This collection of dances and songs comes from Peggy Carter’s repertoire of hammered dulcimer arrangements, drawing from years of playing live string-band music for contra dancing, Irish dancing and Royal Scottish country dancing. If you like to dance and sing, you’ll LOVE this book. Dances and Songs to Play and Sing for Hammered Dulcimer includes pieces from many parts of the world, arranged for solo performance or dance accompaniment. It includes songs for voice and dulcimer, which can also be played as solo arrangements. In addition, you’ll find marches, jigs, reels, polkas, strathspeys, waltzes and slow dances. The truth is, when playing for dance, a hammered dulcimer is all you’ll need!

The tunes in this collection were chosen from Peggy Carter’s half-century of performing, teaching, and arranging music for the hammered dulcimer. This anthology contains 60 tunes arranged especially for novice to intermediate-level players of the 12/11 dulcimer, including suggestions for note reading, hammering patterns and embellishments. Playing the dulcimer is not effortless, but it should be fun! The title tune, “Dulcimer Frolic,” is a family heirloom originally written for mandolin by Peggy’s grandfather in the early 1920s; transcribed for hammered dulcimer, the tune really lives up to its name. In fact, every tune in the collection is designed for fun and frolic. Some have lyrics, some are presented as bare-bones melodies, and some are embellished. You’ll find that these arrangements bring out the best in all of them.

The last quarter of the twentieth-century saw a renewed interest in the hammered dulcimer in the United States at the grassroots level as well as from elements of the Folk Revival. This book offers the reader a discussion of the medieval origins of the dulcimer and its subsequent spread under many different names to other parts of the world. Drawing on articles the author has written in English as well as articles by specialists in their own languages, Gifford explains the history and evolution of the instrument. Special attention is paid to the North American tradition from the early 18th-century to the 1970s revival. Drawing from local histories, news clippings, photographs, and interviews, the book examines the playing of the dulcimer and its associated social meanings.

Middle Eastern Music for Hammered Dulcimer goes beyond the stereotypes of genies and Aladdin's lamp to illuminate the entire treasure trove of Middle Eastern music. the collection brings you the full bounty of the region: over 35 classical compositions, well-known folk tunes, and modern popular compositions by 'Abd al-Wahab, the Rahbani brothers, and other stars of the Arab world.In addition to the tunes, the book gives substantial information on traditional performance practices, common musical forms, and the unique qualities that define Middle Eastern music. Rhythmic patterns, semitones, modes, accompaniment, and improvisation in a Middle Eastern style are discussed in detail. There are numerous diagrams that explain Middle Eastern modes, and how to bring them to life on your Western dulcimer. Appropriate for players at any level.

Includes a few dances with music.

This two-volume encyclopedia profiles the contemporary culture and society of every country in Europe. Each country receives a chapter encompassing such topics as religion, lifestyle and leisure, standard of living, cuisine, gender roles, relationships, dress, music, visual arts, and architecture. This authoritative and comprehensive encyclopedia provides readers with richly detailed entries on the 45 nations that comprise modern Europe. Each country profile looks at elements of contemporary life related to family and work, including popular pastimes, customs, beliefs, and attitudes. Students can make cross-cultural comparisons-for instance, a student could compare social customs in Denmark with those in Norway, compare Greece's cuisine with that of Italy, and contrast the architecture of Paris with Amsterdam and Barcelona. Culture and society are changing in each region and nation of Europe due to many political and economic forces, both inside and outside of each nation's borders. This encyclopedia considers many of the transformations connected to globalization, as well as traditions that still hold strong, to provide a complete assessment of the processes that make European societies and cultures distinctive.

Ilona Lakova's darked skinned illiterate Gypsy father fell in love with her pale skinned Polish mother whilst a prisoner in Russia during the First World War. They returned to his mothers house in a Gypsy settlement on the edge of the village of Saris in Slovakia where their family of nine grew up, despised and mocked by the peasants on whom they depended for work. Ilona describes in simple unaffected language what it was like to be part of a tight knit community bound together by language, customs, music and a love of family, the spirit of Romipen.