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How to Read Mountain Dulcimer Music | Is the Hammered Dulcimer a Right-Handed or a Left-Handed Instrument? | Elizabethan Music for the Mountain Dulcimer

Queen Elizabeth I of England ruled from 1558 until her death in 1603. This period of England's history was marked by relative peace and prosperity, and such conditions encourage the arts. While certainly all was not sweetness and joy during her reign, it was a time when some of the most brilliant writers and musicians of England's past flourished and left their mark on the world's cultural heritage. Elizabeth herself was a competent musician, as this recently discovered portrait attests. (It was recently discovered because it was recently painted, by Rochelle Volen-Smith in 2002. Used by permission of the artist.)

The two tunes most people think of when they think of Elizabethan music are "Greensleeves" and "Scarborough Fair." There is a popular legend that Elizabeth's father, Henry VIII, wrote Greensleeves when he was courting her mother, Anne Boleyn. It is common to see it attributed this way, and I've even done it myself, on my first CD. Henry VIII was indeed an accomplished player of the lute and other instruments, and there are, in fact, a number of tunes that he did write, but almost certainly, "Greensleeves" is not one of them. It first appeared in print in 1584, and was cited in the publication as "a new song" in that printing, although the printer did not claim to have written it.

"Scarborough Fair" is one that seems to have came from the "folk process." As musicians heard the song and carried it on to the next town, they'd add to it, or change it in some manner. For this reason there are many versions of the song, both in the text and the music. Contrary to some opinions, Simon and Garfunkle did NOT write it. For an interesting history of the song, and an explanation of some of its symbolism, go to http://www.geocities.com/paris/villa/3895/.

The music of Elizabethan England was marked by a transition between the country dance tunes with fairly simple instrumentation, to more complex multipart arrangements for duets and small ensembles. Still, the soloist was supreme during this period. Most composers of the period whose names have survived to the present wrote for the renaissance lute, an ancestor of the guitar that had 11 to 15 strings arranged in pairs except for the single high string. John Dowland is certainly the most notable of the Elizabethan composers on the renaissance lute, but we also have Francis Cutting and Thomas Morley, for example. Paul O'Dette and Julian Bream are modern players of the renaissance lute whose recordings are worth looking up. Other than these lutenists, one of the most notable sources of Elizabethan tunes is actually a bit later than the Elizabethan period. In 1651 John Playford published the first edition of The Dancing Master which was a collection of traditional English country dance tunes with instructions for dancers along with the music notation. Most likely, music for these dances was probably played on flutes or whistles, or possibly bagpipes, with the accompaniment of lute or cittern.

Playford was a collector, not a composer, and many of the tunes collected were most likely much older than 1651. Facsimile versions of The Dancing Master are available on the internet, at http://sca.uwaterloo.ca:80/~praetzel/playford.html for example. While Elizabethan music is generally within the modal scheme, the common instruments were chromatic, and the composers of the day often put accidentals into their tunes. For example, it is fairly common to see a tune that is essentially Aeolian or Dorian use major 7th as a leading tone to the tonic at the end of a phrase. Normally, these modes have a flatted 7th. If you have a 6+ fret on your dulcimer, you can play this accidental in DAd tuning by capoing at the 4th fret and using the 6+ fret on the middle string (G#) as the major 7th. Doing this puts you in the A-dorian scale. (You can also do this in D-dorian from the open position if you have a 1+ fret.) This English county dance tune, "Childgrove," is typical.

Some Elizabethan music is written in the harmonic minor scale, which is a rather difficult beast for the mountain dulcimer. In the key of D, the harmonic minor has the notes D E F G A Bb C# and D. Note the interval of 1 1/2 steps between the B-flat and the C-sharp, which is the hallmark of the harmonic minor. If you have only the 6+ fret in addition to the standard fret pattern, you can't play this scale in DAd or DAA tuning. You can do it in DAC tuning, but you need to skip over to the middle string to play the C-sharp, and the chord structure can be difficult. The following is a fairly easy example of the harmonic minor from the English country dance tune genre. Strum across all the strings as indicated but pick individual notes. After strumming the chord keep your fingers down on the bass and middle string positions as you pick the single notes individually.

Actually, this tune uses both the C natural and the C sharp, so its mode is ambiguous. It's often just a judgment call as to whether a piece of music is, to use this example, in the harmonic minor with some C natural accidentals, or if it's in the Aeolian mode with some C sharp accidentals. Such distinctions are really only of interest to theorists.

If you have the 8+ fret, you can play the harmonic minor in the key of A while tuned to DAd. These notes are A B C D E F G# and A. The scale also has to skip to the middle string, but I think the chords are a little more satisfactory.

Mountain dulcimer players have a few published sources of Elizabethan music available to them, most notably the following books: Lance Frodsham's English Songs and Ballads for Dulcimer (Mel Bay 97232BCD). Lois Hornbostel's Anthology for the Fretted Dulcimer (Mel Bay 93850) contains a number of Elizabethan era tunes, although this is not its only focus. In many cases, however, the mountain dulcimer player must transcribe from sources intended for other instruments. There are many sources available for guitar and recorder for Elizabethan music. John Dowland's First Booke of Songes and Ayres has been published by Mel Bay in a guitar and voice transcription by Herbert Van Kampen. Also, Medieval and Renaissance Music for the Recorder by Robert Bancalari is a source of Elizabethan tunes that I've used.

The following tune is one of John Dowland's most well known songs. I usually play this fairly up tempo, if I'm playing it as an instrumental piece. If you sing the words, you might want to slow it down a bit, to be more appropriate to the mournful character of the song's text. I didn't regularize the spelling of the words, but kept it just as Mr. Van Kampen printed in his transcription of Dowland's First Booke. In the tablature, you'll see both large and small tab numbers. This is an attempt to notate a pattern of embellishment that I often use in my tablature. The large tab numbers are the actual melody and chord accompaniment, and the small tab numbers are meant as suggestions to fill in the spaces where the melody note is longer than one beat. They should be played on the beat in the measure where they are notated.

Usually they just indicate for you to hit a string at a fret you are already holding for the melody. Play them a little softer than the other notes of the piece. In measures 8 and 16 there is a dash shown in the "fill" line. This indicates that you should not play a fill note on this beat. These fill notes can be safely omitted if you prefer, but I find them useful to fill in the longer spaces in the tune, and as an aid for keeping on beat.

Strum across all the strings as indicated but pick individual notes. After strumming the chord keep your fingers down on the bass and middle string positions as you pick the single notes individually.

Enjoy.
k A Faire and Merrie daye to thee, ere we meet anon...

Now, O now I needs must part
Parting though I obsent mourne,
Absence can no joye empart,
Joye once fled, cannot returne.
While I live I needs must love,
Love lives not when hope is gone,
Now at last despayre doth prove
Love devided loveth none:

Chorus:
   Sad dispaire doth drive me hence
   This dispaire unkindness sends
   If that parting be offence,
   It is she which then offends.

Deare when I from thee am gone,
Gone are all my joyes at once,
I loved thee and thee alone
In whose love I joyed once:
And although your sight I leave,
Sight wherein my joyes doo lye
Till that death do sence bereave,
Never shall affection dye.

Deare if I doe not returne,
Love and I shall die togither,
For my absence never mourne
Whom you might have joyed ever:
Part we must though now I dye,
Die I doe to part with you,
Him despayre doth cause to lie,
Who both lived and dieth true.

---

Steven K. Smith is an instrumentalist on the mountain dulcimer who has been learning, playing, composing and teaching since 1983. He plays and teaches at dulcimer festivals in the Midwest United States, and since 1992 he's been a regular performer at the Ohio Renaissance Festival. His teaching credits include the Great Black Swamp Dulcimer Festival, the Central Ohio Folk Festival, and as an electives instructor at the Western Carolina University Mountain Dulcimer Week in Cullowhee, NC. He currently has three recordings of mountain dulcimer instrumentals and a tune book of English Country Dance Tunes. More information about Steve and his music is available from his web site, http://www.sksmithmusic.com/ or by email to sksmith@sksmithmusic.com