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Book Summary: Perhaps no instrument better represents the music of Appalachia than the fretted dulcimer. The instrument was no longer confined to back porches and local music halls when Jean Ritchie so melodically thrust herself and her dulcimer into the national limelight during the folk revival of the 1950s. But where did the dulcimer, known to exist in no other folk culture in the world, come from? In The Story of the Dulcimer, Ralph Lee Smith traces the dulcimer's beginnings back to European immigration to America in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. As German immigrants settled in Pennsylvania and Appalachia, they brought with them scheitholts, a type of northern European fretted zither. As German immigrants intermingled with English and Scotch-Irish immigrants, the scheitholt, which was customarily played to a slower tempo in German cultural music, began to be musically integrated into the faster tempos of English and Scotch-Irish ballads and folk songs. As Appalachia absorbed an increasing flow of English and Scotch-Irish immigrants and the musical traditions they brought with them, the scheitholt steadily evolved into an instrument that reflected this folk music amalgamation, and the modern dulcimer was born. In this second edition, Smith brings the dulcimer's history into the twenty-first century with a new preface and updates to the original edition. Copiously illustrated with images of both antique scheitholts and contemporary dulcimers, The Story of the Dulcimer is a testament to the enduring musical heritage of Appalachia and solves one of the region's musical mysteries.

Real-time digital music system design often involves the translation of formal music notation or human gestures by some input device to Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) commands which are then transmitted to an electronic music synthesizer. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a microprocessor controlled input device that maps analog signals to MIDI commands and transmits them to a digital synthesizer in real time. The controller emulates a traditional acoustic folk instrument known as a hammer dulcimer. The hammer dulcimer is the forerunner of the keyboard family of instruments and incorporates features found in percussive and keyboard instruments. As with any acoustic instrument, its tone is a composite of several partial tones. The controller, in emulation mode, generates the fundamental tone and optionally outputs the partials tones with the just noticeable difference (JND) tolerances described in psychoacoustic research. This feature allows the designer to experiment with the timbre of the fundamental tome. The controller interface succeeds in capturing the gestural movements and translating these events to MIDI commands. It also provides features such as on-demand retuning which allows the musician to play in any tonal center without changing hand positions. Selected MIDI features such as the pitch bend, program change and sustain are implemented by the controller. The prototype instrument yields a tow octave range from an eight by eight inch sensor grid. Additional grids can be added to increase the range of the instrument. / Master of Science

Développée à partir d’un corpus documentaire de plus de 200 représentations iconographiques réparties entre le IXe et le XVe siècle, cette thèse s’appuie aussi sur des sources musicales en latin et des éléments pris dans la littérature profane médiévale en langues vernaculaires. Ce travail de recherche est réuni et organisé dans une base de données qui s’articule à la thèse tout au long de l’argumentation. La description de ce corpus et de la création de cet outil forme la première partie de cette thèse. Une deuxième partie, consacrée à l’étude organologique physique des instruments, vise à proposer un discours objectif sur la nature de l’instrument et de ses éléments constitutifs : formes, cordes, chevilles, chevalets, modes de jeux, tenues etc. Cette partie se termine par un exercice de reconstitution organologique. Une troisième partie étudie l’image sociale et symbolique des instruments en essayant d’englober l’ensemble des discours associés aux cithares planche autour de la notion de translatio propre à la littérature médiévale, que l’on nommera alors translatio musicae. L’ensemble du travail réalisé permettra de former en conclusion une proposition de classification instrumentale propre aux cithares planche médiévales, qui pourra être éventuellement adaptée à l’étude d’autres instruments de musique. / Developed from a corpus of over 200 iconographical sources divided between the 9th and the 15th century, this thesis also draws on Latin sources in and musical elements taken from the medieval secular literature written in vernacular languages. This research is compiled and organized inside a database articulated to the thesis throughout the argument. The description of this documentary corpus and the creation of this specific tool are given in the first part of this dissertation. A second part, devoted to the study of physical characteristics of these instruments, aims to provide an objective discourse on the nature of the instrument and its components: forms, strings, pins, holding manners, playing modes, etc. This part ends with an instrumental reconstitution exercise. A third part examines the social image and symbolic image of the instruments trying to encompass all speech – both literary and visual – related to the board zithers around the medieval notion of translatio, which will be in this particular case called translatio musicae. This work will conclude with a proposition of a specific organological classification for medieval board zithers, which might possibly be adapted to the study of other musical instruments.

Lorinda Jones, MT-BC, is the longest practicing music therapist in Kentucky. She began her work as a music therapist in 1995 and built a private practice, which expanded over the course of the next 20 years to include services in 16 counties. Ms. Jones’ perspective on the growth of music therapy, both within the state and nationwide, as well as her extensive knowledge of Appalachian folk music, makes her an invaluable resource to Kentucky music therapists. The purpose of this study was to present a historical account of the life and career of Lorinda Jones, to gain her perspective on the field of music therapy in Kentucky, and to learn about how she incorporates Appalachian music into her work with clients. The researcher found that Ms. Jones’ impact on the field of music therapy in Kentucky goes far beyond the individuals with whom she has personally interacted and that her role as a teacher to students of music therapy continues to influence the profession.