Autoharps, the Chinese qin, se, and zhen, the Japanese koto and wagon, the Korean kayagum, the Vietnamese dan tranh and dan bau, the Alpine zither, and bowed zithers are all members of the zither family. Dulcimer is derived from the words dulce melos, which means sweet sound. The dulcimer, like other box zithers, has strings but no keyboard. It may or may not have a bridge, despite the lack of frets.
Some people believe that the dulcimer is plucked and the psaltery is hammered, but others believe that you can pluck your dulcimer and hammer your psaltery at the same time. This instrument is sometimes referred to as the hammer or hammered dulcimer, which distinguishes it from the Appalachian dulcimer, which has a different shape and includes frets.
Dulcimer hammers can be made out of a variety of materials and have a number of different features. The shafts can be stiff or pliable, and the heads can be hard or soft. The shaft can be made of cane, wood, bamboo, plastic, or metal, and the head can be made of cotton, felt, wood, leather, or velvet. Double-headed hammers have been used some players to play multiple pitches with one hand. Piano wire is commonly used for strings. Many people prefer a dulcimer tuned to a major scale, but full chromatic scale dulcimers are also available.
The dulcimer has found a place in family entertainment as a singer’s accompaniment, dance music such as square dancing, folk music, church music, and popular music. If August Rush had been set in England during the Great Depression, rather than a guitar, the featured instrument would have been a dulcimer, which was popular among street buskers at the time.
A cimbalom is a type of large Hungarian dulcimer that is used in concerts. This chromatic instrument differs from the small, portable Hungarian dulcimer in that it has a damper pedal. Igor Stravinsky, Carl Orff, and Pierre Boulez composed music for the cimbalom. Alex Eppler, Viktória Herencsár, Junko Sakimura, and Kálmán Balogh are among the notable players.