Fully fretted 19th century mountain dulcimer?

[jerry48187]

Hello,
Does anyone know of a pre-1900 (preferably 1860's) fully fretted mountain dulcimer? I mean that the 3rd string also has frets, not only the first 2 as is popular among 19th century dulcimers.
(I also don't own the pre-revival book yet, so maybe they have an example.)
Thank you very much!

[rdmadison]

Of course, staple-style frets have to end a little short of either side to enter the wood, but the intention here seems to be cross-fretting rather than half-fretting.

For example:

LAS #D66 (p. 78) ca. 1850; three strings fretted.

LAS #E23 (p. 93) tentatively 1880; four strings fretted.

LAS #E51 (p. 108) tentatively 1885. Although the text says it is fretted on one of three strings, the photo shows frets going nearly across the fretboard.

[razyn]

I'm not currently where I can look the photos Bob referenced. But I think it's at least relevant to mention that a fully fretted 19th century dulcimer would almost certainly have been tuned the "Galax" way (which was common in many places besides Galax, and that wasn't the center of the folk universe much before 1930); that is, with all fretted strings tuned to the same pitch.

Otherwise, you'd have been playing several different scales at once. This may be popular with latter-day guitar players who are sort of slumming in the diatonic world; but it's neither very sensible, nor an old tradition.

Dick

[berimbau]

Dick you crack me up! "Slumming in the Diatonic World" would be a nice title for an all dulcimer CD tribute to the music of Sting!!




Paz y Musica,



Richard

[rdmadison]

Well, although the question is practical for guys who have to have the right cap buttons on their kepi (mine, by the way, were Rhode Island militia in those long ago thin and young days), Dick's comment reminds us that fret length may be as much a factor of available staple or wire size as style of playing. The harder question for the reenactor, once he has an instrument he can more or less document, is how to play the thing. NONE of the current playing traditions goes back to the Wo-ah, and the tuning documentation (from the Huntington instrument) make go back only to the eighties. You're better off j'ining a German regiment from Pennsylvan-i-ay and packing your zither.

Personally, I never found documentation for musical instruments of this type in camp or on the march. But my research was limited to Yankee units. At sea, the fiddle was ubiquitous before the war, which always struck me as incongruous, but it was so (and that's my field of research). Don't see that kind of documentation for fiddles in camp. I do think that heavy artillery is underrepresented in the reenacting world, and more research into their semi-permanent lodgings would undoubtedly turn up more of the gear we like to associate ourselves with once we outgrow our dog-tents (i.e. after one season in the infantry).

[jerry48187]

Yay, another Civil War reenactor who plays the dulcimer! That's actually why I asked this question, to see the absolute least farby I can claim my dulcimer to be.

I have heard of only one account of a soldier in the Civil War with a dulcimer (and I think I heard about it in this forum, not sure). It was a southern soldier. A fellow soldier wrote in his diary that this guy would insist on carrying his dulcimer around with him. That was basically it. I need to find that again.

[razyn]

I think if you just want to argue (from a position of strength) with somebody who considers this item in your kit farby, the frets clear across are more of an issue than the mere fact that it's a dulcimer.

That soldier's diary entry might refer to the Other Kind of dulcimer; but it's well enough documented that "mountain" dulcimers of several forms were around prior to the CW. The hourglass form, barely so -- and perhaps only in the lower Big Sandy Valley.

But almost all of them were fretted (with wire staples) only under those more or less melodically inclined strings that were intended to be played upon in the same key. If you have a modern one that's fretted clear across, with guitar frets -- has a 6+ fret, etc. -- it would still be farby, in the sense that there was no such thing extant in the CW period.

Dick

[Old Goat]

I started doing civilian roles at re-enactments and had Keith Young make me a 1800 dulcimer with the wire frets under the melody string.

[Old Goat]

And you will also run into this problem, a answer to a post I made on a Civil War re-enactors site.

"Refer back to your old thread on this, and the conclusion of some other pretty learned folks- the dulcimer was about as common to a Civil War camp as leopard skin pants. You're going to do want you want though, since you've expended more energy continuing to perpetuate your want than to actually look at the contemporary evidence such as photographic images, personal journals and diaries and the like. Your cited example ironically is not only post-war, but second hand. Its awful funny that there are dozens of images of camp musicians and period musicians, yet nobody seems to be playing a dulcimer and plenty of banjos, guitars, and fiddles.... "
__________________
Ross L. Lamoreaux
Tampa Bay History Center

Unless you can find a photo or well documented account of a MD in a civil war camp you will have to deal with the above. Unless it is very well written down and photographed it did not occur. Good luck.

[Dulci-Mama]

My man re-enacts here in Mississippi. You see dulcimers occasionally even though hard-core folk knows they're not Civil-War authentic, they're fun around the campfire and go well with the old-time music. I don't think they get them out during the main re-enactment when the spectators are there. My Southern soldier guy makes and plays minstrel banjos, and there are sometimes bones and a fiddle too. At the one I went to recently, the musicians for the dance had big dreadought guitars, even though I thought most guitars were parlor-size then, but I'm not sure on that. I guess for good music, they bend some of the rules!

[Lisa -S.H.]

At the one I went to recently, the musicians for the dance had big dreadought guitars, even though I thought most guitars were parlor-size then, but I'm not sure on that.!

OMG that's pretty funny! That is *so* not Civil war era. Were they playing Pete Seeger anti war songs on them?

[jerry48187]

Ah yes, Mr. Lamoreaux always gives a good and correct answer, no matter whether it is what you want to hear or not. I don't think I'll be bringing my dulcimer to any more reenactments until I can get a period one with wire frets and all that jazz.
So I guess the answer to this post is: Yes, they existed, but for as rare as MDs were in the 19th century, ones with frets on all 3 strings were even more rare. Don't go trying to pull of your modern dulcimer as Civil War Soldier accurate. Jerry needs to get a hold of the pre-revival dulcimer book


P.S. That account I mentioned earlier I think called it a mountain dulcimer. I don't know the specific wording, but I'm pretty sure which type of dulcimer the diary was talking about was not a question.