Cymbalum
Encyclopedia
The cimbalom is a concert hammered dulcimer
: a type of chordophone
composed of a large, trapezoidal box with metal strings stretched across its top. It is a musical instrument popularized in Hungary and commonly found throughout the group of East European nations and cultures which composed Austria-Hungary
(1867–1918), namely contemporary Greece
, Belarus
, Hungary
, Romania
, Moldova
, Ukraine
, Poland
, the Czech Republic
and Slovakia
. The cimbalom is (typically) played by striking two beaters against the strings. The steel treble strings are arranged in groups of 4 and are tuned in unison
. The bass strings which are over-spun with copper, are arranged in groups of 3 and are also tuned in unison. The Hornbostel-Sachs
musical instrument classification
system registers the cimbalom with the number 314.122-4,5. Moreover, the instrument name “cimbalom” also denotes earlier, smaller versions of the cimbalom, and folk cimbaloms, of different tone groupings, string arrangements, and box types. In English, the cimbalom spelling is the most common, followed by the variants, derived from Austria-Hungary’s languages, cimbál, cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly
and tsimbl etc. Santur, Santouri, sandouri and a number of other non Austro-Hungarian names are sometimes applied to this instrument in regions beyond Austria-Hungary which have their own names for related instruments of the hammer dulcimer family.
The surname Zimbalist
means "one who plays the cimbalom".
A "cymbalum" is not the same instrument as a cimbalom. A "cymbalum" is a part of a medieval instrument, one of a set of 4-8 small bells, made in graded sizes and hung together in a frame, aka "tintinabula" or "campanae"
The first representation of a simple struck chordophone which we categorize as a hammered dulcimer can be found in the Assyria
n bas-relief in Kyindjuk dated back to 3500 BC. The peoples of the Mediterranean all had versions this instrument under different names, as did many peoples in Asia.
The folk hammered dulcimer common amongst the Romani people (Gypsies) of Austria-Hungary was utilized by V. Josef Schunda
, a master piano maker living and working in Pest, Hungary, as the basis for a concert cimbalom for which he arranged serial production in 1874. The fourth edition of the first textbook for the concert cimbalom by Géza Allaga
, a member of the Hungarian Royal Opera orchestra, was published in 1889.
The concert cimbalom became popular within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
and was used by all the ethnic groups within the country including Magyar (Hungarian), Jewish, and Slavic musicians, as well as Romani lăutari
musicians. Use of the instrument spread by the end of the 19th century and took the place of the cobza
in Romanian and Moldovan folk ensembles. In Wallachia
it is used almost as a percussion instrument. In Transylvania and Banat, the style of playing is more tonal, heavy with arpeggio
s.
s are usually referred to by their regional names, but throughout central and eastern Europe they are often referred to as "cimbalom" (cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly
, tsimbl, ţambal, cimbál, cimbale etc.). These instruments can differ from each other in size, tuning, number of strings and method of holding and moving the hammers or "beaters". They are smaller and more portable than the concert cimbalom. In performance they were (or are) often carried by a single musician: typically using a strap around the player's neck and leaning one edge of the instrument against the waist. Like the concert cimbalom, the folk hammered dulcimer / small cimbalom is played by striking the strings with two beaters. However, these are generally much shorter than the beaters used with the concert cimbalom (usually half the length), and often without soft coverings over the area which strikes the string. These instruments also lacked damper mechanisms; therefore, the hand, fingers, and even forearms are used for damping. Tunings are often partially chromatic or even diatonic rather than the fully chromatic tuning of the concert cimbalom, and they can vary regionally. Construction of these instruments is more closely related to the particular style of music played on them than is the case with the concert cimbalom. In addition to the emergence of the concert cimbalom in Hungary, some other regions in Eastern Europe also further developed their local version of folk dulcimer and more formal schools of playing followed (see Tsymbaly
).
The concert cimbalom developed by József Schunda in 1874 in Budapest
, Hungary was closer in its range of pitch, dynamic projection and weight to the proportions of a small piano than the various folk hammered dulcimers had been. The Schunda cimbalom was equipped with a heavier frame for more stability and dynamic power. It included many more string courses for extended range and incorporated a damper pedal which allowed for more dynamic control. Four detachable legs were added to support this much larger instrument. The concert cimbalom continues to be played primarily with beaters although other playing techniques are used.
Concert instruments from Schunda onward are fully chromatic. The Schunda tuning system established a standard pitch range of four octave
s plus a major 3rd; extending from C to e′′′ (Helmholtz pitch notation
). The concert cimbalom eventually found its way to other areas of the Austro-Hungarian empire such as Romania
, Moldova
and Ukraine
. In Romania, the large cimbalom is known as the ţambal mare (literally "great cimbalom"). The cimbalom has continued its development and modern concert instruments are often further expanded and have numerous refinements beyond Schunda's design. These instruments can now have a pitch range that extends five fully chromatic octaves from AA to a′′′.
Contemporary cimbalom makers also create smaller instruments. These run the gamut from less weighty versions of Schunda's original concert layout to truly portable fully chromatic cimbaloms (which use Schunda's signature tuning pattern and note layout but with reduced range in the bass). Modern makers also continue to craft new and traditional folk style instruments.
A smaller more portable version of the concert cimbalom was produced in Ukraine
during the 1950-80s that came with detachable legs and dampers, but could be carried more easily than the larger concert instrument. These instruments were produced by the Chernihiv
factory and the Melnytso-Podilsk folk instruments workshop which also produced many types of other folk instruments.
Harry Partch
made a series of zither
s called Harmonic Canons. Glenn Branca
made electric hammered table zithers which he called Mallet Guitars, and Yuri Landman
built electric hammered 24-string zithers for Liam Finn
and the band The Dodos
that he called Tafelberg
drum guitars. The Boredoms also have a stage instrument which is used as a Cimbalom. Most conventional cimbaloms have groups of strings tuned to one unison tone per section. However, the instruments of Branca, Landman and Boredoms use a tuning system in which the individual string groups are tuned in octaves instead of a simple unison. This is a departure from the unison tunings of the triple and quadruple string groups on normal cimbaloms and also from the piano's unison tuning within its string groups. (Partch's instruments use a different tuning and temperament scheme altogether). Sonic Youth
learned about the new tuning from Branca and translated it to electric guitar. This produced what became their typical guitar timbre.
s have written for the cimbalom. Zoltán Kodály
made extensive use of the instrument in his orchestral suite Háry János
which helped make the cimbalom well known outside Eastern Europe
. Igor Stravinsky
was also an enthusiast. He owned a cimbalom which he purchased after hearing Aladár Rácz perform on the instrument. He included the cimbalom in his ballet Renard
(1915–16), his Ragtime for eleven instruments, his original (1917) scoring for Les Noces
, and his Four Russian Songs. Franz Liszt
used the cimbalom in his Ungarischer Sturmmarsch (1876) and in the orchestral version of his 6th Hungarian Rhapsody. Béla Bartók
used it in his Rhapsody #1 for violin and orchestra (1928). Other composers including Pierre Boulez
, Peter Maxwell Davies
, Peter Eötvös
, György Kurtág
, Miklós Kocsár
and Louis Andriessen
have made a great use of cimbalom in their works. Henri Dutilleux
used it in Mystère de l'Instant for chamber orchestra, and L'arbre des songes for violin & orchestra. Elvis Costello
's orchestral ballet score Il Sogno includes several extended cimbalom passages. Harrison Birtwistle
's operas Gawain
(1991) and The Minotaur
(2008) require a cimbalom as well. Cimbalom is used in a popular arrangement of Debussy's La plus que lente
which the composer approved but did not actually score.
(La plus que Lente with cimbalom saw renewed popularity with its inclusion in world tours of the Hundred Gypsy Violins
starting in 1985.)
in a scene in Felix's (S.Z. Sakall
) Hungarian restaurant in Manhattan
. It was also featured in the films Captain Blood
(1935) and The Divorce of Lady X
(1938). Cimbalom was used in the film score for the movie In the Heat of the Night (1967). Composer Carmine Coppola
made heavy use of the cimbalom in his soundtrack for The Black Stallion
to accentuate the Arabian heritage of the majestic horse. Miklós Rózsa
used the cimbalom in the main theme and throughout the score for the 1968 science-fiction thriller The Power
. John Barry
used it in the title theme for the film The Ipcress File
, as well as in the main theme of the 1971 TV series The Persuaders!
. James Horner
made use of the imnstrument in his "Stealing the Enterprise" cue from 1984's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
. In addition, John Williams
has made less prominent use of the instrument in scores such as Raiders of the Lost Ark
. More recently, Howard Shore
used the cimbalom as well to express Gollum's sneaky nature in Peter Jackson
's film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The cimbalom is also featured prominently in Hans Zimmer
's scoring of Sherlock Holmes
.
on his "I Robot" and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" albums and is included in the guest musician acknowledgments.
The experimental rock group Mr. Bungle
made use of the cimbalom on the "Disco Volante" and "California" albums. It is included in the guest musician acknowledgments.
The experimental performance organization Blue Man Group
has used prepared cimbalom in its productions.
's recording of "Those Were the Days
", arranged by Richard Hewson, featured a cimbalom played by Gilbert Webster, a professor at London's Guildhall School of Music
.
a cimbalom school was established in 1948 by J. Zynovych. The Belarusian musicians however play on small portable folk style instruments.
, one of the three historical Czech lands
, the instrument is used as a basis for folk music
ensembles.
, a cimbalom school was established in 2004 by M. Papadeas. The Greek musicians play on small portable folk style instruments.
from 1922 by Oleksandr Nezovybatko. In time it was replaced by 2 smaller-sized instruments in order to facilitate transportation. Music for the cimbalom has been published in Ukraine from 1930 on. With the serial manufacture of tsymbaly
by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory
cimbalom playing became popular in Eastern Ukraine in the post war years. Textbooks for the tsymbaly were published in 1966 by O. Nezovybatko, and initially players played on semi-concert instruments manufactured by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory. In recent times most professional performers have switched over to the Schuda system of playing on concert-size instruments. Classes for the instrument exist in the Lviv
, Kiev
and Kharkiv
conservatories. Currently most Ukraine folk instrument ensembles and orchestras such as the Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk instruments and the State Bandurist Capella usually have 2 concert cimbaloms.
Hammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
: a type of chordophone
Chordophone
A chordophone is any musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points. It is one of the four main divisions of instruments in the original Hornbostel-Sachs scheme of musical instrument classification....
composed of a large, trapezoidal box with metal strings stretched across its top. It is a musical instrument popularized in Hungary and commonly found throughout the group of East European nations and cultures which composed Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
(1867–1918), namely contemporary Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, the Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
. The cimbalom is (typically) played by striking two beaters against the strings. The steel treble strings are arranged in groups of 4 and are tuned in unison
Unison
In music, the word unison can be applied in more than one way. In general terms, it may refer to two notes sounding the same pitch, often but not always at the same time; or to the same musical voice being sounded by several voices or instruments together, either at the same pitch or at a distance...
. The bass strings which are over-spun with copper, are arranged in groups of 3 and are also tuned in unison. The Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel-Sachs
Hornbostel–Sachs is a system of musical instrument classification devised by Erich Moritz von Hornbostel and Curt Sachs, and first published in the Zeitschrift für Ethnologie in 1914. An English translation was published in the Galpin Society Journal in 1961...
musical instrument classification
Musical instrument classification
At various times, and in various cultures, various schemes of musical instrument classification have been used.The most commonly used system in use in the west today divides instruments into string instruments, wind instruments and percussion instruments...
system registers the cimbalom with the number 314.122-4,5. Moreover, the instrument name “cimbalom” also denotes earlier, smaller versions of the cimbalom, and folk cimbaloms, of different tone groupings, string arrangements, and box types. In English, the cimbalom spelling is the most common, followed by the variants, derived from Austria-Hungary’s languages, cimbál, cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly
Tsymbaly
The tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....
and tsimbl etc. Santur, Santouri, sandouri and a number of other non Austro-Hungarian names are sometimes applied to this instrument in regions beyond Austria-Hungary which have their own names for related instruments of the hammer dulcimer family.
The surname Zimbalist
Zimbalist
Zimbalist is a surname that means "one who plays the cimbalom " and can refer to:...
means "one who plays the cimbalom".
A "cymbalum" is not the same instrument as a cimbalom. A "cymbalum" is a part of a medieval instrument, one of a set of 4-8 small bells, made in graded sizes and hung together in a frame, aka "tintinabula" or "campanae"
History
- See also Hammered dulcimerHammered dulcimerThe hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
.
The first representation of a simple struck chordophone which we categorize as a hammered dulcimer can be found in the Assyria
Assyria
Assyria was a Semitic Akkadian kingdom, extant as a nation state from the mid–23rd century BC to 608 BC centred on the Upper Tigris river, in northern Mesopotamia , that came to rule regional empires a number of times through history. It was named for its original capital, the ancient city of Assur...
n bas-relief in Kyindjuk dated back to 3500 BC. The peoples of the Mediterranean all had versions this instrument under different names, as did many peoples in Asia.
The folk hammered dulcimer common amongst the Romani people (Gypsies) of Austria-Hungary was utilized by V. Josef Schunda
József Schunda
József Schunda and Vencel József Schunda were brothers and Hungarian musical instrument makers.József Schunda started a workshop in Pest in 1848, and his brother joined him as an apprentice in 1856, advancing to become a partner, and later the owner of the factory...
, a master piano maker living and working in Pest, Hungary, as the basis for a concert cimbalom for which he arranged serial production in 1874. The fourth edition of the first textbook for the concert cimbalom by Géza Allaga
Géza Allaga
Géza Allaga was a Hungarian composer, cellist and cimbalist. He was a member of the Hungarian Royal Opera orchestra and published Cimbalom, his first textbook on the subject in 1889....
, a member of the Hungarian Royal Opera orchestra, was published in 1889.
The concert cimbalom became popular within the Austro-Hungarian Empire
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and was used by all the ethnic groups within the country including Magyar (Hungarian), Jewish, and Slavic musicians, as well as Romani lăutari
Lautari
The Romanian word Lăutar denotes a class of traditional musicians. Most often, and by tradition, Lăutari are members of a professional clan of Romani musicians , also called Ţigani lăutari. The term is derived from Lăută the name of a string instrument...
musicians. Use of the instrument spread by the end of the 19th century and took the place of the cobza
Kobza
The kobza is a Ukrainian folk music instrument of the lute family , a relative of the Central European mandora...
in Romanian and Moldovan folk ensembles. In Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
it is used almost as a percussion instrument. In Transylvania and Banat, the style of playing is more tonal, heavy with arpeggio
Arpeggio
An arpeggio is a musical technique where notes in a chord are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously...
s.
Folk hammered dulcimers
Folk hammered dulcimerHammered dulcimer
The hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings...
s are usually referred to by their regional names, but throughout central and eastern Europe they are often referred to as "cimbalom" (cymbalom, cymbalum, ţambal, tsymbaly
Tsymbaly
The tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....
, tsimbl, ţambal, cimbál, cimbale etc.). These instruments can differ from each other in size, tuning, number of strings and method of holding and moving the hammers or "beaters". They are smaller and more portable than the concert cimbalom. In performance they were (or are) often carried by a single musician: typically using a strap around the player's neck and leaning one edge of the instrument against the waist. Like the concert cimbalom, the folk hammered dulcimer / small cimbalom is played by striking the strings with two beaters. However, these are generally much shorter than the beaters used with the concert cimbalom (usually half the length), and often without soft coverings over the area which strikes the string. These instruments also lacked damper mechanisms; therefore, the hand, fingers, and even forearms are used for damping. Tunings are often partially chromatic or even diatonic rather than the fully chromatic tuning of the concert cimbalom, and they can vary regionally. Construction of these instruments is more closely related to the particular style of music played on them than is the case with the concert cimbalom. In addition to the emergence of the concert cimbalom in Hungary, some other regions in Eastern Europe also further developed their local version of folk dulcimer and more formal schools of playing followed (see Tsymbaly
Tsymbaly
The tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....
).
The concert cimbalom
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary was closer in its range of pitch, dynamic projection and weight to the proportions of a small piano than the various folk hammered dulcimers had been. The Schunda cimbalom was equipped with a heavier frame for more stability and dynamic power. It included many more string courses for extended range and incorporated a damper pedal which allowed for more dynamic control. Four detachable legs were added to support this much larger instrument. The concert cimbalom continues to be played primarily with beaters although other playing techniques are used.
Concert instruments from Schunda onward are fully chromatic. The Schunda tuning system established a standard pitch range of four octave
Octave
In music, an octave is the interval between one musical pitch and another with half or double its frequency. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic miracle of music", the use of which is "common in most musical systems"...
s plus a major 3rd; extending from C to e′′′ (Helmholtz pitch notation
Helmholtz pitch notation
Helmholtz pitch notation is a musical system for naming notes of the Western chromatic scale. Developed by the German scientist Hermann von Helmholtz, it uses a combination of upper and lower case letters , and the sub- and super-prime symbols to describe each individual note of the scale...
). The concert cimbalom eventually found its way to other areas of the Austro-Hungarian empire such as Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
and Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. In Romania, the large cimbalom is known as the ţambal mare (literally "great cimbalom"). The cimbalom has continued its development and modern concert instruments are often further expanded and have numerous refinements beyond Schunda's design. These instruments can now have a pitch range that extends five fully chromatic octaves from AA to a′′′.
Contemporary cimbalom makers also create smaller instruments. These run the gamut from less weighty versions of Schunda's original concert layout to truly portable fully chromatic cimbaloms (which use Schunda's signature tuning pattern and note layout but with reduced range in the bass). Modern makers also continue to craft new and traditional folk style instruments.
A smaller more portable version of the concert cimbalom was produced in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
during the 1950-80s that came with detachable legs and dampers, but could be carried more easily than the larger concert instrument. These instruments were produced by the Chernihiv
Chernihiv
Chernihiv or Chernigov is a historic city in northern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chernihiv Oblast , as well as of the surrounding Chernihivskyi Raion within the oblast...
factory and the Melnytso-Podilsk folk instruments workshop which also produced many types of other folk instruments.
Experimental cimbaloms
Harry Partch
Harry Partch was an American composer and instrument creator. He was one of the first twentieth-century composers to work extensively and systematically with microtonal scales, writing much of his music for custom-made instruments that he built himself, tuned in 11-limit just intonation.-Early...
made a series of zither
Zither
The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary citera, northwestern Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China...
s called Harmonic Canons. Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
made electric hammered table zithers which he called Mallet Guitars, and Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman
Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...
built electric hammered 24-string zithers for Liam Finn
Liam Finn
Liam Mullane Finn is a New Zealand musician and songwriter. Born in Australia, he moved to New Zealand as a child...
and the band The Dodos
The Dodos
The Dodos are an American indie rock band consisting of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber.- History :The Dodos began playing music together in 2005, when musician Meric Long, who had been gigging steadily in San Francisco as a solo singer-songwriter, was introduced to Logan Kroeber through a mutual...
that he called Tafelberg
Tafelberg
Tafelberg is Dutch and Afrikaans for "table mountain". It may refer to:*Table Mountain, a flat-topped mountain overlooking Cape Town, South Africa*Tafelberg, Suriname, a mountain in Suriname...
drum guitars. The Boredoms also have a stage instrument which is used as a Cimbalom. Most conventional cimbaloms have groups of strings tuned to one unison tone per section. However, the instruments of Branca, Landman and Boredoms use a tuning system in which the individual string groups are tuned in octaves instead of a simple unison. This is a departure from the unison tunings of the triple and quadruple string groups on normal cimbaloms and also from the piano's unison tuning within its string groups. (Partch's instruments use a different tuning and temperament scheme altogether). Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
learned about the new tuning from Branca and translated it to electric guitar. This produced what became their typical guitar timbre.
Classical and contemporary music
Many composerComposer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
s have written for the cimbalom. Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian composer, ethnomusicologist, pedagogue, linguist, and philosopher. He is best known internationally as the creator of the Kodály Method.-Life:Born in Kecskemét, Kodály learned to play the violin as a child....
made extensive use of the instrument in his orchestral suite Háry János
Háry János
Háry János is a "Hungarian folk opera" in four acts by Zoltán Kodály to a Hungarian libretto by Béla Paulini and Zsolt Harsányi, based on the comic epic The Veteran by János Garay. The first performance was at the Royal Hungarian Opera House, Budapest, 1926...
which helped make the cimbalom well known outside Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
. Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
was also an enthusiast. He owned a cimbalom which he purchased after hearing Aladár Rácz perform on the instrument. He included the cimbalom in his ballet Renard
Renard (Stravinsky)
Renard, Histoire burlesque chantée et jouée is a one-act chamber opera-ballet by Igor Stravinsky, written in 1916. The Russian text by the composer was based on Russian folk tales from the collection by Alexander Afanasyev.The full Russian name of the piece is: Ба́йка про лису́, петуха́, кота́, да...
(1915–16), his Ragtime for eleven instruments, his original (1917) scoring for Les Noces
Les Noces
Les noces by Igor Stravinsky, is a dance cantata, or ballet with vocalists.-History:The ballet was premiered on June 13, 1923 at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, by the Ballets Russes with choreography by Bronislava Nijinska...
, and his Four Russian Songs. Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
used the cimbalom in his Ungarischer Sturmmarsch (1876) and in the orchestral version of his 6th Hungarian Rhapsody. Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
used it in his Rhapsody #1 for violin and orchestra (1928). Other composers including Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Peter Maxwell Davies
Peter Maxwell Davies
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, CBE is an English composer and conductor and is currently Master of the Queen's Music.-Biography:...
, Peter Eötvös
Peter Eötvös
Péter Eötvös is a Hungarian composer and conductor.Eötvös was born in Odorheiu Secuiesc/Székelyudvarhely, Szeklerland, Transylvania . He studied composition in Budapest and Cologne. From 1962, he composed for film in Hungary. Eötvös played regularly with the Stockhausen Ensemble between 1968 and...
, György Kurtág
György Kurtág
György Kurtág is a Hungarian composer of contemporary music.- Biography :György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat region, Romania.In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti, who became a close friend...
, Miklós Kocsár
Miklós Kocsár
Miklós Kocsár is a Hungarian composer. He was born in Debrecen, Hungary, and studied composition at the Academy of Music in Budapest with Ferenc Farkas, graduating in 1959. After completing his studies, he took a position in 1972 as Professor at the Béla Bartók Conservatory in Budapest, teaching...
and Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen
Louis Andriessen is a Dutch composer and pianist based in Amsterdam. He teaches composition at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague...
have made a great use of cimbalom in their works. Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
used it in Mystère de l'Instant for chamber orchestra, and L'arbre des songes for violin & orchestra. Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello
Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...
's orchestral ballet score Il Sogno includes several extended cimbalom passages. Harrison Birtwistle
Harrison Birtwistle
Sir Harrison Paul Birtwistle CH is a British contemporary composer.-Life:Birtwistle was born in Accrington, a mill town in Lancashire some 20 miles north of Manchester. His interest in music was encouraged by his mother, who bought him a clarinet when he was seven, and arranged for him to have...
's operas Gawain
Gawain (opera)
Gawain is an opera with music by Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by David Harsent. The story is based on the Middle English romance Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The opera was a commission from the Royal Opera House, London, where it was first performed on 30 May 1991. Rhian Samuel has...
(1991) and The Minotaur
The Minotaur (opera)
The Minotaur is an opera in two acts, with 13 scenes by English composer Harrison Birtwistle to a libretto by poet David Harsent, commissioned by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in London. The work premiered at the Royal Opera House on April 15, 2008 and was shown on BBC2 television on June 7,...
(2008) require a cimbalom as well. Cimbalom is used in a popular arrangement of Debussy's La plus que lente
La Plus que Lente
La plus que lente , L. 121, is a waltz for solo piano written by Claude Debussy in 1910, shortly after his publication of the Préludes, Book I. The piece debuted at the New Carlton Hotel in Paris, where it was transcribed for strings and performed by a popular Romany band.The title may be...
which the composer approved but did not actually score.
(La plus que Lente with cimbalom saw renewed popularity with its inclusion in world tours of the Hundred Gypsy Violins
Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra/100 Violins
Budapest Gypsy Symphony Orchestra, also known as 100 Violins, is a Hungarian symphony orchestra of Romani musicians, particularly influenced by Johannes Brahms, Vittorio Monti, Piotr Tchaïkovski, Johann Strauss, Johann Strauss II and more of them....
starting in 1985.)
Film
The cimbalom has occasionally been used in film scores, especially to introduce a "foreign" feel. The cimbalom appears in Christmas in ConnecticutChristmas in Connecticut
Christmas in Connecticut is a 1945 American Christmas film and romantic comedy directed by Peter Godfrey, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Dennis Morgan, and Sydney Greenstreet.-Plot:...
in a scene in Felix's (S.Z. Sakall
S.Z. Sakall
Szőke Szakáll , known as S.Z. Sakall, was a Hungarian film character actor. He was in many films including In the Good Old Summertime, Lullaby of Broadway, Christmas in Connecticut and Casablanca in which he played Carl, the head waiter.Chubby-jowled Sakall played numerous supporting roles in...
) Hungarian restaurant in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. It was also featured in the films Captain Blood
Captain Blood
Captain Blood may refer to:* Captain Blood , by Rafael Sabatini** Captain Blood , based on the novel** Captain Blood , based on the novel...
(1935) and The Divorce of Lady X
The Divorce of Lady X
The Divorce of Lady X is a 1938 British romantic comedy film made by London Films and distributed by United Artists. It was directed by Tim Whelan and produced by Alexander Korda from a screenplay by Ian Dalrymple and Arthur Wimperis, adapted by Lajos Biró from the play Counsel's Opinion by Gilbert...
(1938). Cimbalom was used in the film score for the movie In the Heat of the Night (1967). Composer Carmine Coppola
Carmine Coppola
Carmine Coppola was an American composer, flautist, editor, musical director, and songwriter. Coppola was a composer and conductor who contributed to many of the musical scores in The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, The Godfather Part III, and Apocalypse Now directed by his son Francis Ford...
made heavy use of the cimbalom in his soundtrack for The Black Stallion
The Black Stallion (film)
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American film based on the 1941 classic children's novel The Black Stallion by Walter Farley. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, who is shipwrecked on a desert island, together with a wild Arabian stallion whom he befriends...
to accentuate the Arabian heritage of the majestic horse. Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa
Miklós Rózsa was a Hungarian-born composer trained in Germany , and active in France , England , and the United States , with extensive sojourns in Italy from 1953...
used the cimbalom in the main theme and throughout the score for the 1968 science-fiction thriller The Power
The Power (film)
The Power is a 1968 film based on the science fiction novel The Power by Frank M. Robinson. It stars George Hamilton and Suzanne Pleshette.-Plot:...
. John Barry
John Barry (composer)
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was an English conductor and composer of film music. He is best known for composing the soundtracks for 12 of the James Bond films between 1962 and 1987...
used it in the title theme for the film The Ipcress File
The Ipcress File (film)
The Ipcress File is a 1965 British espionage film directed by Sidney J. Furie and starring Michael Caine, Guy Doleman, and Nigel Green. The screenplay by Bill Canaway and James Doran was based on Len Deighton's 1962 novel, The IPCRESS File. It has won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award for best...
, as well as in the main theme of the 1971 TV series The Persuaders!
The Persuaders!
The Persuaders! is a 1971 action/adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment for initial broadcast on ITV and ABC. It has been called "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that had begun eleven years earlier with Danger Man in 1960", as well as "the most ambitious and most...
. James Horner
James Horner
James Roy Horner is an American composer, orchestrator and conductor of orchestral and film music. He is noted for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements...
made use of the imnstrument in his "Stealing the Enterprise" cue from 1984's Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock is a 1984 motion picture released by Paramount Pictures. The film is the third feature based on the Star Trek science fiction franchise and is the center of a three-film story arc that begins with Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and concludes with Star Trek IV:...
. In addition, John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
has made less prominent use of the instrument in scores such as Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
. More recently, Howard Shore
Howard Shore
Howard Leslie Shore is a Canadian composer, notable for his film scores. He has composed the scores for over 80 films, most notably the scores for The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, for which he won three Academy Awards. He is also a consistent collaborator with director David Cronenberg,...
used the cimbalom as well to express Gollum's sneaky nature in Peter Jackson
Peter Jackson
Sir Peter Robert Jackson, KNZM is a New Zealand film director, producer, actor, and screenwriter, known for his The Lord of the Rings film trilogy , adapted from the novel by J. R. R...
's film The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. The cimbalom is also featured prominently in Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
's scoring of Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes (2009 film)
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 action-mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon...
.
Rock
The cimbalom was used by Alan ParsonsAlan Parsons
Alan Parsons is a British audio engineer, musician, and record producer. He was involved with the production of several significant albums, including The Beatles' Abbey Road and Let It Be, as well as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon for which Pink Floyd credit him as an important contributor...
on his "I Robot" and "Tales of Mystery and Imagination" albums and is included in the guest musician acknowledgments.
The experimental rock group Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle
Mr. Bungle was an experimental band from Northern California. The band was formed in 1985 while the members were still in high school and was named after a children's educational film. Mr. Bungle released four demo tapes in the mid to late 1980s before being signed to Warner Bros. Records and...
made use of the cimbalom on the "Disco Volante" and "California" albums. It is included in the guest musician acknowledgments.
The experimental performance organization Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an organization founded by Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton. The organization produces theatrical shows and concerts featuring popular music, comedy and multimedia; recorded music and scores for film and television; television appearances for shows such as The Tonight...
has used prepared cimbalom in its productions.
Popular music
Mary HopkinMary Hopkin
Mary Hopkin , credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti, is a Welsh folk singer best known for her 1968 UK number one single "Those Were The Days". She was one of the first musicians to sign to The Beatles' Apple label....
's recording of "Those Were the Days
Those Were the Days (song)
"Those Were the Days" is a song credited to Gene Raskin, who put English lyrics to the Russian song "Dorogoi dlinnoyu" , written by Boris Fomin with words by the poet Konstantin Podrevskii. It deals with reminiscence upon youth and romantic idealism...
", arranged by Richard Hewson, featured a cimbalom played by Gilbert Webster, a professor at London's Guildhall School of Music
Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Guildhall School of Music and Drama is an independent music and dramatic arts school which was founded in 1880 in London, England. Students can pursue courses in Music, Opera, Drama and Technical Theatre Arts.-History:...
.
Occurrence and names
The instrument is known by different names in different countries and when played in different styles. A partial list follows:- BelarusBelarusBelarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
: tsymbaly (цымбалы) - China: yangqinYangqinThe trapezoidal yangqin is a Chinese hammered dulcimer, originally from Middle East and Persia . It used to be written with the characters 洋琴 , but over time the first character changed to 揚 , which means "acclaimed". It is also spelled yang quin or yang ch'in...
- CroatiaCroatiaCroatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
: cimbal, cimbule - Czech RepublicCzech RepublicThe Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
: cimbál (ˈtsɪmbaːl) - France: cymbalum
- GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
: tsintsila - Germany: Zymbal
- GreeceGreeceGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
: sandouri, santouri (σαντούρι) - Netherlands: cimbaal also spelled cymbaal
- Hungary: cimbalom
- India: santoorSantoorThe santoor is an ancient stringed musical instrument, native to Kashmir and Iran. It is a trapezoid-shaped hammered dulcimer often made of walnut, with seventy two strings. The special-shaped mallets are lightweight and are held between the index and middle fingers...
- IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
: santurSanturThe santur is a Persian hammered dulcimerIt is a trapezoid-shaped box often made of walnut or different exotic woods. The Persian classical santur has 72 strings. The name santur was first referenced in ancient Persian poetry... - IraqIraqIraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
: santur - KlezmerKlezmerKlezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
& Jewish music (Yiddish): tsimbl also known as a "hakbreydl" - LatviaLatviaLatvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...
: cimbole - LithuaniaLithuaniaLithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
: cimbolai - MongoliaMongoliaMongolia is a landlocked country in East and Central Asia. It is bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south, east and west. Although Mongolia does not share a border with Kazakhstan, its western-most point is only from Kazakhstan's eastern tip. Ulan Bator, the capital and largest...
: joqin - Poland: cymbały
- RomaniaRomaniaRomania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
: ţambal (the large cimbalom is called ţambal mare) - Russia: tsymbaly (цимбалы)
- SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
: cimbal - SloveniaSloveniaSlovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of...
: cimbale - Sweden: hackbräde
- ThailandThailandThailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
: khim (ขิม) - Turkey: santur
- UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
: tsymbalyTsymbalyThe tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....
(цимбали) - UzbekUzbekistanUzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
: chang - VietnamVietnamVietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
: tam-thap-luk
Belarus
In BelarusBelarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
a cimbalom school was established in 1948 by J. Zynovych. The Belarusian musicians however play on small portable folk style instruments.
Czech Republic
In MoraviaMoravia
Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...
, one of the three historical Czech lands
Czech lands
Czech lands is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts , then later by various Germanic tribes until the beginning of 7th...
, the instrument is used as a basis for folk music
Moravian traditional music
Moravian traditional music represents a part of the European musical culture connected with the regions around the western Carpathian Mountains. It is characterized by a specific melodic and harmonic texture related to the Eastern European musical world...
ensembles.
Greece
In AthensAthens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, a cimbalom school was established in 2004 by M. Papadeas. The Greek musicians play on small portable folk style instruments.
Hungary
Besides the main cimbalom centre in Budapest, there is a very strong school of performance in Debrecen in Hungary.Slovakia
The cimbal is a very popular instrument found in folk groups, particularly in the ethnically Slovak/Hungarian mixed southern regions and among Romani folk ensembles.Ukraine
In Ukraine, the concert Cimbalom was first formally used in the Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk Instruments organized and directed by Leonid HaydamakaLeonid Haydamaka
Leonid Hryhorovych HaydamakaLeonid Haydamaka has left his impression on the development of bandura art in the 20th century....
from 1922 by Oleksandr Nezovybatko. In time it was replaced by 2 smaller-sized instruments in order to facilitate transportation. Music for the cimbalom has been published in Ukraine from 1930 on. With the serial manufacture of tsymbaly
Tsymbaly
The tsymbaly is the Ukrainian version of the hammer dulcimer. It is a chordophone made up of a trapezoidal box with metal strings strung across it. The tsymbaly is played by striking two beaters against the strings....
by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory
Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory
The Chernihiv musical instruments factory was a factory founded in 1933 making stringed instruments.It is named in honour of Pavel Postyshev.-History:...
cimbalom playing became popular in Eastern Ukraine in the post war years. Textbooks for the tsymbaly were published in 1966 by O. Nezovybatko, and initially players played on semi-concert instruments manufactured by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory. In recent times most professional performers have switched over to the Schuda system of playing on concert-size instruments. Classes for the instrument exist in the Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
, Kiev
Kiev Conservatory
The Tchaikovsky National Academy of Music is a Ukrainian state institution of higher music education. Its courses include postgraduate education.-History:...
and Kharkiv
Kharkiv
Kharkiv or Kharkov is the second-largest city in Ukraine.The city was founded in 1654 and was a major centre of Ukrainian culture in the Russian Empire. Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine where the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed in December 1917 and Soviet government was...
conservatories. Currently most Ukraine folk instrument ensembles and orchestras such as the Orchestra of Ukrainian Folk instruments and the State Bandurist Capella usually have 2 concert cimbaloms.
Cimbalom players
Some notable cimbalom players are:- Márta FábiánMárta FábiánMárta Fábián is an award-winning Hungarian cimbalom player and soloist.Fábián began playing the cimbalom at the age of 8. Since 1956 she has been a member of the Broadcast Children Choir...
, classical and contemporary cimbalom player, soloist and guest artist of many European festivals
- Toni IordacheToni IordacheToni Iordache was a Romani-Romanian lăutar and one of the most famous cimbalom players in the world. He was nicknamed the God of the Cimbalom and Paganini of the cimbalom.-Early life:...
: Famous Romani-Romanian cimbalom (ţambal) player, nicknamed The godfather of the cibalom
- Kálmán BaloghKálmán BaloghKálmán Balogh is one of the foremost Hungarian cimbalom players, descending from a famous dynasty of Hungarian Gypsy musicians. His virtuosity is matched only by his understanding and respect of his heritage. A graduate of Franz Liszt Academy of Music of Budapest, he has completed many successful...
: contemporary Romani-Hungarian cimbalom virtuoso
- Richard Grimes: American classical cimbalom virtuoso; inventor of the electric cimbalom
- Laurence KaptainLaurence KaptainLaurence Kaptain is an American symphonic cimbalom artist. Most recently he has appeared with the New York Philharmonic and cellist Yo-Yo Ma, a series of concerts with the Baltimore Symphony and pop artist/composer Elvis Costello, Pittsburgh Symphony, and in collaboration with prominent Dutch...
: American symphonic/chamber cimbalom artist
- Joshua Horowitz: American tsimbl player; founder of the Klezmer group BudowitzBudowitzBudowitz are a klezmer band incorporating 19th century instruments and themes from the folk music of Bessarabia, Galicia and Bukovina, into their music. Its members live in Hungary, Germany and the United States...
- Michael MasleyMichael MasleyMichael Masley is known for his musical work on the Hungarian cymbalom. His unique method of playing the instrument comes from his invention of the bowhammer, a cross between a fiddle bow and a dulcimer hammer, attached to the finger with a ring...
: contemporary American who plays the instrument with ten self-designed bowhammers
- Joseph MoskowitzJoseph MoskowitzJoseph Moskowitz was a Romanian-born Jewish cymbalum player, son of a folk klezmer cimbalist. He eventually settled in the United States....
: Father of klezmerKlezmerKlezmer is a musical tradition of the Ashkenazic Jews of Eastern Europe. Played by professional musicians called klezmorim, the genre originally consisted largely of dance tunes and instrumental display pieces for weddings and other celebrations...
"tsimbl"; one of the first to be recorded