Hammered dulcimer

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Hammered dulcimers (also: hammer dulcimers) are percussion-string instruments that share a common build of string-stretched trapezoidal resonant sound boards struck with small spoon-like mallets or hammers in each hand to produce sound. These dulcimers may be played either with the performer traditionally cross-legged on the floor, or in the dulcimer propped on a wooden-legged support. These dulcimers have existed across civilzations as early as the Persian santur; the kind common to medieval Western music is an evolution of the psaltery, in which the strings are plucked. Hammered dulcimers and other similar instruments are traditionally played in Iraq, India, Iran, Southwest Asia, China, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, Central Europe (Hungary, Slovenia, Romania, Slovakia, Poland, Czech Republic, Switzerland [particularly Appenzell], Austria and Bavaria), the Balkans, Eastern Europe (Ukraine and Belarus), and Scandinavia. The instrument is also played in the United Kingdom (Wales, East...

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