Dulcimer

Early Belgian Dulcimer (or Hackbrett) from the Hans Adler collection

The worddulcimerrefers to two families of musicalstring instruments.

Hammered dulcimers

The worddulcimeroriginally referred to a trapezoidalzithersimilar to apsalterywhose many strings are struck by handheld "hammers".Variants of this instrument are found in many cultures, including:

• Hammered dulcimer(England, Scotland, United States)
• Hackbrett(southernGermany,Austria,Switzerland)
• Tsymbaly(Ukraine),tsimbl(Ashkenazi Jewish),țambal(Romania) andcimbalom(Hungary) may refer to either a relatively small folk instrument or a larger classical instrument. Thesantouri(Greece) (called "santur" in theOttoman Empire) is almost identical to the Jewish and Romanian folk instruments.
• Santur(IranandIraq)
• Santoor(northernIndiaandPakistan) is constructed and tuned differently from the santur of Iran and Iraq
• Khim(Cambodia,Laos,Thailand)
• Yangqin(China),Đàn tam thập lục(Vietnam),yanggeum(Korea)

Appalachian dulcimer and derivatives

In theAppalachianregion of the U.S. in the nineteenth century, hammered dulcimers were rare. There, the worddulcimer,which was familiar from theKing James Versionof theBible,was used to refer to a three or four stringed fretted instrument, generally played on the lap by strumming.

Variants include:

• The originalAppalachian dulcimer
• Various twentieth century derivatives, including
  • Banjo dulcimer,with banjo-like resonating membrane
  • Resonator dulcimer,with inset conical resonator
  • Bowed dulcimer,teardrop-shaped and played upright with a bow
  • Electric dulcimer,various types of dulcimer which use a pickup to amplify the sound