Lutherie

For a Gallery of various dulcimers, click here

I know, you ask yourself, "What does Martin Luther have to do with dulcimers?" At least one person has asked me a question like that. The word Lutherie stems from the word LUTE. Essentially it means "the art of lute making". Once upon a time, if you wanted a lute, you went to a Luthier, who practiced Lutherie in a Luthery. The Luthery is the shop where the Luthier practiced Lutherie. Confused yet? Over the years the word has come to include makers of all stringed instruments. I suppose you could just call someone a violin maker, guitar maker, dulcimer maker etc.........But none of those have quite the ring of "Luthier."

The above is a woodcut entitled Der Lautenmacher. In english it means "The Lute Maker". And as you can see, the fella is making lutes, but there is also a viol of some sort hanging on the wall in the background. His shop has a somewhat disarrayed look to it. Nice to know some things don't change. I clean my shop often only to have it get cluttered again within hours of beginning a new project.

Some famous Luthiers are Amati, Guarneri, Stradivari, Torres, Martin, Benedetto, D' Angelico, Maccaferri, Thomas, Wiebe, Gibson, the list goes on and on almost ad-infinitum. But these names are sure to ring some bells. Each one is remembered for a specific contribution to their particular subcategory of expertise in the larger field of Lutherie.

J. Edward Thomas is remembered as one of the most prolific and most well known dulcimer makers in all of Appalachia. His hourglass pattern is slender and graceful. He is reputed to have made somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 instruments in his lifetime. All primarily mountain dulcimers.

The above image is from an article in the October December 1970 issue of the Journal of American Folklore.

This image is of a reproduction of a Thomas Dulcimer. The instrument pictured was made in 1965 and currently resides in the Smithsonian Institution. I am currently in the process of making molds and templates to reproduce a limited number of Thomas dulcimers. If you are intrerested write to me.

Is it so hard to believe that with only the "crudest" of tools, works of such beauty are able to be made? Fooey. Look at the pyramids, look at Machu Pichu, look at the Mona Lisa. God has endowed humankind with the ability to create that we might share with Him in the glory of creation. Only God and people are able to create new things. Birds can sing all kinds of songs, but only the songs of their species, or ones they copy from others. Above all other creatures, we have the ability to generate what has not been done before. Don't ever limit yourself by saying "I can't." Being made in the image of God, you can do all things! In the vernacular, "you can do whatever you put your mind to!"

Stradivari had his rulers, his homemade planes, his templates, all works of the hands of people. With those simple tools he built masterpieces that have lasted centuries. When you realize what we as people are capable of, it makes taking that first step of creation a little more easy. Would you like to try your hand at making or doing something? Why not give it a shot?

If you have gone to the trouble of reading all this and you have become intersted in making a dulcimer, or any other musical instrument, I would be MORE THAN HAPPY to help you get started.