Derek Bell's - Dulcimer?

[Dick Glasgow]

I was station hopping the other night & caught the tail end of an old clip of the Chieftains on stage. It was shot from behind Derek Bell & overlooking his Dulcimer, which looked much more like a Hackbrett than a Hammered Dulcimer i.e. more tapered.

Does anyone here have any knowledge of which Dulcimer Derek actually played.

I'm just curious.

Cheers
Dick

[Nikita]

HI Dick !
I think if you google Derek Bell and Tiompan you'll get informations about his instrument : members.shaw.ca/chieftains/derek.html.
If I read right, Derek Bell used to play on a small hungarian cymbalum, with dampers (it's said he faked the balalaika with a cymbalum in the soundtrack of Dr Jivago.... another desillusion, I always thought it WAS balalaika ). He gives quite a nice rendering of Rights of man on it on the lp "Bonaparte's Retreat", if I remember well...
here's another link :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bell_(musician)

[Dick Glasgow]

Thanks Nikita.

N.B. That full stop at the end of your link stopped it from working. i.e.:

members.shaw.ca/chieftains/derek.html

Interesting.
Of course, from what I read, the smart money nowadays is on the Tiompan actually being a small bowed string instrument & not a H-D at all.
I wonder will we ever know for sure.
Fair play to Derek anyway, for bringing the H-D back into the public arena in Ireland.

Cheers
Dick

[dulcimike]

I don't know which dulcimer Derek played on the recording to which you're referring, but I think I remember Nat Magee telling about how Derek got his dulcimer. I'd have to look up where I heard that or where I have that to know for sure.

The story was that Derek was in an eastern European country with the Chieftains, and they got paid in the country's currency, a currency not recognized in the UK. So, he decided to buy something in country with the money and ended up buying his first dulcimer.

[Nikita]

Sorry for the full stop... I seem to be a llittle at war with the web and its subtle ways of bothering you ...
her's a text you can find on the chieftain's site :
Tiompán is the Irish language word for hammered dulcimer. Defined as: - a cymbal, Irish tiompán, tabor, cymbal, drum, Early Irish tiompán, a small stringed instrument; from Latin tympanum, a timbrel, drum (Windisch). The difference of meaning between Early Irish and Latin has caused some to doubt the connection; and Stokes gives the Celtic root as temppu-, a chord or string, Lithuanian tempià, stretch, chorda.

www.thechieftains.com/instruments/
but I do think the search for what was really the tiompan is still on...

[jack]

I had a close up look at Derek Bell's "Tiompan" once when the Chieftains played in Motherwell. Unfortunately there was a poor turnout, mainly due to lack of advertising, and the concert was moved from the concert hall to the theatre which was a much smaller venue. At the end of the night Derek was packing up his harp onstage and I approached him and asked if I could have a look at his dulcimer. Whether it was because of the very small audience I don't know but he rather grumpily said "as long as you don't bang it about". However as soon as I started looking at it a roadie appeared and started putting a cover over it. It did look to me to be a small cymbalom.
Talking of cymbaloms, there is a scottish cymbalom player, Heather Corbett. She played at a dulcimer concert once in Glasgow.

Jack

[Dick Glasgow]

Interesting Jack.

Mind you, I know how he feels. We did a talk in a local school last thursday & when one of the teachers came over to chat at the end, her class came with her & as we talked her kids just couldn't keep their hands of the Dulcimer, plucking & stroking the strings.

But I must say, I love to see them take an interest & one young lad who I got up to teach Twinkle Twinkle to, in front of the whole school, came up after to ask where he could get his own Dulcimer.

There's just something about a hands on experience like that, especially for a child, that can stick with them & inspire them to take the next step.

I must be honest though, I shouldn't I suppose, but I do always feel uncomfortable going up & speaking to performers after a gig. I know some of them really do seriously enjoy meeting the audience, but there are certainly others who just can't be bothered.

I see that Heather Corbett is one serious musician. I'd say she must be well worth checking out, especially for a Cimbalom enthusiast.

Heather Corbett ~ Concert Percussionist

Heather Corbett playing Stravinsky

I see she played her Cimbalom on this movie:

The Quiet American

... & how about this for a quote:

... There are thrilling solos from Heather Corbett on xylophone and cimbalom (the twangy Hungarian zither)

Marianne Olyver & her Salon Orchestra

Cheers
Dick