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A Waltz for the Hammered Dulcimer | The Last German Hummel
Virginia Dulcimer - "Galax Style"!

The hummel is a diatonically-fretted zither that is a German relative of the Appalachian mountain dulcimer. I am an instrument maker from North Germany. Searching for information about historical instruments, I stumbled over an old hummel in the cellar of the museum of Northeim, a small town in North Germany between Hannover and Goettingen. The inventory book of the museum stated that this instrument was given to the museum in 1921 by the builder. That man was Adolf Hilke from Moringen, a little village inside the mountains of Solling.

By researching newspapers from that time and questions to the great son grandson of Adolf Hilke, I was able to reconstruct the history of this instrument: Hilke was a carpenter when he had to go to war against France in 1870/71. There he became familiar with the hummel through a weaver's family. When he returned to Germany after the war, in his father's workshop Hilke built an instrument similar to that French instrument he had seen in 1871. He called the instrument "Huemmelke." One 1922 article mentioned that Adolf practiced the instrument each day. However, is mother was not so pleased with the instrument and grew tired with the buzzing and humming sounds of his practicing so she hid the instrument several times. Adolf could not do without the Huemmelke and searched for it for four days, finding it by stamping his feet on the wooden floor. The instrument "answered" by the humming of its strings!

Hilke's playing improved enough that the people of the town enjoyed it. For 40 years he played his hummel for dances held in the spinning room of the village. Seeing Hilke walk through the village in the evening with his hummel, the young men would gather to follow him to the spinning room, where the maidens would set aside their spinning wheels and the dance would begin!

The hummel's strings were strummed with a feather, and as a result of this the right end of the soundboard was worn to just half of its regular thickness. This wear is shown in the following photo of the unrestored instrument.

Four melody strings, tuned in unison, were pressed down on the frets with a wooden stick, and the 6 drone strings supplied rhythm and "hummed" along.

When I looked at the instrument in the museum, it had a broad crack in the soundboard, several frets were missing, and most of the frets were totally rusty and broken. Two wooden pegs made of ash wood were broken and half of the bottom was just broken and missing. The peghead was in three parts pieces. After hearing me play some pieces on one of my own hummels, and then on the Hilke Hummel, it was extremely clear to the museum people that Adolph's hummel needed to be restored! Six months later the restoration was completed in my shop. The frets were renewed and placed in their original places, although the frets were not in a good musical measurement. Hilke had no musical or math knowlwdge about fret setting. This was done by ear! Every person has a simple melody in his head - mostly diatonic. So the frets were set by trial and error on such a smple melody. The result is a rustic fretboard and a rural music. Maybe the church organ in the small village sounded comparable.

All wood damages could be repaired, and from an organ builder I was able to obtain string material which was used before 1900, so the instrument sounds like 100 years ago! Digital tape recording was the next (available on a CD with some other restored North German hummels from Schleswig-Museum). Tuning and playing was very difficult, because the first fret does not begin in the normal way, but with a half tone. This seemed to be absolutely wrong and the drones had to be tuned by octave (or a fifth from the fourth fret). In the meantime, I visited the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee, where I was able to find a Tennessee music box (one of the versions of the early Appalachian dulcimer), on which the same fretting pattern was to be seen. In the Dulcimer Players News there was a description of a holly leaf dulcimer that also begins with a half tone! Is it possible that this is not a mistake but is used with just another tuning? There is a foto from the second instrument Hilke made - the same fretting!

During the restoration of the Hilke hummel I discovered some pencil scripts on the player's side of the instrument. I could read,"…und tanzen" (…and dancing).

A visit to the local police department resulted in my being loaned a special exray machine that gave me a closer and better look by special light. I could then read the word "…orgel" (organ). The script was in Suetterlin, an old German writing that was used up until 1933, when it was forbidden by the Nazis. The end of the script was decoded by an elderly German man who was able to read and write that old script:

"Du kömst nicht mehr mit
Sie können nach der Orgel gehen und tanzen"

(You will not come with me again
They can go to the organ for dancing)

Hey - what was that? Dancing with the organ? In the church? Well, in 1903 the Hohner Company, after a profitable trade in mouth organs (harmonicas) with the USA, began building diatonic accordions in large quantity, available at low cost. Folk people called these diatonic accordions the "handorgel" (hand organ). That's the "organ" Hilke referred to in the script inside his hummel.

There is the strong possibility that on one dancing evening a musician might have played such a hand organ/accordion on the floor of the spinning room and the dancing people were impressed! Its volume, changing basses, strong melody, and the animal-like panting and snorting of the bellows were ready-made for the country dances! One of the dancers could have said to Adolf Hilke: "Hey - your Huemmelke isn't good enough any longer!" After 40 years of playing for the dances, it is believable that he would have been sad and disappointed and so would have written: "...They can go to the organ for dancing ."

Hilke built another instrument, from which a copy was made in 1949 by Herman Moeck - the famous recorder manufacturer. This copy is now at Goettingen University. Hilke's son built three hummels, which were all lost somewhere. One was lost when the Northeim Museum moved to a new location. Instruments built after 1975 are revival instruments following the Appalachian dulcimer, which came to Europe by folklore moving. So the first Hilke instrument is the last German hummel coming from a real historic tradition.

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About the Author

I was born in 1946, just after the war. Here is my forename - Wilfried - Wants Peace! nomen est omen, I think I am a friendly man. I worked several years as a painterman. That was just what I could do because I had lazy-bones at school. After that I worked hard for a higher school examination and unversity .Later on I could work as a schoolteacher for shopwork and art. This is my job now since 29 years. My first instrument was a Fretboard-Dulcimer without a body, following a TV _ course from John Pearse, I think in 1975 or 76. (Two years ago I met him at Frankfurt Music Messe. I put my index finger on him and said: YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE......!!! At the first moment he was scared but than he laughed when I told him my story!) This Fretboard could be fastened on everything able to be resonant - a table , a door, a suitcase, what you could find out. That was great! But not great enough!!! Three weeks later I began building a complete Dulcimer and the next for a friend who was inpressed by the music sound. That was the folklore wave coming from USA. Learning that this instrument was really great for music beginners who never had learned something to do by themselves in music, I began building Dulcimers at school with pupils aged 15/16. In my own workshop I built Viol da Gambas and all that stuff of stringed instruments coming from medival and renaissance times. Out of my schoolwork came 300 instruments made by pupils, and out of my 14 11-days holiday workshops for adults I think 250 Viol da Gambas, Dulcimers, Harps, Hurdy Gurdies,etc. (Hurdy Gurdy plan of an authentic Hurdy Gurdy and essay available at American Lutherie No. 77 / Plan No. 49. www.luth.org. For the number of my own instruments I have no list. The revenue officers could get long ears!

Since 10 years I found interest in Scheitholt and Hummel instruments when I looked at museums for great grandfathers of the Dulcimer. I found a lot, but in bad condition. Several had been restored. This work was done by museum people and for them an instrument is something like a chair or a wardrobe - just an object. The result could be a fretboard attached incorrectly, strings of the wrong diametres and material, etc. Their work is keeping the object safe. My looking at a museums instrument is a view as a musician and instrument builder. Is it possible to restore that special instrument to make music? I would like to know how the instrument sounded originally 150 years ago. So I need historical string material. As a builder I know what and where something could happen when I tune up the strings. Perhaps I tune up just a while under controlled conditions - just time enough to try out the fretboard, just time enough to be happy - make a digital recording and then tuning down again to keep the instrument safe. Indeed - that's one thing that makes me happy!

Mit freundlichem Gruß

Wilfried Ulrich
Am Diekschloot 40
D-26506 Norden
Germany
E-mail: ulricus.norden@t-online.de