Do you remember the poem “Kublai Khan” by Coleridge? “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan / A stately pleasure dome decree…” Later on a dulcimer figures in the narrative:

 A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw:
It was an Abyssinian maid
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight ’twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome! those caves of ice!
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Last Tuesday evening we took the kids to a contra dance and during the break we got to try out a hammered dulcimer. (A fiddle, keyboard, and guitar also played for the dancing.)

“Dulcimer” is actually the name of two families of stringed instruments. Interestingly, the word “dulcimer” is found in the King James Version of the Bible in Daniel chapter three:

“Thou, O king, hast made a decree, that every man that shall hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, shall fall down and worship the golden image” (v.10)

Side note: every musical instrument in this passage is translated differently in the English Standard Version:

• Cornet=horn
• Flute=pipe
• Harp=lyre
• Sackbut=trigon
• Psaltery=harp
• Dulcimer=bagpipe

I don’t know what instrument is actually referred to in Daniel, but I do know that neither type of dulcimer is a bagpipe!

Hammered dulcimer

The hammered dulcimer is the original dulcimer. As Wikipedia puts it, “The word dulcimer originally referred to a trapezoidal zither similar to a psaltery whose many strings are struck by handheld ‘hammers.'” Variants are found all over the world, including the hackbrett, santouri, khim, and many more.

Appalachian dulcimer

The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted instrument with three or four strings also in the zither family. It is sometimes referred to as the mountain dulcimer, Kentucky dulcimer, plucked dulcimer, fretted dulcimer, lap dulcimer, teardrop dulcimer, or box dulcimer. This instrument was developed in the early 1800s by Scotch-Irish immigrants to Appalachia, perhaps because it was easier to create than a violin.

I found a short YouTube video that demonstrates both types of dulcimers.