Appalachian Dulcimer Traditions (6 page)

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.

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 days 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 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.

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)

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):

1. Col tieoli [?] how firm a foundation
   
2. Com away to the Skys my beloved arise
   
3. Arise my tender thought [Part of the preceding title?]
   
4. Com kinder lust uns gahen der obend comd erley [Vice's tentative translation: Come children with us go, the evening          ?]
   
5. A sweet Cannon O what a happy place
   
6. When we all meat in heven / Oh when shall i see Jesus
   
7. O how happy are they who their savuour obey
   
8. Simanthra his voice as a dulsimer sweet
   
9. O what a happy day when the Christians shall all meat
   
10. Green meadows My refuge is the god of love
    
11. So frily going home to glory for i don't wan to stay for ever here Jesus my all
    
12. There is a happy land far away
    
13. Way over in the promist land [illegible letter or two, perhaps an ampersand] my lord Cals Cals and I must obey
    
14. Children of the hevely king till we pass over Jordan halliugah
    
15. O that lamb that loving lamb the lamb of Calvary
    
16. O heven sweet heven when shall I see [illegible letter or two] when shall I get there
    
17. Dismiss us with thy blessing lord  [This is followed by what appears to be a primitive tablature of 10 notes, which I cannot decipher.]
    
18. O happy day when Jesus washed my sins away