Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

I love C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles. I think they’re not only good literature, but full of fruitful ideas. One is the idea that Aslan, the Christ-figure, is not safe, but good. God is not in the business of wish-fulfillment or comfort or convenience. Not that all wishes, comforts, and conveniences are bad, but that sometimes there is something more important. God’s purposes and ways are higher than ours, and can be quite dangerous to us in an earthly sense, but we can have confidence that whatever he brings our way, he will carry us through it, and all things will work together for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

I have been thinking about the upcoming Cranberry Gathering, a festival for mountain and hammered dulcimer and for autoharp. I will be teaching two classes, and my friend Rick Davis from North Carolina will also be teaching. He’s arriving next Wednesday evening, so that we’ll have some time to practice for a piece we’ll do at the Friday night coffeehouse concert, and we’ll also spend Friday morning playing out on the Commons before heading to Binghamton for the festival.

That means that I’ll have to tune on Wednesday, and hope that my dulcimer stays sufficiently in tune for the whole weekend. With the weather being somewhat various lately, especially in terms of humidity, that hope seems really thin.

So what, right? If you were me, you’d just tune it again; Friday between playing out and arriving at the festival, and maybe again Saturday or Sunday sometime. And that’s what all the other dulcimer players will be doing. At least all the ones who care about being in tune and who are not raw beginners.

I’m not like those people. I can’t seem to ever tune in less than an hour and a half, and my average lately is just over two hours. And that’s not even all in one sitting; I get stressed enough that I generally have to take at least one serious break and sometimes two. I typically set aside a day for tuning, and work on it in bits throughout that day.

My reputation is at stake. I’m a professional performer. And I’m actually teaching some of these workshops. If my dulcimer doesn’t stay in tune, what will I do? I could leave it alone, or I could try to adjust it and hope that it doesn’t take too long, or I could try to adjust it and burst into a crying fit if it’s not cooperative. What will people think?

I’m dreading this.

Yesterday afternoon I was thinking about it. I was reminding myself that generally my dulcimer sounds pretty good to other people even when it sounds off to me. And that in the past my dulcimer has indeed stayed quite reasonably in tune for weekend festivals. There was one time when I did some visiting in Virginia before heading over to the Upper Potomac Fest in WV, and I had to retune in WV, and had a terrible time of it, but then the rest of the weekend it was fine.

Still worried, I tried the opposite approach, instead of trying to dismiss the fear, facing it head-on: what’s the worst that can happen? My dulcimer will sound awful, and I won’t be able to use it to demonstrate the things I’m teaching. I’ll try to tune it, wasting the entire class time, and having a panic attack, maybe even going into a rage and hitting someone or smashing my dulcimer. Everyone will think I’m absolutely crazy, or a fool, and that I have no right to be there at all, participant or teacher. I’ll never be able to go back. In fact, I’ll be blacklisted from all the other festivals, too, and wherever we go once the husband has finished here at Cornell, I’ll never again be able to play or teach dulcimer in public.

That’s pretty dire. But not the end of the world. Do I really care more what the dulcimer community thinks of me than what God thinks of me? Isn’t God big enough to provide for me even if I lose this career? I’m not saying it’ll be easy or that it won’t hurt a lot. But surely I can trust that God is good even when I’m a fool and humiliated?

Chenango Summer Music Festival

This weekend festival in Hamilton, NY, features mostly classical music but also a variety of other musical acts plus a dessert contest. My official performance was a morning show at the Barge Canal coffeehouse; after lunch I also played some on the Village Green. In the afternoon I headed over to Susan Nolen’s home for dinner and a jam session — we had a fiddle and three hammered dulcimers (including a new Nick Blanton… mmmm) and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

The Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering

In July, I attended the Cranberry Dulcimer Gathering in Binghamton. This festival features workshops, concerts, jams, and sales for hammered dulcimer, mountain dulcimer, and autoharp. I taught two classes, one on modes and one on weddings, and I also got to take classes, including Cliff Cole’s “Special Effects” and “Singing With Dulcimer,” Bob Wey’s “Playing With Your Blocks,” Deb Justice’s “Irish Tunes,” Rick Fogel’s “Playing From The Heart,” and Donna Missigman’s “Waltzes,” shown in the picture. This was a great festival. It was so cool to meet various people: Curt Osgood, who also recorded at Wilburland; Cliff Cole, who reminds me of Tim Seaman; Deb Justice, a fellow William and Mary alum; Bob Wey, who helped me decide to get a strobe tuner; Sam Edelston, who does some really interesting things on the dulcimer; Marya Katz, who also plays a Jerry Read Smith dulcimer…

The Hanshaw Trio

When Trim the Velvet lost Harry Lawless, we found Craig Higgins and became The Hanshaw Trio. Here we are at the Ithaca Farmers Market on a late August Saturday. The mostly Celtic ensemble includes Jerry Drumheller (fiddle), Craig (guitar and mandolin), and myself (dulcimer).

At Home in Ithaca

In August, we moved to Ithaca from Richmond, VA. I was excited to find many opportunities to play.

Two bookstores, Borders in the mall and Autumn Leaves on the Commons; busking at the Ithaca Farmers Market (pictured) or on the Commons, and the pick-up band “Your Friends and Neighbors” playing for Monday night contra dances.

These performances also helped connect me with brides, other event planners, and dulcimer players looking for a teacher.

Upper Potomac Dulcimer Fest

Thanks to Joanie’s performance and housing scholarships, I was able to go to this fall’s
festival, September 20-22, in Shepherdstown WV.

The housing scholarship allowed me to help with registration and concert CD sales in exchange for staying with a local host family. The performance scholarship is part of a grant program that reduces workshop costs for participants who provide a concert for an underserved audience. For my scholarship, I played at the local nursing home on Friday morning.

I arrived Thursday afternoon and went to visit Nick’s workshop, where he showed me an interesting instrument combination: a three-holed flute and a string drum (a sort of primitive hammered dulcimer, he says) called a tambour de bearne. Both are French instruments. Thursday evening, after the Blantons kindly invited me to join them for dinner, I went to O’Hurley’s for their weekly jam session, which was lots of fun.

The festival was a whirlwind, packed with classes, jams, and visiting with friends. It was good to see folks like Rick and Brandy Davis, Tim and Ro Seaman, Darlene Himes and her family, and others. I enjoyed my classes, including Tim’s composition class, Paul Oorts’ dulcimer ensemble, and Jody Marshall’s Scottish tunes class. I was particularly impressed with Jody’s exquisite expression; she makes an unadorned arrangement sound rich and meaningful. Saturday night’s concert with Steve Schneider and Paul Oorts, followed by Harmonia (featuring the cimbalom and Eastern European repertoire) was great, and a few of us had a nice “slow jam” afterwards. Definitely worth the long commute from up here in Ithaca.

Anniversary Concert

It was on a fall weekend that I became the proud owner of a hammer dulcimer, and as another
anniversary drew near, I celebrated once again with a concert.

This year, the title was Celebrations and Traditions. The first half included celebrations of my studies with Tim Seaman, musical memories from my pre-dulcimer years, and original compositions about favorite things. In the second half, there were sets from Baroque, Christmas, and folk traditions. Marie (clarinet and recorder) and Lily (violin) joined me for the Baroque pieces.

A “preview” house concert for folks from church took place Friday night, with the concert proper the following evening. The warmth and intimacy of both small gatherings was a great way to celebrate this anniversary.

WoodSong Weddings

The WoodSong Trio formed in September to do ceremony music for a wedding at West End Presbyterian Church. The trio included Carolyn Huff on the flute and Tom Abernethy on classical guitar, Celtic harp, and dulcimer.

Just a few weeks later, the WoodSong Trio performed for Trey Wickham’s wedding, this time at Salisbury Presbyterian Church. Trey’s bride Jen, Carolyn, and I were part of Trey’s worship team at WEPC, so it was great fun to help out with their wedding music. The trio provided music for the prelude, seating of mothers, attendants’ processional, and postlude. An organist played the bride’s processional and the recessional, and Tim Toy led the hymns with the help of Kim Forquer, Kate, Carolyn, and I. After attending the rehearsal at the church, the trio reconvened at my home for dinner and more practice.

Fall Retreat

Each year the middle school youth group I volunteer with goes on a fall retreat for a weekend. Saturday afternoon found me sitting on the steps of the meeting hall, playing guitar and making up songs about the kids with me. What a fun way to do music!

Anniversary Concert

To celebrate the first anniversary of the day I got a dulcimer, I presented a solo concert; once at the home of a friend, and again at the church. It was a wonderful way to celebrate this incredible year. Carolyn even brought flowers!

(See the Profile and Recordings pages to read more about this first year and how the concert developed into my debut CD, No Loose Threads.)

The Upper Potomac Dulcimer Fest

The festival was held at the historic Hilltop Hotel in Harpers Ferry, WV. The weekend’s activities included dulcimer classes, jam sessions, and a concert. During meals there was also an open mic for teachers and students; I played during two lunches.

I took the advanced beginner class with Rick Thum. He taught droning, chord spelling and patterns, and some techniques for arranging. We also learned a couple of tunes, including “Uncle Joe” and “June Apple.”

While I was in class or jamming, Mark was walking around in Antietam or on the Appalachian Trail.