Cimbalom: Hungary musical instrument

The cimbalom is a concert hammered dulcimer. This is a kind of chordophone that is made up of large, trapezoidal box with metal strings spread across the top of it. This is a musical instrument popularized in Hungary and commonly seen throughout the group of Central-Eastern European countries and traditions that make up Austria-Hungary, such as Hungary, Romania, Moldova, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Greece.

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 The cimbalom is performed by striking two beaters against the strings of the instrument. The steel treble strings of the instrument are arranged in groups of four and are tuned in unison. The bass strings of the musical instrument that are over-spun with copper are as well arranged in group of three and also tuned in unison. The Hornbostel-Sachs instrument classification system registers the musical instrument with the number 314.122-4.5. the name of the musical instrument also suggest earlier, smaller version of the instrument and folk version of the instrument, of various groupings, box types and string arrangements. In English language, the cimbalom spelling is the most common spelling of the instrument, then followed by the other versions of the musical instrument, derived from Austria-Hungary’s languages like cimbál, cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly and tsimbl etc. Santur, Santouri, sandouri are some other non-Austria-Hungarian names, which are sometimes applied to the musical instruments in regions beyond these boundaries that have their own names for related musical instruments that belong to the family of hammered dulcimer.

The player of the musical instrument is known as ‘Zimbalist’.

The first representation of a simple struck chordophone that is categorized as a hammered dulcimer can be found in the Assyrian bas-relief in Kyindjuk traced back to 3500 BC. The people of Mediterranean all had versions of this musical instrument under different names, as did many people in Asia continent.

The folk hammered dulcimer that is common among the people of Romani of Austria-Hungary was used by V. Josef Schunda. He is a master piano producer living and working in pest Hungary, as the basis for a concert cimbalom that he arranged serial production in the year 1874.

The concert cimbalom was made popular within the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was used by asll the ethnic groups that are in the country including Magyar, Jewish and Slavic musicians, and also Romani Lautari musicians. The use of this musical instrument spread by the end of the 19^th century and took the place of the cobza in Romanian and Moldovan folk groups. The instrument is used almost as a percussion musical instrument in Wallachia. In Transylvania and Banat, the pattern of performing the musical instrument is more tonal, heavy with arpeggios.

The hammered dulcimers are often called by their regional names, but throughout the central and eastern Europe, they are commonly called the cimbalom. These musical instruments can vary from each other in tuning, size, number of strings and the way of holding and moving the hammers or beaters. They are smaller and more portable than the concert versions of the musical instrument. In performance, the musical instruments were normally carried by a single player; using a strap around the neck of the player and leaning one edge of the musical instrument against the waist. Just like the concert version, the folk instrument is performed by striking the strings of the cimbalom with the hammers. Meanwhile, these are commonly much shorter than the hammers used with the concert musical instrument, and normally without soft covering over the area that strikes the strings of the instrument. These musical instruments also do not have damper mechanism; therefore, the hand and fingers as well as the forearms of the player are used for the damping of the instrument. The tuning of the folk instruments is usually partially chromatic or diatonic instead of the fully chromatic tuning of the concert versions, and they can differ regionally. The construction of these musical instruments is closely related to the specific pattern of music played on them than is the case with the concert version of the instrument. In addition to the development of the concert cimbalom in Hungary, some other regions of the Eastern Europe also developed their local version of the folk hammered dulcimer and more formal schools of performance followed.

The concert cimbalom was developed by Jozsef Schunda in the year 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. The musical instrument was closer in its range of pitch, dynamic projection and the weight to the proportion of all small versions of piano than the different folk cimbalom had been. This version of the musical instrument was equipped with heavier frame for more dynamics and stability. It included many more string course for extended range and included a damper pedal that permitted for more dynamic control. Four detachable legs were also added to the musical instrument to support it. The concert musical instrument continues to perform mainly with hammers, although some other playing patterns are used.

The concert musical instruments from Schunda are fully chromatic, the tuning system established a standard pitch range of four octaves plus a major third; extended from C to e’’’. this musical instrument suddenly found its way to some other areas of the Austro-Hungarian Empire like Romania, Moldova and Ukraine. In Romania, the musical instrument is called tambal. The instrument has continued its development. The modern versions of the musical instrument are usually extended and have many refinements more than the Schunda design. These musical instruments can now have a pitch range that extends five fully chromatic octaves from AA to a’’’.

The modern day makers of the cimbalom also manufacture smaller versions of the cimbalom. These run the gamut from less weighty versions of the original Schunda concert layout to the portable fully chromatic musical instruments. The modern producers of the instrument also continue to craft new and traditional folk style musical instruments.

A smaller more portable version of the concert instrument was manufactured in Ukraine during the 1950 to 1980s that came with removable legs and dampers, but could be carried more flexibly than the larger concert musical instrument. These musical instruments were manufactured by Chernihiv factory and the Melnysto-Podilsk folk musical instrument workshop that also manufactured many other kinds of folk musical instruments.

Harry Partch produced a series of zithers known as Harmonic canons. Glenn Branca manufactured electric hammered table zither that he called Mallet Guitars and Yuri Landman carved electric hammered 24-stringed zither for Laim Finn and the band The Dodos, which he called Tafelberg drum guitars.