Thanks so much, Val. Beautiful melodies and a beautiful dulcimer.  I just try to stay out of the way.

Beautiful playing Dusty. Lovely sounding dulcimer very precise and clear.

Thanks, @Davisjames.  If I remember correctly, I recorded this by plugging directly into a Zoom H4N, so there is no ambient noise, just the dulcimer.

That sounds so good!

Thanks for listening, @Robin-Thompson. I hope you and your favorite guitar player enjoy a wonderful New Year as well!

Thanks, @Anne-Bowman. I'm using my McCafferty with steel strings here, but I have an order in with @Bob-Stephens for a nylon-string dulcimer that should be done in early spring or thereabouts.  Maybe I'll reprise this medley then for comparison.

So pretty, Dusty.. Nylon strings?

This is lovely, beautifully played, Dusty.  I hope you and your dear ones have a lovely New Year! 

The first tune, translated as “The Pure Bird,” involves a man asking a dove to bring a message of love and forgiveness to the woman he loves. The second song, known in English as “Watching the White Wheat,” tells the supposedly true story of an unrequited love between a laborer and the daughter of a wealthy farm family.  She is obliged to marry another, so he leaves the village, only to return as she is dying from a broken heart. In the final song, which takes its name from a mountain in Wales, a man expresses nostalgia for the countryside of his childhood as he descends the mountain only to find his childhood home in shambles.

Modern interpretations of the tunes vary considerably, from soft and harmonically rich versions on the harp to faster and simpler vocal versions sung with a degree of bravado as pub songs.  I offer a combination of the two, opting for slower and softer but without some of the elaborate harmonies of the harp (I only have three strings, after all!).

Thanks to @Robin-Clark for suggesting these songs to me several years ago.