Re: Cimbalom

[Owen Davidson <owend...>]

At 10:01 AM 3/29/98 -0500, Aaron Bousel wrote:
>Can anyone give me some information on the cimbalom?  

The thing that sets the cimbalom apart from other hammer dulcimers is is
tuning and string layout.  The big concert cymbalom was developed by Schunda
in Budapest and incorporates piano technology, including a cast-iron frame.
Not very portable.  The Greek santouri, which is santur in Turkish, is
similar to the portable cymbalom but has differences in layout.  Further to
the East, in Iran, the name santur applies to a much smaller instrument
which may be the archetypal instrument.  The name santur, I believe, is
Persian, and means "one hundred strings."  The instrument has far fewer:
it's strung in two arrays of double courses, each encompassing a diatonic
octave.  The bridge pieces are placed to play an octave higher on the left
of the treble strings.  This is very different than the European bridge
placement, which gives fifths across the bridges.  Furher east yet, in the
north of India, the santir is a somewhat larger instrument with many more
strings.

At one Klezcamp, I sat in on a comparison of three different hammer dulcimer
types.  Stuart Brotman had a Romanian cymbalom, Judy Barlas had a Greek
santouri, and Kurt Bjorling had an instrument he had designed, which used a
much simplfied tuning system.  I think, questions of tradition aside, that
Kurt's system has a lot to recommend it.  It involves placing the bridges in
the topmost courses to give fourths rather than fifths across them.  I hope
this isn't as hopelessly confusing as it's beginning to sound to me.

Best wishes,

Owen


>
_________________________________________________________________________
        Owen Davidson, Amherst, Mass.
        The Wholesale Klezmer Band

        The Angel that presided o'er my birth
        Said Little creature formd of Joy and Mirth,
        Go love without the help of any King on Earth. 

                                Wm. Blake