The Hammered Dulcimer in Ireland today?
I just noticed that I first posted on the Hammered Dulcimer here, way back in Aug 2002, {https://thesession.org/discussions/819/comments} so after eight years, have there been any changes?
I’m wondering now, if there are any more musicians playing the Hammered Dulcimer in Ireland today, than there were back then & if so, I’d be very interested to hear from them.
I now play my own Hammered Dulcimer every week at a local session, up here on the North coast, which incidentally usually features only one or two other melody instrument, plus Guitar & rhythm instruments & in that setting, the Hammered Dulcimer works rather well.
However, as voiced by many session musicians over the years, it is not what you might call the most popular of instruments, when it appears in the Pub doorway, under someone’s arm.
I must confess, I don’t think it works too well myself, in most Pub Sessions, particularly when played with too many other instruments. That’s not to say though, that there aren’t some session situations which suit it very well.
I must confess though that, unlike many HD players I know, I don’t actually like the sound of the more than one Hammered Dulcimer being played at the same time, so I’m not a fan when it comes to Dulcimers in groups, gangs or orchestras. ๐
The fact still remains though, that this instrument has been around & played in Ireland at least since 1767 & may well have been played here long before then, too. So it does, of course, have a place in the history of Irish Traditional Music, albeit a small one & therefore surely deserves it’s place here today ….. doesn’t it?
We must remember too, that the real Irish Harp was of course strung with wire strings, long before the modern European Gut Strung Beasties were planted here, ๐ so it suffers from some of the same problems with sustain, that usually keeps the HD out of most sessions, in that when really fast tunes are attempted, it can very easily just end up sounding like a complete & utter racket! However, no one in their right mind would suggest that the Wire Strung Gaelic Harp didn’t & still doesn’t deserve to be played in Irish Music circles today, … would they?
If you have any thoughts on this subject, I’d really like to hear them, especially if they relate to first hand experiences you may have had with Hammered Dulcimers &/or Hammered Dulcimer players, in Ireland today?
Cheers
Dick
The Hammred Dulcimer in Ireland:
http://irishdulcimer.com/