THE ANCIENT DULCIMER
Sir,-While listening to the Challenge of the Cities programme from _ Christchurch on May 15, I was interesteg in the playing of the dulcimer and the comments by the performer 6n_ this rarely-heard instrument. That the duléimer is an ancient instryment can be gathered from Biblical records, For example, it is mentioned among other instruments in verses 10 and 15 of the third chapter of Daniel. The dulcimer is also referred to in English literature from the end of the 14th Century onwards, though by the 17th Century it had dropped largely out of use, probably owing to the competition of keyboard instruments. Then and later it was mainly played in the streets, at puppet shows, and for entertaining wait~ ing queues at doors of theatres. However, it is in eastern Europe that the dulcimer is best appreciated, and the gipsy. bands of Hungary, Rumania and Bohemia play a developed form of this instrument with marvellous execution. The Hungariam composer Kodaly included the duldimer in an orchestral suite in 1923.
G. R.
HILL
(Auckland).
‘According to the Oxford ‘Companion the. culcimer can still be heard occasionally in the London streets.--Ed.)
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 472, 9 July 1948, Page 5
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192THE ANCIENT DULCIMER New Zealand Listener, Volume 19, Issue 472, 9 July 1948, Page 5
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