Great story, Jim. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Ken
"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."
Hammered Dulcimer EXR
When I was hitchhiking in Ireland in the late sixties, I was picked up by this guy and taken to a fleadh cheoil in New Ross. When I got into the car he asked, "Are you goin' to the fleadh?"
I said, "What's a fleadh?" He explained and I said,"Yes, I'm goin' to the fleadh."
He asked me if I knew what a dulcimer was. I said that yes, I had recordings of Jean Ritchie and Richard Farina. It soon became clear that we were talking about two entirely different dulcimers. He pulled the car over and took out his dulcimer and played me a few tunes.
He asked me if I knew what a dulcimer was. I said that yes, I had recordings of Jean Ritchie and Richard Farina. It soon became clear that we were talking about two entirely different dulcimers. He pulled the car over and took out his dulcimer and played me a few tunes.
Andy Dowling, (pronounced Doolin) was one of the more memorable characters that I met on my trip. We spent the whole day together. I took this photo in a parking lot in New Ross of Andy playing his hammered dulcimer. I had never seen, nor even heard of a hammered dulcimer before this.
That's the case of the dulcimer by the trunk (or boot as Andy would say) of his car.
A bit of Googling reveals that Christy Burns said, in her excellent thesis, of Andy:
"Andy Dowling lived in Clonmeen, Errill, County Laois until 1991 when he died at the age of 92. Many knew him for his dulcimer playing, as he was always active in the local traditional music events and organizations.
Before receiving his first dulcimer, which was purchased in Dublin by his brother, Andy was a fiddler. He admits to giving up the fiddle in favour of playing the dulcimer.
In an interview with David Kettlewell in 1976, Andy said, “You want to be playing an instrument all the time, that's the way it is with music... it becomes part of your life; 'twas never like that with the fiddle...”
Much like John Rea in Co. Antrim, Andy Dowling was pleased to appear frequently in public with his dulcimer. He would play at parties, fleadhs, and also played on both RTÉ and BBC radio. The movie, “Lock Up Your Daughters,” was filmed in Kilkenny and featured Andy with his dulcimer. By the time Andy passed away in 1991, his dulcimer playing had developed such a reputation that it seemed perfectly appropriate to have dulcimer music at his funeral."
The fleadh cheoil in New Ross was a trad music festival that took over the whole town. There were fiddles, flutes, concertinas, accordions and bodhrans in every pub, church, school house and street corner. I didn't see one guitar.
This ranks right up there as one of the best days of my life. Andy told me so many stories and played me so many songs. I went to see "Lock Up Your Daughters" three times. It wasn't a fabulous movie, but I loved seeing the townsfolk dancing in a circle around Andy and his dulcimer in the closing scene.
A couple of decades later I married a hammered dulcimer player.
Maggie and me at the Gore's Landing Community Hall
Maggie and me at the Gore's Landing Community Hall
The harmony would definitely need to be simplified. But I wonder about the melody itself. I just took a look at some sheet music, and there are one or two accidentals involved. Those notes just might not be found on the fretboard, although there are always workarounds. (You could change the melody slightly or bend a string to get the note you wanted.)
Another option would be to choose a chromatic tuning such 1-3-5. But in 1-5-8 or 1-5-5, I think there would be a missing note or two.
It's certainly worth a try, though!
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Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
Wow, @nathina, the contrasting tones of those two instruments is remarkable. You're quite a good player, too.
For what it's worth, I am skeptical that you could get the Gershwin tune on the MD. Just going by ear, it sounds like there are too many non-diatonic notes involved. I could be wrong, though, and if you have any extra frets it might be possible.
--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
Dusty Turtle:
That's a beautiful hammered dulcimer, @nathina.
I'm going in the opposite direction. After playing mountain dulcimer for about 10 years, just a few weeks ago I was gifted a 16/15 Dusty Strings HD. I can find simple melodies pretty well, but I'm still trying to figure out how to fill in chordal tones.
With the HD, chords are played from the bottom note to the top. However each note takes up part of the time signature. So trying to put chords into the song, shortens the melody note, and the tune goes bye bye. A harmony note can be played along with the melody, but the tendency is to play too much harmony and loose the melody. This is a song that I experimented with recording. The song is by Joshua Messick, it uses bass support for the melody, so nothing is lost. I played it on the big HD and you can hear the difference between the bright and my EXR. https://soundcloud.com/user-9942446/woodland-wonderlust-experiment-1
Dusty Turtle:
That's a beautiful hammered dulcimer, @nathina.
I'm going in the opposite direction. After playing mountain dulcimer for about 10 years, just a few weeks ago I was gifted a 16/15 Dusty Strings HD. I can find simple melodies pretty well, but I'm still trying to figure out how to fill in chordal tones.
I am starting to figure out the harmony, not well yet, but I find enhanced tunes sometimes tend to drown the melody so I rewrite them to sound better. I also have a 16/15 "bright" HD, so called because it uses lacewood as the sound board. Most burled woods or patterned wood will feed the tone back into the wood giving it a higher tone. I use it for the Celtic tunes, and I also rewrote a George Gershwin tune for the 16/15. https://soundcloud.com/user-9942446/someone-to-watch-over-me-key-f
I wonder if it can be converted to the MD?
That's a beautiful hammered dulcimer, @nathina.
I'm going in the opposite direction. After playing mountain dulcimer for about 10 years, just a few weeks ago I was gifted a 16/15 Dusty Strings HD. I can find simple melodies pretty well, but I'm still trying to figure out how to fill in chordal tones.
--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator
As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie
