That's the way to prove your point, brother!  Sounds like an old Andy Griffith Show episode, don't it?

I was an invited to  a Baptist Church in my younger day in NC.  One Sunday evening a big controversy broke when a visiting Seminary student played a guitar and a delegation of Deacons had a pure fit, yelling about no Stringed instruments and all that sort of thing.  Well,being a Methodist at the time and finishing up at the Seminary at Wake Forest I got dragged into that hoopla. 

Since they had a Piano up and the platform near a couple of double doors I told those characters they might be right and told them to follow me and waltzed them over to those double doors and told them to hold 'em open and proceeded to push that Piano towards those doors.  Since that would entail Grandma's piano having to survive a 4 ft drop they commenced to yelling stop, what was I doing etc.  I told them Piano's had strings and if they were right it had to go since their point was that stringed instruments were of the Devil  a Piano sure had a bunch of them.  The mess simmered down after that...........on the way out I couldn't help but sort of innocently asked what David's harp used to make music since I was a bit perplexed by the whole situation.  

The Piano stayed and I never did get an answer..........

updated by @salt-springs: 08/31/24 09:28:12PM

I'm not much of a historian.

But here in my area a lot of Churches didn't allow music of any kind until the late 80s, early 90s. With the exception of Church of God, Pentecostal Churches and Holiness Churches, the only churches that allowed music had a piano and that's it.

To this day the Primitive Baptist and Old Regular Baptist still don't allow music. 

However, some of the best musicians in the area went to most of the churches that didn't allow music.

For instance: well known bluegrass player and singer named Ralph Stanley was of the Primitive Baptist denomination that doesn't allow music in church.

I personally wouldn't put much stock in the notion that the early dulcimore was played in church very much. Or any instrument for that matter if we're speaking the 1800s in rural Appalachia.

I agree with Wally regarding his statement about Robin Clark not really understanding the place of the dulcimer within Appalachian culture. But, I think that is true of many of us. The temptation is to generalize e.g., because community A had a play party where a few people played dulcimer, all play parties included dulcimer playing. Appalachia is a diverse region culturally. Some religious groups did not allow musical instruments in worship and developed wonderful a cappella singing. Others that had organs and/or pianos developed great choral (choir) traditions. 

When we speak of a specific practice we need to identify its place (Knott County, KY; Galax, VA;  Watauga County, NC; etc.). We cannot generalize that practice to other communities without evidence of that practice in those other communities. We tend to pick up a practice and romanticize it. While historians look for evidence to support various notions we have about the mountain dulcimer, its origins, use, place in community, etc., we continue to tell what we "learned" about the dulcimer as unsupported "facts." We all like good stories.  I think we need to be careful about the stories we tell. Do they share facts or continue myths? I've learned over the years to be careful in sharing my research in to dulcimer history. I ask myself what substantiates what I am sharing. If I can't accurately state something as fact, I will present it as theory yet to be proven.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Not sure exactly what time period we are talking here- during or before before Jean's time (b.1922)?  Remember that the earliest mtn dulcimer so far that has been accurately dated was from the 1830s- actual mtn dulcimers may not even have been 'invented' before 1800.
I've always been doubtful about the conjecture that mountain dulcimers were commonly played for social dances or in church. I've never read any verified references of it, and it seems unlikely to me. On the other hand, many churches and most grange halls had a piano. And guitars, fiddles, and (to a lesser extent) banjos... were pretty widespread among the communities.

--
Site Owner

Those irritated by grain of sand best avoid beach.
-Strumelia proverb c.1990

 
I know only a little about dulcimer history, and even less about the history of southern churches, but with smaller churches it makes a lot of sense to me that musicians would be invited to play small intimate performances in front of their congregation. Most church people that I've met love musicians bringing their instruments and performing a piece of worship music, since church is fundamentally about community. I guess i had assumed that any instruments which weren't considered "of the devil" would end up getting played in churches. I really hope it wasn't that different in 'puritanical' times in Appalachia...

updated by @nate: 08/30/24 06:31:24AM

Thanks for your insight Wally.

Yes, old dulcimers were quiet instruments, almost always played in the home.  No big concerts back then.  They were just meant to accompany singing, like Jean Ritchie demonstrated. 

I watched Robin Clark's video. He does a great job of covering dulcimer types and construction, and he plays with great skill.

On the other hand, I don't think he really understands the place(s) of the dulcimer within Appalachian culture. He proposes that the dulcimer was commonly used for dances and church services. I have seen no evidence that dulcimers from our area were ever used in dances or church. 

Both from reading Jean Ritchie's Singing Family of the Cumberlands book (Eastern Kentucky) and from studying local sources (North Central West Virginia) I am aware that in many communities dancing to instrumental music was considered sinful. This was particularly true among rural Methodist and Baptist congregations. In those communities "children" of all ages attended PLAYS or PLAY-PARTIES where dance-like activities took place while the participants SANG the music. 

There are many scholarly and semi-scholarly books which discuss play-parties in detail. In many cases the tunes and dance figures were nearly identical to fiddle tunes and square or line dances. 

Dulcimers were not more affordable than fiddles and banjos. Both box and gourd homemade fiddles and banjos were used by others (Presbyterians and Anglicans ??) within the same areas for dancing.

As to dulcimer playing in church, I'd guess that it occurred on occasions, but it was unnecessary. The Ritchies, and probably most other Methodists and Baptists, learned highly structured unaccompanied singing in shape-note schools and from the Sacred Harp schools. It is quite possible that many of the small churches had foot-pumped organs, there was one in the Ritchie home. 

If anyone has primary source material describing dulcimer playing at dances or in church, I'd like to see it.

Robin has been a member here for years, although he hasn't participated much recently.  He's a great dulcimer player and innovative builder.

Thanks for posting this, sir!

Just thought someone may find this interesting.  History and tradition of the mountain dulcimer.  By Robin Clark