Dul’cimer

(Ger, Hack brett; Fr. tympan on; It. cem’balo.) A very ancient stringed instr., greatly varying in construction and form; typical characteristic, the wire strings stretched over a soundboard or resonance-box and struck DUMB PIA with mallets or hammers. In the modern forms the string-tension is regulated by wrest-pins, and the mallet-heads have one soft and one hard face, which produce different effects a2 of tone, Compa 2 to 3 octaves, gto g#: ‘The dulcimer was the precursor, and is often called the prototype, of the pianoforte. See Pan/alon, Dumb piano. An instr, like a small piano in form, having a keyboard of harrow compa , but neither hammers nor strings; intended for silent finger practice, i.e. merely for increasing the mechanical dexterity of the fingers (Comp. Digitorium, and Virgil Practice-Clavier)...Dumb spinct, ee Man i chord. Dummy pipes. Pipes which do not speak, displayed in the front of an organ.