Reinventing the autoharp; hammer dulcimers
Garry Wiegand
I play autoharp, and I've gotten (terminally) frustrated with the
quality (and design) of the best hand-made traditional autoharps
that I can buy. The "traditional" Oscar Schmidt black-body autoharp
was designed to be cheap, small, easily mass-produced, and easy to
play. Sound and functionality were not the most important concerns.
The modern builders (there are about 4 people/shops doing it
commercially) have tried to apply hand-craftsmanship and modern
technique to that basic O.S. design. They've worked wonders
with it, but... I'm frustrated. You pluck single strings on it, and
it sounds like a ukulele. Ah, um, no offense the ukulele players
here... it sounds trebly and non-resonant. Which isn't the sound I
want.
So: I'd like to commission someone to invent something new,
something good, for me.
(Yes, I'm aware that the effort won't be cheap. I get paid a lot for
my expert computer skill and long hours. Instrument makers should
be the same (or more so, for being rare.) And no, I don't right now
want to begin to learn to build myself. Acquiring the skill to build
first-quality acoustic instruments is not a project to be undertaken
lightly.)
Anyhow, I have heard that because of the surge of popularity of
hammered dulcimers twenty years ago, their state of the art has
improved by leaps and bounds. I have heard for example, that a good
a h. dulcimer merely needs to be single-strung now, because of
the improvements in resonance.
Don't know how true this is. But I'm wondering if it would be
reasonable to take that good dulcimer soundbox and adapt it to new
uses. In my case, to put bridges and strings on suitable for
plucking rather than drumming. The box might need to be strengthened
a bit to bear the load, depending on what strings you end up
picking. The box might need to be reshaped a bit to accomodate being
cradled in the player's arms (if indeed it's to cradle it at all.)
And of course, moving the bridges probably causes all kinds of problems.
For the chord bars to go on this box, I've heard of someone down in
Florida who will make good autoharp bars, to order. There might be
some reinventing to do there too - the autoharps of a hundred years
ago sometimes came with shifter levers for modifying the meanings of
the chord bars. It might be worth updating the concept. Also, there
might be a problem applying the force properly to the bars, since
dulcimer body will likely be wider and harder to reach around.
Anyhow, my questions to you:
Are you/do you know a professional builder interested in getting
involved in a project like this?
Am I nuts? (I recently took up piano playing. It would be a lot
simpler to buy a good piano.)
A couple years ago, at Folklife in Seattle, I saw a builder there
exhibiting a contra-bass hammer dulcimer, and other exotic dulcimers.
Does anyone know his name?
Are there other Seattle-area hammer-dulcimer builders that I should
contact? (I'm thinking of taking a trip up there to talk to people.)
Is there anyone out there making interesting zithers?
thanks much
garry
---
Garry Wiegand - Ithaca Software, Alameda CA - ga...@ithaca.com, har...@well.com
Im3BCubed
Wiegand) writes:
Garry,
In reply to your quest for an instrument that could be plucked that would
be a modification of the hammered dulcimer, let me assure you that your
idea is not absurd. As a matter of fact, as a hammered dulcimer player, I
often pluck rather than hammer. The results are much more harp-like and
some songs sound better played that way. Hammered dulcimer player David
James from Fort Wayne, IN, has made plucking the hammered dulcimer his
claim to fame (and if my memory serves me well, I believe that he took a
hammered dulcimer championship in Ireland a few summers ago). Good luck
with your pursuit.
Julie M. Lehrman
Isn't it functionally the same as a psaltery (the plucked
type). The hammered Dulcimer has several bridges, and the
medieval psalteries I've seen only have one, but the sound
should be similar.
On the Autoharp string: Do you know who built Bryan Bowers'
Autoharps? I don't play autoharp, but his are the nicest
sounding ones that I've ever heard.
--
Julie Lehrman I wish I lived on a planet with
jm...@virginia.edu 28 hour days....
Robin E. Baylor
: To follow up the comments on plucking a hammered dulcimer:
: Isn't it functionally the same as a psaltery (the plucked
: type). The hammered Dulcimer has several bridges, and the
: medieval psalteries I've seen only have one, but the sound
: should be similar.
Funny you should mention it. The first bowed psaltry I saw
played well (not long ago) was being sounded by a combination
of bowing and plucking. ;-)
--
How do I get out of this chicken-feed outfit?
REB
john...@msuces.canr.msu.edu
In article <CzMz3...@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU>,
<jm...@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU> writes:
>
> On the Autoharp string: Do you know who built Bryan Bowers'
> Autoharps? I don't play autoharp, but his are the nicest
> sounding ones that I've ever heard.
I've seen Bryan Bowers perform at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield
Kansas (a while ago), and he played several Oscar Schmidt 'harps. He has
limited sets of keys per 'harp, and his "nice sounds" come from his phenominal
playing ability.
Jim Johnson
Michigan State University
john...@msuces.canr.msu.edu
David Shucavage
: On the Autoharp string: Do you know who built Bryan Bowers'
: Autoharps? I don't play autoharp, but his are the nicest
: sounding ones that I've ever heard.
Brian Bowers uses a diatonic tuning. His harps are each tuned to a
single key. The notes in that key are tuned to a natural scale, rather
than the tempered scale we are used to. All the upper harmonics match
up with notes on the scale. It sounds reallly pure, but can only be
played in one (or a limited number) of keys. Sometimes there is more
than one note tuned to a single key. There are also several playing
techniques which make use of this diatonic tuning.
David Shucavage
unusual to pluck them instead of hammering. Some early recordings had
plucked dulcimers on them. I knew a guy in North Carolina who did it
all the time. Even built a dulcimer in a cabinet with legs designed
just for this purpose.
David James continued with this technique. Even put out a booklet and
tape describing how it is done.
Russell kay
>Autoharps? I don't play autoharp, but his are the nicest
>sounding ones that I've ever heard.
>
dulciharps.. Orthey Instruments, RD 1, Box 34A, Newport, PA 17074, phone
717-567-6406. They're not cheap, but virtually all the best autoharp
players I know play Orthey harps. George also has parts to
repair/refurbish/upgrade any of the Oscar Schmidt instruments, too.
=========================================================
Russell Kay, Technical Editor, BYTE Magazine
russ...@bix.com 603-924-2591
Garry Wiegand
be an autoharp, or otherwise improving the autoharp. Several ideas
and several good nuggets of information came up; let me try to
summarize. (Warning: this will probably be a little lengthy.)
First, the info:
The Seattle h.dulcimer makers are apparently
Dusty Strings
3406 Fremont North
Seattle, 98103
206-634-1656.
reputedly quite friendly, and
Whamdiddle Dulcimer Co. (a.k.a. Rick Fogel)
1916 Pike Place #906
Seattle, WA 98101-1013
206-784-1764
who is the good fellow I had remembered talking with a couple years
ago. I am warned that the Pike Place address is just Rick's workshop,
not an actual store.
I hear there exists a "very good" dulcimer-players newsletter/magazine
the Dulcimer Player's News; I don't have any details on this yet.
Second, the ideas & conversations:
The psaltery connection. I do have a kantele (Finnish psaltery),
made by Melissa & David Marx, Folkcraft Instruments. This kantele
is approximately the same size and shape as an autoharp, but with
about 1/3rd the number of strings as an autoharp, built on a
much much lighter soundbox. It had never occurred to me, but it
would actually be quite easy to relocate the strings closer together
and add chord bars; I need to check with the Marxes abou whether
having all the stress in the middle might be "bad".
In the same vein, I wonder if anyone in Europe is making first-
class zithers anymore...
Bryan Bowers. Last time I saw Bryan perform, he had a complete
stack of autoharps (I agree: they looked like Orthey harps),
each set up for one song. He'd just work down the stack. It
looked like they were all diatonics (rather than chromatic);
I didn't hear him using exotic chords; so I'm not really sure
*why* he was switching so often... I should catch him in a
workshop and ask sometime.
Bryan has a (most excellent) strumming style and can live with being
diatonic; while I'm finger-picking (or trying to), which I think is
more demanding on the instrument. And I'm only play diatonic songs
maybe 50% of the time... Carry 2 harps around instead of one would be
a bit of a nuisance. (But could be done.)
Plucking an unmodified hammer dulcimer. I hear from a bunch of
sources that this is commonly done already, especially in Ireland
and Britain. I'm very curious what sort of sound people have
been able to achieve doing this. Does anyone know of any recordings?
Autoharp construction. It was mentioned in private mail that the
top of an autoharp, in the current autoharp design, is structural:
it keeps the harp from twisting under the differential loading of
the strings. Twisting was said to be bad, even in moderation,
because it makes the tuning of the strings get real unstable.
I had been thinking about at least free-floating the autoharp
top, as on a hammer dulcimer, rather than having glued down hard
to a heavy frame. But if the twist is important... I had also
thought about making the harp a little longer, and moving the
bridges out onto the sounding surface -- currently, they damp
right into that heavy frame. That might be do-able.
Finally, it was suggested that maybe one could do an incremental
improvement on the current design by *shaving* down the thickness
of the top, carefully, as on violins etc. It would take research
though... a good finite-element analysis package would be good
to have, for a start! (Can you tell I'm an engineer?)
That's it. Comments appreciated.
garry
---
Garry Wiegand - Ithaca Software - ga...@ithaca.com, har...@netcom.com