A word about the Cimbalom
Toni at one of her Steinways.
The concert cimbalom might be called the big daddy of hammer dulcimers. It is a trapezoid shaped chromatic percussion instrument with dampers, approximately the size of a spinet piano. It is played with slim wooden sticks that end in a teardrop shape, which may be padded or unpadded.
The arrangement of strings is not sequential, as on a piano, but set up to be played with left and right alternating strikes in the lower register, while in the mid and upper register, where the strings are necessarily shorter, the odd arrangement of notes seems to defy logic. It is temperamental and must be tuned constantly. With so many strings (a five octave range, lower notes with three strings, upper with four per note) it is difficult to maintain, and overall, daunting to play.
Toni met the Steinway brothers in the mid-fifties when she began to concertize and they built her two instruments with what was, at that time, an extended range. She used these for many years. Later she traveled to Hungary and acquired instruments from Bohak.
The cimbalom can create a gorgeous mist of sound (as heard in Kodaly's Hary Janos "Song") or play rapid variations that enrich an ensemble sound (as in the Hary Janos "Intermezzo") which is its traditional function in a gypsy ensemble. It is now used in many non-traditional settings and non-traditional ways.
The arrangement of strings is not sequential, as on a piano, but set up to be played with left and right alternating strikes in the lower register, while in the mid and upper register, where the strings are necessarily shorter, the odd arrangement of notes seems to defy logic. It is temperamental and must be tuned constantly. With so many strings (a five octave range, lower notes with three strings, upper with four per note) it is difficult to maintain, and overall, daunting to play.
Toni met the Steinway brothers in the mid-fifties when she began to concertize and they built her two instruments with what was, at that time, an extended range. She used these for many years. Later she traveled to Hungary and acquired instruments from Bohak.
The cimbalom can create a gorgeous mist of sound (as heard in Kodaly's Hary Janos "Song") or play rapid variations that enrich an ensemble sound (as in the Hary Janos "Intermezzo") which is its traditional function in a gypsy ensemble. It is now used in many non-traditional settings and non-traditional ways.
