Instrument
Cimbalom
The Hungarian hammered dulcimer - shimmering strings struck with tiny beaters.
The cimbalom is a large Hungarian hammered dulcimer: a trapezoid-shaped box with dozens of metal strings stretched across it, which the player strikes with two small beaters. Its sound is shimmering, metallic, and resonant, somewhere between a harp, a piano, and a guitar, and it is the national instrument of Hungary.
How it works
The cimbalom has more than a hundred strings, most of them arranged in groups of three or four tuned to the same note, stretched over bridges across the soundboard. The player strikes them with two light wooden beaters, often tipped with cotton or leather for a softer tone, and can play rapid runs, tremolos, and rippling arpeggios. Like a piano, the concert instrument has a damper pedal to control how long the notes ring.
From folk dulcimer to concert instrument
Hammered dulcimers have been played across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia for centuries. In Hungary, smaller, portable cimbaloms were central to the music of Roma (Gypsy) bands, which played for dances, weddings, and cafés. In 1874 the Budapest instrument maker József Schunda built a larger concert cimbalom, on legs, with a damper pedal and a wider range, and it soon became a symbol of Hungarian music.
The cimbalom in classical music
Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies imitate the sound of Roma bands, cimbalom and all, on the piano. Composers later wrote for the real instrument: Zoltán Kodály gave it a starring role in his folk opera Háry János (1926), and Bartók included it in a version of his First Rhapsody for violin. Stravinsky loved its sound, learned to play it, and used it in works such as Renard and Ragtime. Later composers, including Pierre Boulez and György Kurtág, have also written for it.
On screen
The cimbalom's mysterious sound has made it popular in film. John Barry's theme for the spy thriller The Ipcress File (1965) is built around it, and it has appeared in many scores since, often to suggest intrigue or Central Europe.
Famous cimbalom music
- Zoltán Kodály - Háry János, especially the "Intermezzo" and the "Song".
- Stravinsky - Renard (1916), a burlesque with a prominent cimbalom.
- Bartók - Rhapsody No. 1 for violin, in its version with cimbalom.
- John Barry - The Ipcress File (1965).
- Hungarian folk and Roma music, where the cimbalom often leads the band.
Where to start listening: the "Intermezzo" from Kodály's Háry János suite, then a recording of a Hungarian folk band. See also the strings family and the harp.