Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions (21 page)

The two other instruments in figure 7.5 illustrate these features. The numbers show that they were made one right after the other. Edd and Nettie signed them both.

The instrument on the left was made for my daughter Koyuki and me. The top panels are cherry, and the rest of the instrument is walnut. Dogwood flowers are incised into the top panels and fretboard, and the sound holes are hearts-within-hearts. The two left-hand pegs are dogwood flowers, and the right-hand peg is a bird.

The instrument on the right was made for Shirley Leedy of Falls Church, Virginia. She is a local historian and a ballad singer. The instrument is made of cherry, with dogwood flowers made of white maple inlaid into the top panels.

As early as the later 1950s, Presnell was offering a 6½ fret to customers who requested it. Beginning in the 1980s, he also deepened his strum hollow, which had been very shallow, to accommodate the use of a hard pick for picking the individual strings.

In addition to her woodcarving skills, Nettie Presnell was a fine old-time noter-style player. She can be heard playing “Amazing Grace,” “Sally Goodin,” and “Shady Grove” on the album
Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians
(Tradition TLP 1007), recorded in the summer of 1956 and reissued from time to time.

Figure 7.5. Dulcimers made by Edd Presnell.
Left to right:
no. 1,795, dated August 16, 1991, made of cherry and walnut; no. 1,266, dated August 29, 1976, made of apple wood; no. 1,796, dated September 4, 1991, made of cherry and inlaid with dogwood flowers made of white maple.

In the early 1990s, Nettie suffered a stroke and was confined to a wheelchair. She spoke with difficulty, and was able to play only by using a finger instead of a noter on the melody string, picking just the melody string with her right hand. Her memory for tunes, however, remained unimpaired.

Edd Presnell passed away on August 3, 1994, less than two months after my visit, and Nettie Presnell on November 7, 1997.

The foregoing chapters have described mainstreams of the dulcimer's development in its traditional world. The scene was a busy one, with many makers, most of them unknown to us, expressing themselves freely in a variety of types, shapes, and designs. Here is a look at some of them.

Josie Wiseman bought the instrument illustrated in figure 8.1 at an antique fair in Kentucky in 2008. The seller said that it had come from the lower Shenandoah Valley. Nothing else is known about it. The carved beadwork on this instrument is wonderful. But it has no frets! How in the world was it played?

In late 2003, within a few days of each other, I received photographs and descriptions of a type of dulcimer that I had never seen before. California dulcimer collector Carilyn Vice and Mike Kester of Cowpens, South Carolina, both sent photos of and information on dulcimers of a holly-leaf shape. According to information associated with both of the instruments, they date to the mid-19th century. They do not fit conveniently into any of our current information about dulcimer history.

Figure 8.1. Fretless scheitholt, from the lower Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. (Josie Wiseman)

Vice's instrument is shown in figure 8.2. She obtained it on eBay. The seller posted the following information:

This is a c1850 hand made mountain dulcimer from the Appalachian Mountains. It has three strings with three hand-carved tuners and the frets are made of copper. It is definitely old but in good condition considering its age. The gentleman who hand-carved this dulcimer is no longer with us but he was a native of Burnsville, North Carolina.

Figure 8.2. Holly leaf–shaped dulcimer from North Carolina. (Carilyn Vice)

After Vice bought the instrument, she contacted the seller for more information, but the seller's interest may have declined after the sale was made, and no more details were forthcoming.

The instrument's design consists of two concave curves running down the sides, with straight lines running from the holly leaf points to the head and foot. The two left-hand pegs are replacements; the beautiful one on the right, reflecting the holly leaf theme, is probably original.

I was inclined to discount the seller's estimate of 1850 for the instrument's date. But then I received Kester's photo, shown in figure 8.3, with associated information, which gave me a lot to think about. Kester wrote:

The basic history of the dulcimer and the family is this. The maker of the dulcimer was James A. Honaker. He is my 4
X
grandfather. The last person to play it fluently was my great grandmother, Flossie Kester. My grandfather told me she would play it with two turkey quills, one to pick with and the other as a noter. It was made in the early to mid-1800s in Bland County, Virginia or across the border in Mercer County, West Virginia. If pre-Civil War it was all “Virginia.” This is where my family is from.

James A. Honaker is better known as a rifle maker. He and his father, Abraham Honaker, were master cap and ball rifle makers. One of Abraham's is displayed in Williamsburg.

Figure 8.3. Holly leaf–shaped dulcimer from Virginia/West Virginia. (Mike Kester)

It is rumored that the holly leaf design came from an instrument of James A's grandfather. The Honaker family came to America in 1749 as Swiss cabinetmakers. Both father and son of the first generation were Revolutionary War veterans. I have heard there might be other examples in the family but have yet to see them.

In this instrument's pattern, reverse curves run from the holly points to the head and foot. The pattern is more sophisticated than that of Vice's, with the curve of the sides turning convex as it approaches the lower holly points. The two panels have different patterns of sound holes. The ones on the right are larger, more attractive, and closer to the fretboard. One suspects that the left-hand panel is an old replacement. Scrolls and designs cover both panels. A small hole is drilled in the fretboard between the third and fourth frets.

A strip of wood, ¾ inches high, with two “feet” runs across the underside of the instrument near its head, lifting the head from the surface of the table sufficiently to prevent vibration of the bottom from being dampened.

These instruments belong to the double-bout hourglass tradition, rather than the Virginia single-bout tradition. The hole drilled into the fretboard of Kester's dulcimer, however, is found in most single-bout Virginia dulcimers, but not in dulcimers of standard hourglass design. At 27 inches, the instrument's vibrating string length exceeds the 24–26 inches that is usual for single bout dulcimers, but falls short of the 28 inches that is usual for old hourglass dulcimers.

All one can say is, we have plenty to learn!

Allen Smith's
Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers
describes five large box-like instruments that were all made or owned in a small area comprising Perry and Lawrence counties in southern middle Tennessee and neighboring Lauderdale County in Alabama, plus several others found or owned farther away. The instruments have four strings, of which two pass over the frets. Three of the instruments are what are now called “courting dulcimers,” with two fretboards on which two facing players can play duets. One owner of a single-fretboard instrument told Smith that her grandmother, who owned it, called it a “music box,” and the instruments have become known as “Tennessee music boxes.”

Sandy Conatser, a dulcimer enthusiast of Nashville, Tennessee, has taken a special interest in these instruments and has gathered substantial amounts of information about them. She located 48 specimens in addition to the ones described in Smith's catalogue. Features shared by most of them include:

• use of eyebolts as tuners
  
• placement of the tuners at the right-hand end of the fretboard
  
• use of shaped metal plates to form both the nut and the bridge
  
• extension of the metal plate at the tuning end to cover the strumming area
  

Conatser, in collaboration with the late David Schnaufer of Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, published an article describing her findings, entitled “Tennessee Music Box: History, Mystery, and Revival,” in the
Tennessee Folklore Society Bulletin
58, no. 4 (1988). The article, with a number of photographs, has been placed online at
http://home.usit.net/
~sandyc/mb.html.

Four of the music boxes found by Conatser bear labels, parts of labels, or inscriptions. One label reads:

The Harmonica
Mfg. & Sold by
Echard and Goodman
No. 239303
Pat. 1881 Imp. 1886