Browse Items (78 total)

This dulcimer is a well-crafted instrument with attention to detail. A mate to this instrument is in the Charles Faulkner Bryan dulcimer collection at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Schnaufer's notes for this instrument read as follows: "Big Tyler Mt., West Virginia/1911/Maker - Denis McCown for Helen Melton Saffel/Owner Schnaufer/Purchased from Wanda Parrish (Las Vegas, Nevada), great niece of Helen Saffel, 1987." Wanda Parrish…

The tune to this selection dates from the eighteenth century, an anonymous setting of an earlier poem by the English poet and dramatist Ben Jonson. It acquired a great following on both sides of the Atlantic in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.…

This tune, a mainstay of the fiddling repertoire, is speculated to be of European origin, and its variations have been known under the titles "Flop Eared Mule," "Detroit Schottische," and "The Bluebell Polka," among many others. Schnaufer performs…

This scheitholt appears to be an early 19th-century instrument, and is an exemplar of the predecessor to the Appalachian dulcimer. The fretboard and the body are the same, with frets extending down only one side of the instrument, the remaining…

David Schnaufer described this 3-string teardrop-shaped instrument as a 20th century dulcimer of unknown provenance. It appears that this instrument could have been made in stages by more than one maker judging by the differences in quality of…

David Schnaufer purchased this instrument from Terry Lewis of Kentucky, who in turn had obtained it from a woman in Kentucky in the 1970s. Schnaufer had placed a tag on the instrument with the following note: "Schnaufer/1820?/Trans/Indiana/Terry…

David Schnaufer is believed to have purchased this instrument at Whiteway Antiques in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1992. He attributed the instrument's origin to the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, in the 18th or 19th century. The instrument was donated to…

Also known as the "Green Valley Waltz," this tune was adapted in Appalachia from an older British tragic ballad. The lyrics to the refrain are generally some variant of the following: Who's gonna shoe your pretty little feet? Who's gonna glove your…

"Pretty Little Cripple Creek" appears to be a slower variant of the fiddle tune "Cripple Creek." A widely-known tune, "Cripple Creek" has an unclear provenance, and has appeared in many versions and under different titles over its history. In this…