Bibliography of "mountain" dulcimer history

razyn
09/26/09 11:34:21AM
@razyn
This has crossed my mind a few times, but if we've kicked it around (more likely on ED than here, since I've had time to forget more from ED) the fact escapes me at the moment. Anyway -- in connection with the recent addition to our ranks (on FOTMD) of a couple of Pritchards, I was moved to Google around for the John Scales descendant who makes dulcimers in Alabama. And when I found him (Tim Scales, of the Black Creek Dulcimer Co. and Music Emporium in Gadsden, AL), I also found on his website an article I hadn't seen before. And it hasn't ever been cited on ED; so I'll cite it here, with a link to Tim's web site on which one may read it (in pdfs) without paying a fee. Not that that's legal, in the strictest sense. The library way to find it is this:Metro Voloshin, "The Appalachian Dulcimer: An Essay and Bibliography," Music Reference Services Quarterly 8:1 (2001), 79-88.And here's the url for nine pdf images of the article: http://blackcreekdulcimers.com/documents.aspx The last three pdfs at this site are from a more familiar source.Voloshin's own bibliography, though relatively compact, is annotated. I just mention it, because most of them aren't. And it's almost twenty years newer than L. Allen Smith's big one (from his "Catalogue;" and I realize that he had later publications, containing a few newer references of their own). I notice that Voloshin missed Gerald Milnes' Play of a Fiddle (1999), in which chapter 11 is about dulcimers -- and is really one of the more thoughtful recent essays on the subject, even though its West Virginia focus is a bit narrow.The librarian-folklorists in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress used to print up several little bibliographies for the edification of visitors to the Center. One of them was dedicated to dulcimers of both kinds; I have two or three early incarnations of it, but it may well have been updated a few times since the early 1970s copies in my possession. Does anyone know? If my memory is correct, it was a project of Joe Hickerson's (retired) and Gerald Parsons' (deceased). [Before posting this I decided to check, found that the Hammered and Mountain dulcimer lists had been split, and that the latter is available online. But, as I suspected, it dates from 1978.] Here, I assume, is the latest edition of it: http://www.loc.gov/folklife/guides/BibDulcimer.html Anyway, I know that a few of you have kept up with this literature better than I have, by reading DPN and whatnot. I only got back into this about two years ago. It is interesting that the Internet now has us chatting much more easily (and quickly, and cheaply) with our colleagues in Europe, not to mention one another here in the states. But there is still some value in the printed page, and I don't think we should ignore it. One more thing to share -- besides photos, anecdotes, YouTube clips and all that.Dick Hulan