… or, maybe, twangy resonance. In any case, the sound of a family of stringed musical instruments of varying appearance, but united by the quality of the sound they produce. Two of them historically situated in the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, one in the Appalachian region of the US.
Together they are the topic of the remaining section of my 5/11 posting “Zimbalist, accompanied by Satie”. That first part was about the occupation noun zimbalist ‘player of a cimbalom / cimbal‘ (an instrument especially associated with Hungary and its capital Budapest, and the most muscularly twangy of the three instruments). The second part, yesterday’s posting “Zimbalistics”, was about the artistic family the Zimbalists (none of whom actually played any of these instruments, despite their family name). Today, I’m onto that instrument (also known as the hammer(ed) dulcimer) and its relatives the seriously twangy zither (especially associated with Austria and its capital Vienna) and the mid-twangy Appalachian / mountain dulcimer (not now associated with central or eastern Europe, whatever its ultimate origins might have been).
These three instruments then tail off into the more sonorous or plinky fiddle (as a folk instrument), banjo, and guitar. As a linguist I’m inclined to think of the twangy instruments as analogous to affricates and the sonorous / plinky instruments as analogous to fricatives (sonorous ones voiced, plinky ones voiceless), though I realize that these comparisons — a kind of synesthesia — might just confound many of you. (Ok, for me, cimbalom music is deep purple, zither music is bright orange, and mountain dulcimer music is a dark yellow. Your colors might vary.)
In any case today you’ll get YouTube videos that show you the instruments and let you listen to their wonderful twangs. I have a sentimental attachment to cimbaloms and zithers, from pleasant times spent in Vienna in years long gone; I’ve had to restrain myself from bombarding you with endless cimbal and zither performances. In fact, today’s presentation will be (again) compressed, under pressure of time.
