon. 

Throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance it grew in popularity and took on different sizes and number of strings and bridges and in the way it was tuned to suit the varying cultural taste.  It was an instrument made in homes and in small shops using the materials that were available to each area.  It was known by different names throughout Europe.  For instance it was called Tympanon in France, a Hackbrett in Germany and a Cymbalon in Hungary. 

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance varying forms of the Hammered Dulcimer appear in art.  Its evolution in form and size with more strings and bridges throughout Europe reflects the types of forms of the Hammered Dulcimer that appears in the British Colonies.  The instruments’ portability and ease of use and an instrument that could be made at home or in small shops made it a most popular instrument and was suitable to play a most versatile array of music.  It becomes clear that at least by the 16th Century throughout Europe and especially in the British Isles the instrument that we know now as the Hammered Dulcimer was well established.  It was so popular in England in the 16th Century that the translators of the King James Version of the Bible as mentioned above mistranslated the Greek word Symphonia as Dulcimer, so the name Dulcimer among English speaking people stuck, thus this is how we have the established name of the instrument as Hammered Dulcimer.

Its introduction to the Orient seems to have come relatively late.  The Chinese version which is called the Yang Chin did not seem to have found popularity until the early part of the 19th Century.

The Korean tradition of the Hammered Dulcimer dates as early as 1725 and it appears shortly later to Japan.  In Japan the Hammered Dulcimer has had a new resurgence in popularity by the younger generation.

The Hammered Dulcimer appears to have arrived early in the American Colonies.  In a ship log a Hammered Dulcimer is listed on a ship bound to Jamestown, Virginia in 1609.  It appears to have been in use also in New England at least as early as the turn of the 18th century.  Judge Samuel Sewal records seeing the instrument played in Salem, Massachusetts in 1717.  Its popularity spread throughout the Colonies and was well established by the early 18th Century.  As the population grew throughout the Colonies and people moved westerly into the Appalachian Region it particularly became popular as an instrument of choice among the Highland Scotts and Irish immigrants who settled into this region.  It appears that this group was well established by the mid to late 1700’s.  They adapted the instrument to play their ancient folk songs which they brought with them from their motherland.  There was no standardized instrument, but took on a myriad of shapes and sizes and made with the materials that were available to the local crafts persons.  There was no particular way in which they were tuned, but varied to play the folk songs of each cultural group.

It grew in popularity and began to be standardized apart from the Appalachians in the 19th Century and was particularly popular in the lumber camps that arose as people moved into the Ohio Valley.  By the late 1800’s it began to be sold by catalog companies such as Sears and Roebuck which was established in the upper Midwest.   Sears and Roebuck stopped making and selling the instrument by 1919 and its availability and popularity waned.  However in Michigan from the 1920’s through 1947 Henry Ford revived interest in the instrument with his Early American Orchestra featuring a Hammered Dulcimer and a Cimbalom.  Ford’s orchestra played for dances throughout Michigan and released recordings on the Victor and Columbia labels and then aired weekly national radio programs.  When Henry Ford died in 1947 the orchestra disbanded and subsequently interest in the Hammered Dulcimer fell off.

Apart from the Appalachians the Hammered Dulcimer fell out of favor with the emergence of the growing availability and popularity of the piano.

The Hammered Dulcimer saw a new resurgence in popularity beginning in the 1960’s when Appalachian musicians began to play their songs on the Hammered Dulcimer and make record albums.   It started a revival of interest in folk music and folk instruments.  This interest has continued into the 21st Century and the introduction throughout the United States of a growing number of professional musicians who share their Hammered Dulcimer music on the internet demonstrating a wide range of music styles from Classical to Pop favorites.  The instrument has been widely developed in size, the number of strings and bridges and varying in style of performance as diverse as the number of musicians playing the instrument.

Most musicologists classify the Hammered Dulcimer in the Board Zither family of instruments.  They all rely upon one string or course of strings tuned each to a desired pitch as in harps, psalteries, harpsichord, piano and hammered dulcimer.  The Hammered Dulcimer as established in this brief history has a much older tradition than the Zither which is still an instrument that is strummed rather than struck with small mallets.

What appears common to the modern form of the Hammered Dulcimer is the presence of at least four bridges on which the strings are tuned in diatonic scales.  There is a side bridge on either side of the trapezoid shaped instrument next to the tuning pins.  Then the instrument has a treble bridge which is played on both the right and left of the bridge.  On the right side of the treble bridge is a diatonic scale of whole steps between the strings and on the left side of the bridge the strings are tuned five steps higher than the corresponding notes on the right side of the bridge and when struck together make a major chord.  On the right side of the instrument is the presence of a bass bridge which is played on the left side and the strings are tuned an octave lower than the strings on the treble bridge.