Category:Dulcimer

Dul"ci*mer, n. Etym: [It. dolcemele,r Sp. dulcemele, fr. L. dulcis sweet + melos song, melody, Gr. doulcemele. See Dulcet, and Melody.]

(Mus.)

(a) An instrument, having stretched metallic wires which are beaten with two light hammers held in the hands of the performer. (b) An ancient musical instrument in use among the Jews. Daniel 3:5. It is supposed to be the same with the psaltery.

---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary.

Dulcimer - (Heb. sumphoniah ), a musical instrument mentioned in Daniel 3:5, Daniel 3:15, along with other instruments there named, as sounded before the golden image. It was not a Jewish instrument. In the margin of the Revised Version it is styled the "bagpipe." Luther translated it "lute," and Grotius the "crooked trumpet." It is probable that it was introduced into Babylon by some Greek or Western-Asiatic musician. Some Rabbinical commentators render it by "organ," the well-known instrument composed of a series of pipes, others by "lyre." The most probable interpretation is that it was a bagpipe similar to the zampagna of Southern Europe.