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Friday, April 24, 2020

Unison tuning revisited

In May 2019 I posted a topic about my thoughts and theories concerning Unison Tuning:
https://slatecreekdulcimers.blogspot.com/2019/05/old-virginia-dulcimores-and-unison.html

Recently I have been thinking more about the unison tuning compared to modal tuning.
And also, the Old Virginia Dulcimores compared to Dulcimores from surrounding areas.

As I previously stated, I believe unison tuning was a tuning which was mainly used for the old Virginia dulcimores..... particularly in the New River watershed area from North Carolina through Virginia, and into West Virginia.
The history is there if you wish to look for it to prove that area as famous for unison tuning.

But to further my thoughts, I am of mind to not only believe the tuning was THE tuning of old Virginia dulcimores, especially in that rich dulcimore heritage area.... but I'm thinking the old Virginia dulcimore was something other than the modal tuned dulcimores of West Virginia, Kentucky, areas of North Carolina, Ohio and other places evidence has been found.

A lot has been said and thought about and theories about where the dulcimore came from. The Sheitholt is one theory (I agree partly). Some think the original dulcimores simply began as a zitter on a soundbox and were refined over time.
Those theories are fine with me.

However, this thought of mine will likely not sit well with some researchers and historians of the Appalachian Dulcimore......
I think the early unison tuned old Virginia dulcimores and the early hourglass modal tuned dulcimores from other areas were never the same instrument.... never meant to be, never were.
There's a list of instruments called droned zithers: LangspilEpinette des Vosges Scheitholt HummelLangeleik and a few more including the Appalachian Dulcimore.

Of those that I've researched, lightly I might add...... I'm no historian of any of them, but from the information I have researched the Swedish Hummel is most interesting to me. Why? Because it's tuned with all strings in Unison. Sometimes one string will be tuned an octave lower, but still in the same note.

Some may say there couldn't possibly be a separation such as this.... Saying: there's no way two distinct different styles or rather, two different instruments came to life in the early development of the Appalachian Dulcimer!
I beg to differ.... Take a look at this map:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Drone_zither

All of those different drone zithers distinctly different in such a small area! So you explain to me WHY the Hummel couldn't have been the daddy of the old Virginia dulcimores!

But as that article says........ regardless......... they are all believed to have been developed from the Scheitholt. So in theory they all came from the same place. But it's still my belief the original Virginia dulcimores originally were totally different instrument from other dulcimores.

What does all this mean........... not much really. Other than they were tuned like the Hummel in unison tuning and the others were modal tuned.
They were all basically played the same...... sorta.......

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