Wooden instruments gain new sonorities as they’re played over the years!
My performance hammered dulcimer was made in 1999 by Dusty Strings, the eighth one released of the new design, the D600; they sent it to co-designer Sam Rizzetta for approval of the new model, and he recorded it on three tracks of the album Dulcimer Boogie with it. (That’s my D600 in the photos! He played a new D550 on one other track, and his own Rizzetta Extended Range on the rest.)
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One of the most popular and beloved pieces in all of Classical music is the beautiful Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel, made famous in our time by its use in a recording in 1969 and a film in the 1970s.
With its repeating chords, diatonic (do-re-mi scale) nature, and interesting lyrical melody, it seems like a perfect candidate for a hammered dulcimer arrangement.
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The place in which you play your instrument is part of the sound of your instrument --- always.
I could go so far as to say that the location where you’re playing is actually part of your instrument, in the sense that the sounds coming out of your instrument are dispersed to, and return from, surfaces that are sonically connected to the instrument.
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Here’s a photo of some of my pennywhistles; in this case they’re all in the key of high D. Do you see the distinct crease in the Soodlum’s (Walton’s) Mello-D with the green fipple, second from the top?
That crease doesn’t affect the sound, so I still play that whistle often, because it does indeed have a mellow, sweet sound.
...When in 1995 I composed ‘Sky Through the Pines’ (originally ‘Such a Gift’) I envisioned it as a sung song with guitar or as an instrumental ensemble piece with guitar, hammered dulcimer, flute, and other instruments; both versions were recorded, in 1996 and then 2002, and the latter was released on the album Sycamore Rapids. But I never imagined playing it as a solo --- and was frustrated that I couldn’t play it again except on a CD player!
In 2000 I began developing my new stylized method of separated-hand solo hammered dulcimer playing, and at first limited it to quite simple tunes to keep it manageable. Then the occasion came, for a couple of weddings, to arrange Beatles pop ballads in such a manner. Many of us agree, I think, that some of the finest of the pop ballads are by those guys, and they have a sort of pure simplicity that ought to go well with my separated-hand technique!
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