The APPALACHIAN Dulcimer some thoughts on its name

borne tÁouaAL· on iA name by L. Allen Smith That the Appalachian dulcimer has for many years been called the Kentucky dulcimer is a curiosity of some importance to the history of the instrument and has given rise to four interrelated themes in the published literature: (1) that the Appalachian dulcimer most characteristically has two bouts, three strings, and heart-shaped soundholes; (2) that this form of the instrument evolved directly from the Pennsylvania German zither; (3) that this evolution must have taken place in Kentucky; (4) that the use of the instrument cannot be firmly dated before the last quarter of the nineteenth century. A recent census and typology of dulcimers which were made before 1940 has shown, however, that the double bouted form, although quite common, is the latest form of the dulcimer, having been made since 1850, and was preceded by the lesser known single bouted form. 1 That the double bouted form of the instrument de3 4 veloped directly from the Pennsylvania German zither is contradicted by evidence that the dulcimer developed from the Pennsylvania German zither via the single bouted dulcimer, a dulcimer which was essentially a Pennsylvania German zither on an expanded soundbox. Theme four is based on the well known work of J. E. Thomas, Bath, Kentucky, who began to make dulcimers of the double bouted type in the 1870's. Although he was an early maker of that type of dulcimer, he was certainly not the first dulcimer maker. The binding element of these four themes is the use of 'Kentucky dulcimer' to refer to the Appalachian or mountain dulcimer. It is the purpose of this paper to show how the term 'Kentucky dulcimer' might have come into use and to report the alternative terms encountered in the field. ^ Inseparable from the assumption that the double bouted form appeared without intermediate forms is the third theme, that the dulcimer first appeared in Kentucky. This was most aptly, unwittingly, expressed by Cummings, as mentioned by Seeger: Given a verbal order, but no model, to make a stringed instrument of the zitter type a Kentucky fiddlemaker, for example, might readily have adapted his customary procedures to the occasion and produced a mutation such as the Thomas Type, or an ancestor of it, which when seen by others, might have given initial impetus to the distinctive design of the Appalachian dul3 cimer. J Lacking data or examples of instruments made in other areas of the Appalachian Mountains, previous authors and fieldworkers assumed that the double bouted form is the most characteristic and Cummings therefore concluded that it was the'first to be developed. That he suggested a Kentucky fiddlemaker reflects an attitude expressed by many writers who assume that this evolution took place in Kentucky. This assumption might have arisen from the indiscriminate use of the terms 'Appalachian dulcimer' and 'Kentucky dulcimer' 'by authors previous to Seeger and Cummings . McGiIl, 1917, referred to the double bouted Thomas dulcimer as the 'Kentucky dulcimer'. ^ Shoemaker spoke of the double bouted instruments from Kentucky that he saw in 1903. Cecil Sharp noted that 'Mrs. Campbell . . . tells me that in Kentucky, where I have not yet collected, singers occasionally play an instrument called the dulcimer, a shallow wooden box, with four soundholes, in shape somewhat like a flat, elongated violin. . .' " John C. Campbell linked Kentucky with the double bouted shape and commented that 'with one exception the writer has never met it outside the mountains of Kentucky'. ' Henry Mercer captioned a photograph of a Thomas dulcimer with 'The Kentucky Dulcimore'. ° Dorothy Scarborough, a ballad collector who encountered a double bouted dulcimer in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1930, wrote of it as having been 'made in the mountains of Kentucky'. " Allen Eaton, the most cited source of all, consistently referred to the Appalachian dulcimer as the Kentucky dulcimer. *" This frequent pairing of Kentucky with double bouted dulcimers and the synonymous use of the terms 'Kentucky dulcimer' and 5 6 'Appalachian dulcimer' have misled subsequent writers to assume the 'Kentucky dulcimer ' refers to all Appalachian dulcimers. If the double bouted form equals the Appalachian dulcimer, it is understandable why it has been thought that the Appalachian dulcimer originated in Kentucky...