dulcimer

Classification: 3 Chordophones / 31 Simple chordophones or zithers / 314 Board zithers / 314.1 True board zithers / 314.12 With resonator / 314.122 With resonator box (box zither) / 314.122-4 True board zithers with resonator box (box zither) sounded by hammers or beaters
Maker: Rydzik Walenty
Date: interwar period
Village / Town: Grodzisko
Region: Subcarpathia
Country: Poland
Owner: Franciszek Kotula Ethnographic Museum in Rzeszów
Inventory number: MRE 8090
Description: body in a trapezoid shape with moulded sides; four round resonance holes on the resonance box on the top plate; 22 string courses on the plate: originally 5 strings in each course, stretched between metal hitches and pegs (for tuning), supported by wooden bridges, each with a metal bar attached on top; melody strings stretched interchangeably with bass strings; melodic strings divided by bridges in a 2:3 ratio, due to which their left sections are pitched a fifth higher than their right sections; undivided bass strings; an elongated hole for money collection in the bottom part of the top resonance plate; hitches on the wooden battens on both sides of the instrument to attach a strap to allow the musician to suspend the dulcimer on their neck while playing in a standing position, as well as to carry the instrument; two wooden mallets for playing
Decoration: body stained brown; resonance holes filled with wooden plates with irregularly placed round concentric holes
Measurements: 800 x 1140 x 510 x 90 mm; mallets 240 mm
Materials: wood, metal
Sound compass, tuning: variable, usually the lowest tone G – d, scale: from two (sometimes incomplete) to over four octaves
Performance practice: formerly an instrument of Jewish and Romany musicians, later folk musicians; it was played solo or in bands, particularly in the Vilnius area, Rzeszów area, and in Subcarpathia, where the dulcimer became the musical hallmark of the region after World War II; dulcimers from the eastern part of Lesser Poland are usually bigger and louder than those from the Vilnius area
Catalog card by: Jolanta Pękacz / Zbigniew J. Przerembski


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