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Arranging for Hammered Dulcimer
by Jeanne Page

Hammered Dulcimer: Re-Visioning Familiar Tunes

Making familiar tunes sparkle is an important task every player must master. New life can be brought to an old chestnut by making a significant, purposeful revision of the tune. The word revision means "to see again." To revise a tune, we have "to hear it again." That means to place the essence of the melody into a new setting. The word for this process is reaudire (re-awe-DE-ray), meaning to hear again. Here is one reaudire technique that may be used to create a variation on the theme of a familiar tune.

The melodic starting point for this example is a piece familiar to many hammered dulcimer players, the traditional Irish waltz "South Wind" in the key of G major. My goal was to transform the western-Celtic tune into something that evokes the sense of an eastern-Celtic tune. In short, I planned to transplant an Irish melody into Turkish soil.

The first transformational step was to place the tune into a different mode by moving the hammering pattern up one course of strings.

The opening phrase of South Wind:

becomes:

Many hammered dulcimer players believe that moving the hammering pattern up one course of strings automatically puts a tune into the Dorian mode. That is true only if the hammering pattern honors the Dorian scale. In this example, moving the hammering pattern up one course puts the tune into the A Dorian scale of A B C D E F# G A. But the layout of the hammered dulcimer makes it very tempting to replace the F-sharp with the Fnatural that appears on the right side of the treble bridge. If the hammering pattern of a G major tune is lifted up one course of strings and the F-natural prevails over the F-sharp, the transformation is from G major to A minor. This key is also called "A Aeolian" and is the relative minor key to C major. That is why the key signature changed in the example above.

South Wind played as an A Dorian tune is jarring. Playing the melody with the F-natural turns South Wind into an A Aeolian tune. While that eliminates the jarring effect, the result is a weak, awkward, minor key, not-very-appealing version of South Wind.

To reinvigorate the tune, the A Aeolian scale needs a slight adjustment. This scale runs A B C D E F G A. This natural minor scale sounds insipid because it has a whole step between the 7th tone and the octave.

Boosting the G-natural to G-sharp changes the scale from A minor to A harmonic minor. The half step between the G-sharp and the A on the scale makes the melody line assertive and permits use of the powerful E major chord to strengthen the mid-point and closing cadences. The change to G-sharp forces a new harmonic setting and invites significant alteration of the melody line.

The G-sharp tone appears only twice in the tune. but the shadow cast by anticipating it shades the entire melody. In measures 8, 16 and 30 the G-sharp tone is implied by the open-fifth, Emajor chord. The G-sharp tone finally appears in measures nineteen and thirty-seven. Both of these appearances are, appropriately, the concluding measures of the closing cadences of parts A and B of the tune. Teasing listeners about the G-sharp tone gives this already powerful scale tone even more power. When it finally arrives, the impact is very dramatic.

A few rhythmic and melodic adjustments reinforce the new, near-eastern quality character ofthe new tune. My choices were:

• add an eighth note to the pick up phrases (measures 5, 9, 13 and 17)
• put in a few sixteenth-note triplets (measures 26 and 34)
• roll chords in selected places (measures 8, 12 and 16)

Opportunities for improvisation and further alteration of the original theme still exist in several places. The last half of measures eight and sixteen and the first half of measures nine and seventeen are places where the original tune has sustained tones. The score accompanying this text shows examples of how a fill may be employed at these points. Other possibilities should be explored to give the tune a personal signature.

The reaudire of South Wind was completed by introducing the tune with a rhythmic vamp on an A minor chord. The vamp allows the listener to settle on the key of A minor, embrace a rhythmic pattern that predicts something other than an Irish waltz will follow and to create a dark, intense mood.

If your dulcimer does not have a high G-sharp, drop the original key of South Wind down to the key of D. Just move the hammering pattern down to the next lower set of markers and go through the steps previously described. The tune will end up in the key of E minor. A high D sharp is required in this key. Most 15/16 dulcimers have a high D on the bass bridge that can tolerate retuning to D-sharp. In fact, if your instrument has both the G-sharp and D-sharp consider modulating the tune as you play by changing the key from Am to Em.

The reaudire required five steps:

1. Force the tune into a new harmonic setting by moving the tune into the Dorian mode. (Raise the hammering pattern by one course of strings.)
2. Soften the jarring effect of the Dorian mode by shifting the tune into A minor (A onetone adjustment replacing F-sharp with F-natural).
3. Make the new melodic line assertive by inserting the harmonic minor scale during the cadence that closes each section. (A one-tone adjustment selectively inserting a G-sharp into the melody line.) Imply this scale is present by using the E major chord at the end of the first and third phrases of part A.
4. Insert a few rhythmic modifications and additions to highlight the new character of the tune,
5. Introduce the new tune with a rhythmic vamp on the A minor chord to establish the key, mood and character of the tune.

Is the altered tune still South Wind? No, it is a profoundly transformed version of the original Irish waltz – a studious variation on the original theme. This technique has been used for hundreds of years by the great masters of complex, concert hall music to create new works. The practice works for composers of dulcimer music too.

South Wind is an homage to the wind that warms the southwestern coast of Ireland. To honor this stimulus of the new tune and to acknowledge its near east character I call it "The Banks of the Scamander." The ancient Scamander River flows into the Aegean Sea south of the Dardanelles at a breezy headland on the southwest coast of Turkey. The Trojan War was fought along the banks of the lower course of the Scamander.

This reaudire technique will work for many traditional tunes. Try this approach on the familiar reel, "Whisky Before Breakfast." You'll be astonished and your listeners will be delighted by the gypsy-like tune that results.

Listen to Bill Troxler play "The Banks of the Scamander."

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