History of Dulcimers
Music historians find the history and origin of the dulcimer somehow puzzling as both the hammered dulcimers and its Appalachian cousins sprang up independently in various locations in Europe and the Middle East. Originally, they were developed to play folk music and what makes it confusing is how the varieties of dulcimers have crossed cultural and topographical barriers. The hammered dulcimer is considered a member of the zither family and may have origins in Iran as the citar or santir – an instrument used to produce the ancient classical music of Persia. The spice and silk trades that criss-crossed the Middle East during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance may have been pointed as responsible for the instrument’s presence in Spain by the twelfth century and its appearance in China. In China, it is called the yangqin or foreign zither. The French version of the hammered zither was called the tympanon, and its strings were struck with leather-covered hammers.