To most Americans the hammered dulcimer is a new and unfamiliar musical instrument. Even people who know quite a bit about American folk music often confuse the hammered dulcimer with the three--or four--stringed "Appalachian" or "mountain" dulcimer, an entirely different instrument. Yet, surprisingly, this ancient ancestor of the modern piano was once popular throughout this country.

The hammered dulcimer probably originated at least a thousand years ago in the Near East. From there dulcimers spread throughout North Africa, Europe and Asia. Contact with the Moors in Spain led to introduction of the instrument to Western Europe in the 11th Century, although there is some evidence of its possible use in Ireland several centuries earlier. It flourished under a variety of names; in France it was called the tympanon, in Germany the hackbrett, and in Hungary the cimbalon. During the Renaissance, the hammered dulcimer was popular with all manner of people and was played both in courts and village squares.