Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions

by Ralph Lee Smith

  However, the name did not come to America with the instrument, and thereby hangs one of the many naming problems in our tale. I know of no record of the term scheitholt being applied to the American version of the German instrument prior to the post–World War II folk revival.

  In the early years of the 20th century, an amateur historian named Henry Mercer, who lived in Bucks County, an area of heavy traditional German settlement north of Philadelphia, gathered together a collection of thousands of old artifacts that he found in eastern Pennsylvania. Many of them were things that people had discarded or that he purchased by the basketful in country auctions for small sums. Mercer was a man of family means and was able to devote his life to his great project, which he called, “Tools of the Nation Maker.” In 1914, he erected a large building to house his collection and donated building and contents to the Bucks County Historical Society. It is now called the Mercer Museum.

  Mercer was far ahead of his time in his vision of the importance of collecting and preserving the artifacts of traditional everyday life. Henry Ford said that Mercer’s museum, containing everything from hand-forged ax heads to a Conestoga wagon, was the only one that he would even consider visiting.

  The collection includes 14 musical instruments that Mercer called “Pennsylvania German zithers.” The instruments came from Mennonite owners and/or communities and were made in the second half of the 19th century. The owners and players called them “zitters.” Photos of these instruments can be seen in Smith’s Catalogue of Pre-Revival Appalachian Dulcimers.

  In today’s dulcimer world, the instrument, in both the European and American versions, is referred to by its old European name, scheitholt, probably because of the tale about the instrument in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that Jean Ritchie published. But shouldn’t we call the American instrument by the name, zitter, which the people who made and played it always used?

  My reaction is that the advocates of using the term zitter are right, but the change would now be too difficult to make. Adding yet another name to this already name-rich scene might create as many problems as it solves. In this book, therefore, I will continue to refer to the instrument in both its American and European forms by the name scheitholt. (The exception will be in discussing a quoted text that refers to it as a zitter; in these cases, I will call it by the awkward but necessary name “scheitholt/ zitter.” Maybe I’ll change my mind when I write another book!)

  A TINTYPE PHOTOGRAPH

  Figure 2.4 is the only photograph known to me of a 19th-century American scheitholt player with his instrument. It turned up on eBay and was brought to my attention by Lisa Johnson, another alert member of the jungle telegraph. The photo is a tintype, measuring 2 X 3¼ inches. The four corners have been cut off by tin shears, perhaps to create a simple decorative effect.

  I contacted the seller, an Iowa antiques dealer, and asked if she had any information about the photo or its subject. She replied that the photo had been purchased at an auction of several small estates in northeast Iowa and that she had no additional information. I bid on it and got it.

  The tintype photographic process was introduced in 1853 and immediately established itself as the photographic method of choice for itinerant photographers. The making of daguerreotypes and ambrotypes, the earliest forms of commercial photography, involve a difficult and sensitive chemical and photographic process. Tintypes traded lesser photographic quality for an easier production process, lower cost, and a highly durable product. The images were made directly on small plates cut from thin sheets of iron by tin shears. The plate was coated with a substance called collodion, a viscous mixture of celluloses. Before taking the picture, the collodion-coated plate was sensitized with silver nitrate. After the picture was taken, the plate was placed in a fixing bath to stabilize the image and prevent further exposure. When the plate was immersed in a bath of potassium cyanide, the image appeared in about 30 seconds, as if by magic. And it didn’t come off.

  From 1853 until the 1880s, when newer photographic methods largely supplanted tintypes, itinerant tintype photographers roamed the land, taking thousands of images and selling them for 10 or 15 cents each. They brought photographs and photography to everyone for the first time. And they also created an enormous body of folk and genre images, of which this photo of a scheitholt player is one. (Another is the only known photo of Billy the Kid.)

  Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes all produce reverse images— that is, the kind of image that you see in a mirror. When photographing players of musical instruments, tintype photographers often instructed their subjects to switch the position of the instrument from right to left, so that it would look “right” in the reverse image. This can be seen on many old photos of banjo players, in which the fifth peg faces downward in the photo!

  Figure 2.4. Tintype photograph of a scheitholt player.

  In figure 2.4, it is obvious that the player can neither fret the instrument nor bow it as shown. He is holding the instrument rather awkwardly by the head and has laid the bow across the strings near the head, at a place where he would, of course, not bow it. The photographer undoubtedly instructed him to switch the instrument’s head from left to right and to hold the bow in his left hand, to compensate for the reverse image.

  EARLY RECORDS

  William Penn founded Pennsylvania in 1682 on Quaker principles that included peace, political freedom, and religious liberty. These founding ideals of the new colony attracted German members of dissident Protestant sects, especially from the area of Germany called the Palatinate. The sects included the Anabaptists, Mennonites, Moravians, and Amish. The Palatinate had been ravaged by religious wars and repression, and many members of these sects, when they learned of Pennsylvania, were more than ready to go.

  Groups of members of the sects, often led by ministers or church elders, began to arrive almost immediately after the colony was founded. They settled in areas that included the rich farmland in Lancaster County, to the west of Philadelphia, and in several counties north of Philadelphia. Educated, hardworking, thrifty, orderly, literate, and with many skilled artisans among them, the Germans prospered in their new world.

  The earliest mentions of the scheitholt/zitter in America of which I have thus far learned appear in three diary entries that were posted in 2007 on a website called Everything Dulcimer. Two of the entries are from the diary of a Christianized Native American named Gemeine, who lived in a residence provided by the Moravians for converted Native Americans, called the Barracks, in Philadelphia. The entries were transcribed, translated, and posted online by Katherine Carte Engel, a scholar of early Moravian history. In addition to their interest for the history of the scheitholt/zitter, they provide moving witness to the ravages of disease and the loss of children in early America. The first entry is dated June 25, 1764:

  During the early service, Rahel, Renatus’s youngest sister, fourteen years old, went to the Savior from the pox. She had a sensitive heart and often came to Srs. Grube and Schmick and spoke about her heart. She said: I am a poor child and feel my misery, but the Savior lets me feel his love, I want to become and remain completely His. In the last band (Gesellschaft), she expressed particularly that she would like to go to the Savior. When Br. Grube visited her during her illness, he asked her if she was well and easy in her heart. She answered, yes, I have nothing that prevents me from going to the Savior, only I would like to see brother Renatus one more time. She became weak soon thereafter and asked if someone could sing her a little verse and play on the Zitter. This last Elias did, and she received therewith the last blessing. She recovered further and passed eight more days, then she blessedly left. Her sisters Anna Johanna and Christine from Bethlehem were her nurses and now had to keep their quarantine.

  The other entry from Gemeine is dated July 18, 1764:

  Our dear Elias, Andreas’s son, went to the Savior from the pox. He was very pleased in his sickness and spoke of nothing but the Savior and that he would soon go to Him. A few d
ays before his end, he had the Brothers asked that when his wife should give birth, the child would be baptized, which was promised him and for which he was thankful and said: my dear hour is near, and so the Good Shepherd took him in His arms. He could play prettily on the Zitter, as well as on the Spinet, and passed most of his time here with that. We are very comforted about that.

  The third diary mention of the scheitholt/zitter is from the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Single Sisters Diary, from entries of December 1776:

  [Undated] Br. Ettwein soon brought General Sulivan with his nearer Officers to us in the House, at first he appeared very grand, but finally however was very modest. Our sisters had to sing to him, and play on the zitter. Our guard rotated every three hours, and after each time they were relieved, they ate in Sister Liesel’s room. At night an English sister always watched, so that she could give them their warm wine or coffee at the window, along with something to eat. They were so faithful for three days and two nights, and behaved themselves so silently and orderly, that we could not thank the Savior enough for them.

  18th: From early until late in the evening there were continuous visits from officers, which we counted at 300, and thanked the Savior that everything happened in an orderly fashion. The many hundreds of fires that circled Bethlehem made a very wonderful and magnificently beautiful view, and also much concern, because they all burned the fences.

  19th: Early in the morning, General Sulivan and his men marched away.

  The references here are to American general John Sullivan. On the day after he and his men left, they were ferried across to New Jersey, in preparation for the Battle of Trenton.

  THE OLDEST DATED AMERICAN SCHEITHOLT

  The oldest dated scheitholt yet found in America, shown in figure 2.5, is dated 1781 behind its peg head. I acquired it from Elizabeth Matlat, a Chester County, Pennsylvania, antiques dealer, in the 1970s. She had purchased it at the estate sale of a New Jersey collector of antiques, but the instrument almost certainly came from Pennsylvania.

  Figure 2.5. Scheitholt dated 1781, from Pennsylvania.

  This instrument’s body style does not resemble that of any of the 14 instruments in the Mercer Museum’s collection. Instead, its thin, narrow body is similar to that of both the 1608 instrument in the Community Museum at The Hague and the scheitholt illustrated in Pretorius’s 1619 book, Syntagma Musicum. Unlike both instruments, however, it was fitted with two hand-forged, vertical iron tuning pins rather than horizontal wooden tuning pegs. The use of hand-forged iron tuning pins is usual for most American scheitholts that I have seen, as well as some of the oldest dulcimers. Perhaps it reflects the fact that it is easier to have a blacksmith fashion some simple pins for a penny or two than it is to make wooden pegs by hand that will fit and hold.

  SAMUEL ACHE AND HIS SCHEITHOLT

  The instrument illustrated in figure 2.6 is dated 1788 and is the second oldest dated American scheitholt that is currently known. It is also the most decorated American scheitholt that has yet been discovered. As an added touch, the Pennsylvania German inscription running along its side indicates that it was a gift of love from the maker, Samuel Ache, to his fiancée. The instrument was owned by Jeanette Hamner of Hampton, Virginia. It passed down in her mother’s family, who had come from the Lancaster area of Pennsylvania. In the early 2000s, it was acquired by Colonial Williamsburg.

  This instrument is of the style of five of the 14 instruments in the Mercer Museum, which were made about a century later. The heads of these instruments have profiles that face to the left, and they all have many more than two strings.

  The basic color of the Ache scheitholt is an old orange-red, with the exception of the bottom, which is unfinished. The instrument has nine strings, of which three pass over 14 frets and the others are grouped in pairs of two. Note-names inscribed between the frets show two octaves of the scale in the key of C (with C, at the open string, not having a stenciled letter). The letters are D, E, F, G, A, H, C; following ancient German nomenclature, H is used instead of B for the seventh tone of the scale.

  The sound holes consist of three sets of round holes: two of these form squares, with a center hole having four perimeter perforations that go through the belly and four that do not; the third forms a cross, with one center perforation that goes through the belly and four that do not. All are defined by concentric scribe lines.

  The inscription, translated into English, reads: “This heart of mine shall be given to you alone, amen it will come true, we will sing and play an entire [wood abraded and word or words missing; perhaps “lifetime”?] Hen-delberg Township, Dauphin County, 27 February Samuel Ache 1788.”

  Figure 2.6. Scheitholt with decoration and inscription, made by Samuel Ache in Pennsylvania, dated 1788. (Colonial Williamsburg)

  MUSIC OF THE SCHEITHOLT

  In January 2006, Carilyn Vice of Fallbrook, California, a scheitholt and dulcimer collector, purchased a remarkable scheitholt on eBay, which is illustrated in figure 2.7. The instrument has six strings, of which three pass over an unusually short run of 10 frets. The first note of the Ionian scale is at the third fret, and a single do-to-do scale runs from fret 3 to fret 10.

  The head and sound holes exhibit highly creative design and fine craftsmanship. In addition, the instrument is accompanied by some rare documentation. Written inside the lid of the instrument’s wooden box are the maker’s name, the month and year it was made, the owner’s name, and a list of songs, one of which is laid out in crude tablature. On the top of the box, an inscription reads: “Henry Kunz / (dulcimer).” He was the apparent owner. In the middle, in a separate and beautiful hand, an inscription reads, “Samuel Shank / Maker / in / December 1861.”

  A list of hymns is lightly penciled inside the box cover. This is one of only two lists of songs for playing on a traditional American scheitholt that we possess. (The other contains the names of just three songs cited by a Pennsylvania German informant to Henry Mercer in the early years of the 20th century—two German hymns and “Home Sweet Home.”) The list as transcribed by Vice, with Kunz’s spelling and the names of the hymns both preserved, is as follows (I have numbered the songs; the numbers do not appear on the original list):

  Col tieoli [?] how firm a foundation

  Com away to the Skys my beloved arise

  Arise my tender thought [Part of the preceding title?]

  Com kinder lust uns gahen der obend comd erley [Vice’s tentative translation: Come children with us go, the evening ?]

  A sweet Cannon O what a happy place

  When we all meat in heven / Oh when shall i see Jesus

  O how happy are they who their savuour obey

  Simanthra his voice as a dulsimer sweet

  O what a happy day when the Christians shall all meat

  Green meadows My refuge is the god of love

  So frily going home to glory for i don’t wan to stay for ever here Jesus my all

  There is a happy land far away

  Way over in the promist land [illegible letter or two, perhaps an ampersand] my lord Cals Cals and I must obey

  Children of the hevely king till we pass over Jordan halliugah

  O that lamb that loving lamb the lamb of Calvary

  O heven sweet heven when shall I see [illegible letter or two] when shall I get there

  Dismiss us with thy blessing lord [This is followed by what appears to be a primitive tablature of 10 notes, which I cannot decipher.]

  O happy day when Jesus washed my sins away

  Figure 2.7. Scheitholt made by Samuel Shank in 1861, with list of songs lightly penciled inside the lid. (Carilyn Vice)

  I devoted the August 2006 issue of my Dulcimer Players News column, “Dulcimer Tales and Traditions,” to this instrument and included the song list, and the jungle telegraph sprang into action. The November 2006 issue of Dulcimer Players News carried a letter from Ruth Randle of Manas-sas, Virginia, which read in part:

  I was successful in identifying a few [of the songs on the
list] with the help of a Christian Harmony shape-note hymnal; some of the others I found in various hymn books or online. Following are the numbers I was able to identify:

  2. “Come Away to the Skies, My Beloved, Arise.” “Middlebury,” Christian Harmony.

  3. “Arise, My Tend’rest Thoughts, Arise.” Words by Philip Doddridge, 1739. Music: “Tender Thought,” by Ananias Davisson, Kentucky Harmony, 1816.

  6. “Oh When Shall I See Jesus.” Words by John Leland, 1793, Sacred Harp. Various tune names: “Griffin,” “Autauga,” “The Lost City,” “Religion Is a Fortune,” “Bound for Canaan,” and “Ecstasy.”

  8. “Samanthra.” Christian Harmony.

  10. “Green Meadows.” Christian Harmony, and “My Refuge is the God of Love: Solitude New,” Southern Harmony.

  12. “There is a Happy Land.” Words by Andrew Young, 1838. Music: “Happy Land.”

  14. “Children of the Heavenly King.” Words by John Cennick, Sacred Hymns for the Children of God, 1742. Music: “Pleyel’s Hymn,” by Ignatz Pleyel, 1791.

  15. Supposedly alternative chorus for “At the Cross.” [Ruth wrote: “I question this one, as it does not seem to fit the tune at all.”]

  16. “Oh Heaven, Sweet Heaven, I long for thee; Oh when shall I get there?” “Sweet Heaven,” Southern Harmony.

  17. “Dismiss Us With They Blessing, Lord.” By Joseph Hart (1712–1768).