Marcy Prochaska: Hammered Dulcimer

The town of Plymouth is having its second annual Yellow River Festival on Saturday, June 7. I’m new in town, but from what I hear, it’s got crafts and food and music and such somewhat focused on the town’s pre-1900 history.

I will be playing from 11 to noon.

My set list is still developing, but I’m planning some O’Carolan and Bach (both 18th C), some British Isles stuff (reels, jigs, a 3/2 hornpipe), and some original and contemporary stuff.

We just got back from Steve and Kati’s wedding. Steve is the worship team leader at our church, and Kati often runs the computer (which projects lyrics, sermon texts, and occasional video clips on the screen up front).

I arrived a few minutes later than I’d planned; a few folks were already seated. My stand was already set up, so it was just a matter of getting the dulcimer out of the case and picking up the hammers.

Steve and Kati left all the musical decisions up to me, which was especially nice for my first wedding after having Amy — I got to choose familiar or easy things.

It was a pretty wedding, in a smallish Brethren church with wooden pews and arched windows. I got to be off to the side on the platform so I could clearly see the processional, which helps so much with timing.

The bride wore a white mermaid gown with a red sash, matching the bridesmaid’s dresses. The flower girl scattered silk petals as she walked with the ring bearer, and both managed to stay up front for the ceremony, though by the end they were sitting on a step.

Amy called out “Mama” a few times during the prelude, but was otherwise pretty quiet sitting with daddy in the pews.

A few folks came up to see and chat, including a fellow who just recently bought a 15/14, inspired by Rich Mullins. I haven’t done any work on Mullins, so I couldn’t do much to specifically address that interest, but he still seemed interested in the fact that I teach, and perhaps some of what I could teach him would be applicable.

Another person commented, as I was packing up to leave, that he could tell from the sound that it was a dulcimer, but was surprised, when he walked in, to see that I was playing with mallets. I know a lot of folks think the mountain dulcimer and hammered dulcimer must be related because they share the dulcimer name, but I hadn’t before heard anyone say they think the two sound alike. Huh. I wonder how common that perception is?

For prelude music I played:

“Come Before Winter” by Jim Taylor
“Easter Thursday” English country dance tune
“Praeludium I” and “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring” by Bach
“Winter East and Kensington” original
“Timberline Wander” by Tim Seaman
“Josefin’s Waltz” by Roger Tallroth

For the processional:

“Canon in D” by Pachelbel

For the unity candle:

“Menuet” by J. J. Quantz

For recessional / postlude:

“Third Street Market” original

“Calliope House” by Dave Richardson / “Merrily Kiss the Quaker” traditional / “Morrison’s Jig” traditional (except I completely blanked on the B part and had to fudge and found my way into…) / “Swallowtail Jig”

“Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” w/m by Robinson / Nettleton

Local musicians and music teachers Liza and Mark Woolever got a jam started at Opie’s Deli in Plymouth.

Opie’s reminds me of Ithaca. The guy behind the counter has his grey hair in a ponytail. They emphasize wholesome, natural, least-processed foods. Their bread comes from a local bakery run by nuns. (The bakery is part of a farm that also raises beef and produce.)

We play in the back room. There are a bunch of fiddles, a couple guitars, banjos, and mandolins, a fancy washtub bass, a bodhran, a whistle, a flute, a group of listeners, and me. Everyone is either a student and / or a friend of the Woolevers’. One of the listeners has a hammered dulcimer and takes my card, saying she’ll get in touch about maybe starting lessons.

Mostly we play fairly slowly; mostly we play songs with three chords and keep them that way. For two jigs we also take time to play them a few times at dance tempos, which is fun. People sing when there are words.

It was refreshing to get out and play.

And the French onion soup was fabulous.

Our pastor has asked me to play something for the Easter service.

Today I had a chance, at the beginning of Amy’s nap, to look over my tune list and run through a few possibilities.

I don’t play any specifically Easter-themed music, except the English Country Dance tune that happens to be named Easter Thursday, perhaps referring to Maundy Thursday, the night of the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples.

One medley that might be appropriate is a pair of tunes written by Jerry Read Smith for his Christmas album, One Wintry Night, which goes along with the Ruth Bell Graham book by the same title. The first piece is called “The Storm” and the second is the title piece.

I couldn’t figure out how I used to play either tune. Bits and pieces came back to me as I noodled, but there’s still a fair amount that I need to recover or else rearrange.

I like including a bit of Christmas in Easter and vice versa.

Another possibility would be to just pick something pretty and joyful, even if the title doesn’t have anything to do with Easter. Something like my Third Street Market, perhaps.

And while I was looking things over, I remembered bits and pieces of other things I used to play, including a little original piece in Bb (because my extended range dulcimer makes Bb almost as playable as the more common keys) I’d forgotten about completely. It will all come back, I suppose, as I play more.

This morning I got up early (for me) and headed northwest an hour and a half to Goshen, where there’s an enclosed farmers market hosting Old Time jams second and fourth Saturdays.

Old Time isn’t my forte — mostly I tend to Celtic, classical, and some other stuff. And I’ve been to some Old Time jams where they seem to think it should feel Old and take a lot of Time going nowhere.

This one, on the other hand, was great fun.

There were two fiddles, two banjos (the kind that aren’t hurt-your-ears loud), two basses (one a washtub), two mandolins, a guitar, resonator mountain dulcimer (dulcibro), and two hammered dulcimers. A nice medium-sized group, good balance of instruments. And amazingly enough we were all reasonably in tune.

We played (not in any particular order, and I’m sure not a complete list):

Whiskey Before Breakfast
Angelina Baker
Old Joe Clark
June Apple
Liberty
Mississippi Sawyer
Southwind
Ashokan Farewell
Si Bheag Si Mhor
Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
John Short’s Tune
Golden Slippers
Redwing
Soldier’s Joy

It took up five hours of my Saturday, what with travel and all, so it’s not something I’ll be doing twice a month, but it was well worth it today and I’m sure I’ll go back sometimes.

I also got to talk to a few folks about the dulcimer and exchanged info with the other player there. She told me about a music store that sells dulcimers and has a first and third Saturday jam, another twenty minutes away; probably the closest place to rent or buy a dulcimer, which is good info to have for potential students. I’ll have to go out to that jam sometime and see the store.

I am hoping, through things like this and through playing out wherever else I can, to make contact with the other area players, so as to get some students and maybe get a dulcimer jam going — I am especially hoping to find other folks closer to home.