Are there any good recordings of the hammered dulcimer?

[Reverend Bong]

Can anyone recommend a recording of serious music on the hammered dulcimer?  I do like the sound of it but all I can find is mellow new age easy listening stuff or Celtic folk music...

[Mirror Image]

Many classical composers have used this instrument: Liszt, Dutilleux, Stravinsky, among others. Listen to Dutilleux's Mystère de l'instant.

[kishnevi]

Not only do I not know of any recordings of the hammered dulcimer, I know of no recordings of the sober dulcimer.

 


(Is that joke as obvious to non-Yanks?)

[david johnson]

joe jewell plays superbly.  i do not know if he dabbles out of the usual folk styles.

[The new erato]

Try Harry Lime's theme. That's all I know of.

[Brian]

Try Harry Lime's theme. That's all I know of.

Is the hammered dulcimer the same as the zither? Cuz that's a zither.

The Hungarian cimbalom is a concert-sized relative of the dulcimer and has prominent roles in Liszt's orchestrated Hungarian Rhapsodies and Kodaly's Hary Janos suite.

[The new erato]

Is the hammered dulcimer the same as the zither? Cuz that's a zither.

The Hungarian cimbalom is a concert-sized relative of the dulcimer and has prominent roles in Liszt's orchestrated Hungarian Rhapsodies and Kodaly's Hary Janos suite.

I thought it was the same.....but what do I know? I've only been to Hungary once and dulcimer, zither and cimbalon wasn't on the menu.

[Opus106]

Kodaly's Hary Janos suite.

It plays a prominent role towards the end and that's my favourite part of the suite. I just didn't recommend it since the music didn't seem serious enough to me.

There's also Bartók's second rhapsody for violin and orchestra. Nothing like a solo part or anything, but it's there.

[Scarpia]

I thought it was the same.....but what do I know? I've only been to Hungary once and dulcimer, zither and cimbalon wasn't on the menu.

dulcimer is hammered, zither has pluck.

[SonicMan46]

Can anyone recommend a recording of serious music on the hammered dulcimer? I do like the sound of it but all I can find is mellow new age easy listening stuff or Celtic folk music...

Well, cannot really point you to the statement in bold above, but I have dozens of hammered dulcimer recordings of 'non-serious' music - 

The instrument is alive & well in the Appalachian Mtns of Virginia & North Carolina; I've been listening to & collecting the music for 40 yrs - one of the best performers in this area is John McCutcheon, his retrospective CD below is a nice start for those wanting some non-classical music on the instrument; there are also a number of music places selling the instruments in the vicinity - one place a few hours from us near Asheville is Song of the Wood in Black Mountain - click on the name for a look @ some beautiful 'hand-made' hammered dulcimers - one pictured below!

Probably not the information desired, but hopefully some will become interested in listening to this beautiful instrument -

 

[listener]

Dmitri SMOLSKI wrote 2 concertos, I have a recording of  no.1 on the Olympia label  OCD 551