Playing The Dulcimer, Co. Laois, Ireland 1972
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Andy Dowling plays traditional tunes on an ancient instrument the dulcimer.
Reporter George Devlin talks to Andy Dowling from Clonmeen, Erril, County Laois who says he is one of probably only two dulcimer players in Ireland, John Rae being the other. A fiddler before he discovered the dulcimer, Andy now plays this ancient instrument at Fleadhanna Ceoil and musical gatherings. He has also had a part in the film ‘Lock Up Your Daughters’. Andy Dowling was first inspired by the instrument having heard John Barton, a travelling musician, play the dulcimer at a fair day in Rathdowney, County Laois.
That’s a most unusual looking yoke.
The hammered dulcimer most likely originated in the Middle East before it spread across North Africa and was brought to Europe by the Spanish Moors in the 12th century. Called ‘tiompán’ in Irish, historical evidence suggests that hammered dulcimers were played in Ireland from the Middle Ages onwards.
This episode of ‘Hall’s Pictorial Weekly’ was broadcast on 26 January 1972. The reporter is George Devlin.
I once saw the most brilliant Rory Gallagher play one of those instruments one night at a wild rocking concert, I miss Rory> I would give my most favorite old wade boots, the ones that I wore going ro see the great Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher and many other great rocking bands just to see just to see this very fine man and Rory Gallagher setting down to gather and playing those instruments
I think it was this gentleman I heard at Listowel during the Fleadh in 1978. I distinctly remember it was about 11pm on a Friday night - peak craziness time. We were a ways away off from the front of the Listowel Arms Hotel making an awful racket with banjos and fiddles. A kindly woman came over, and while she could have rightly told us to shut up and feck off, she said “You have to come hear this, it’s so special you may not ever hear it again. He’s one of the only dulcimer players in Ireland and it’s such a quiet instrument I’m afraid I must ask you to stop playing for a wee bit and come listen.” After a week of full-tilt banging loud sessions and ceili music, this was so relaxing and sweet. I stayed and listened as long as he played, and she was right - I’ve never heard anything like it again.
Wow... ✨
When I was hitchhiking in Ireland in the late sixties, I was picked up by an older gentleman and taken to a fleadh cheoil in New Ross. He asked, "Are you goin' to the fleadh?"
I said, "What's a fleadh?" He explained and I said, "Yes, I'm goin' to the fleadh."
Andy Dowling, (He pronounced it Doolin) was one of the more memorable characters that I met on my trip. We spent the whole day together. I took a photo in a parking lot in New Ross of Andy playing his hammered dulcimer. I had never seen, nor even heard of a hammered dulcimer before this.
Andy asked me if I'd heard of a dulcimer. I said. "Yes, I have Jean Ritchie and Richard Farina records," but a little discussion revealed that this was an entirely different dulcimer than I was thinking of. I had never heard or heard of a hammered dulcimer. Andy stopped the car, opened the trunk (boot) and took out his dulcimer and gave me a concert. He had a small coal oil stove and we bought some groceries and cooked a meal on the shoulder of the road.
A bit of Googling reveals that Christy Burns said, in her excellent thesis, of Andy:
"Andy Dowling lived in Clonmeen, Errill, County Laois until 1991 when he died at the age of 92. Many knew him for his dulcimer playing, as he was always active in the local traditional music events and organizations.
Before receiving his first dulcimer, which was purchased in Dublin by his brother, Andy was a fiddler. He admits to giving up the fiddle in favour of playing the dulcimer.
In an interview with David Kettlewell in 1976, Andy said, “You want to be playing an instrument all the time, that's the way it is with music... it becomes part of your life; 'twas never like that with the fiddle...”
Much like John Rea in Co. Antrim, Andy Dowling was pleased to appear frequently in public with his dulcimer. He would play at parties, fleadhs, and also played on both RTÉ and BBC radio. The movie, “Lock Up Your Daughters,” was filmed in Kilkenny and featured Andy with his dulcimer. By the time Andy passed away in 1991, his dulcimer playing had developed such a reputation that it seemed perfectly appropriate to have dulcimer music at his funeral."
The fleadh cheoil in New Ross was a trad music festival that took over the whole town. There were fiddles, flutes, concertinas, accordions and bodhrans in every pub, church, school house and street corner. I didn't see one guitar or ukulele.
This ranks right up there as one of the best days of my life. Andy told me so many stories and played me so many songs.
I went to see "Lock Up Your Daughters" three times. It wasn't a fabulous movie, but I loved seeing the townsfolk dancing in a circle around Andy and his dulcimer in the closing scene.
The photo I took of Andy in New Ross sits right beside my computer.
As a side note, 55 years later, I am now married to a hammered dulcimer player.
"""From the wild Appalachian trail of Mountains in America to Co. Laos in Éire - mixed with the Majestic waters of the Atlantic - green mountains the travelling beauty of the Dulcimer Straight to our Heart's""""---- Magnificent. Thank you CR's---- V.V......
Enchanting sound!!
I live about 3 miles from where Andy lived . I remember him as an unusual interesting man . He probablycould have justifiably been called a legend . I think he died sometime in the late 1980s , maybe early 90s .
Where did he live?
@@noelcahill2976
A place called Clonmeen . Between the village of Errill , and the town of Rathdowney, in Co Laois .
How wonderful ... Must be a nightmare to tune!
was just thinking the same thing!
I can tell you it certainly is!
Epic Hair too.
😁
And eyebrows
Ahh "young Flynn", more commonly known as "auld Flynn" these days
This is the TH-cam I’m here for.
The only time I heard of a dulcimer was in the poem Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge which was on the inter cert. curriculum in the 1970s. The only poem I can still recite to this day from memory.
Yes...the damsel etc !
When RTE would travel Ireland for a story back then.
Another great video
Beautiful
The sound really grows on you.
Saw this man playing at a fleadh some time ago.
Interesting to see characters from Rathdowney.
Joemy Wilson, an American, used to play Irish music well on a dulcimer. The original Irish harp had wire strings. So the dulcimer tone is not too out of place. Derek Bell used one sometimes. O Riada sometimes used a harpsichord, rather than piano, to get a comparable "wire-like" tone.
Ireland is the best
What a fucking legend.
"What possessed you to take up the Dulcimer?" 😈😍 1:40
Cant imagine why it never caught on....
I was told that the hammered dulcimer didn’t really catch on in ITM because the sustain of the strings is so long that the implied chordal notes of one phrase hung in the air and will still ring even after moving into a new phrase with its differing chord. Wouldn’t seem to affect slow airs as much as jigs and reels, though.
Here in Colorado the best hammered dulcimer players are descended from Volga Germans, Germans from Russia, and play the lively “Dutch Hop Polka” style.
A Dutch Hop Polka player once told me that if a hammered dulcimer would no longer stay in tune, then he kept it in the kitchen for a cheese slicer!
It's widely used in continental Europe. Just not the most suitable for ITM
Sounds Japanese
Fabulous video 👍
Sounds very Celtic to me. I like the many cds which showcase Scottish and Irish music on the dulcimer,
@@aliciarobertson4979 I think Japanese play a instrument like it . 👍
@@choctaw6838
Sorry I was thinking of the music rather the instrument.
Yes, the Japanese play the Koto which has a similar sound.
th-cam.com/video/JDTp_YQizqE/w-d-xo.html
@@aliciarobertson4979 yes indeed, I thought so 👍
@@aliciarobertson4979 There is a Chinese hammered dulcimer called a Yangqin.
The Japanese hammered dulcimer is called a Darushimaa (ダルシマー)
Zorba The Greek played a Santouri, a Greek hammered dulcimer in the movie.
His hands look like he's just come from 50 years of digging turf and building walls. What was the movie he said he was in? Lock Up Your Otters? lol
Haha I got it now, lock up your daughters