{"id":124426,"date":"2026-05-20T13:13:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:13:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=124426"},"modified":"2026-05-20T14:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:00:02","slug":"feature-dulcimer-global-traditions-celebrated-hammered-international-festival-dulcimers-aga-khan-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/05\/20\/feature-dulcimer-global-traditions-celebrated-hammered-international-festival-dulcimers-aga-khan-museum\/","title":{"rendered":"FEATURE | The Dulcimer And Its Global Traditions Were Celebrated At HAMMERED: International Festival of Dulcimers At The Aga Khan Museum"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Persian
Persian Santur, detail (Photo: Heinrich-B\u00f6ll-Stiftung e.V.<\/a> of Berlin, Deutschland\/CC by SA 2.0<\/a>\/cropped)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Aga Khan Museum presented HAMMERED: International Festival of Dulcimers over the May long weekend. It celebrates an instrument that has crossed the world in various forms, and brought together the traditions of different cultures.<\/p>\n

In North America, we might be tempted to narrowly associate the dulcimer with bluegrass and folk music, but it\u2019s a global family of instruments that are an integral part of many classical traditions from Asia to India and Persia to Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n

What all the forms of the dulcimer have in common is a system of producing sound by striking metal strings with wooden mallets.<\/p>\n

LV caught up with Amir Ali Alibhai<\/strong>, Head of Performing Arts at the Aga Khan Museum to talk about the instrument and festival.<\/p>\n

\"L:
L: Cimbalon player Alexandru Sura; R: santoor player Vinay Desai (Photos courtesy of the artists)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Amir Ali Alibhai: The Interview<\/h2>\n

HAMMERED brought something new to Toronto\u2019s music scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s the very first. It’s something I’ve been talking about with Amir Amiri<\/strong>, who is an Iranian santoor player.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amiri is the Artistic Director of HAMMERED, and he and Alibhai have collaborated on previous occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were talking and thinking about [the fact that] so many of these instruments are actually related to one another in ways that people don\u2019t often think about,\u201d Alibhai says.<\/p>\n

Through the instrument, the connections between diverse cultures are illustrated. The dulcimer is, in fact, a direct forerunner of the modern piano, where the hammers are operated via the keyboard.<\/p>\n

He mentions the landmark 100 Years of Iranian Piano Music concert featuring Franco-Swiss pianist Layla Ramezan which took place at the Aga Khan Museum in 2017. Iranian-Canadian composer and multi-instrumentalist Sina Bathaie accompanied Ramezan on the santoor (also written as santur).<\/p>\n

\u201cI paired Sina with her, and between some of the piano performances we had the santoor,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI asked the santoor player if he wouldn’t mind playing acoustically.\u201d Seen and heard side by side, the connection became clear. \u201cI suppose that was the first time that we thought about the connection between the piano and a pretty archaic seeming instrument like the santoor.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was at Womex, the annual Worldwide Music Expo, where he first experienced the cimbalon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the connection with the piano,\u201d he says. \u201cI was blown away.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cimbalon<\/strong> is classified as a type of chordophone. In it, the strings are set into a large trapezoidal shaped box on legs. The metal strings are stretch across the top, and there is a damping pedal underneath. The very first was designed by Hungarian V. Josef Schunda in 1874 in Budapest, and was based on existing dulcimer instruments that were common in Central and Eastern Europe. It is played by striking the strings with a pair of hammers wrapped in cotton.<\/p>\n

Not long after its innovation, the cimbalon attracted the attention of politicians, and major Hungarian musicians, including Franz Liszt, who used the instrument in his Ungarischer Sturmmarsch (1876) and in the orchestral version of his Hungarian Rhapsody No. 6. Many other composers of the classical music tradition used the cimbalon, including Zolt\u00e1n Kod\u00e1ly, H\u00e1ry J\u00e1nos, Igor Stravinsky (who owned his own cimbalon), and B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k, who used it in his Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and orchestra (1928).<\/p>\n

In the 20th century, composers such as Pierre Boulez, Peter Maxwell Davies, Peter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s, Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g, Mikl\u00f3s Kocs\u00e1r, Richard Grimes, Louis Andriessen, and Peter Machajd\u00edk also became enchanted with its unique sound.<\/p>\n

The cimbalon is also associated with gypsy and Jewish folk music.<\/p>\n

Asia<\/h3>\n

The dulcimer, however, travelled even farther east to China and other Asian countries. It became one of many cultural elements that found their way along the Silk Road between Eastern Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt always fascinated me that with the pipa, it’s such a quintessentially Chinese court instrument, it comes from the oud,\u201d Amir says. \u201cEventually it evolved into the pipa.\u201d<\/p>\n

In China, the instrument developed into the yangqin<\/strong>, which is used in varying ways across China. It\u2019s shimmering tones are used in refined and lyrical music in the Guangdong province. In the northwestern province of Xinjiang, the music of the yangqin is transformed into a more rhythmic and expressive mode.<\/p>\n

Like the cimbalon, the strings are stretched across a trapezoidal wooden frame, sometimes with legs. Bridges are used, which create a louder sound. Traditional instruments typically use three bridges, with modern instruments often using five. Musicians from southern China introduced it to Thailand and Cambodia, where it became the khim. Sounds are produced by striking the strings with bamboo mallets.<\/p>\n

Classical Indian and Persian music uses the santoor<\/strong>\/santur<\/strong>, the ancient and original hammered string instruments. The metal strings are stretched across a wooden trapezoid, with bridges to enhance volume, and originated in ancient Persia about 2,500 years ago. It entered the Kashmir region of India via trade routes, where it was adopted into local traditions and music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of this festival as a family reunion of sorts,\u201d Alibhai says.<\/p>\n

As he points out, most of the musicians are Canadian, with the exception of Indian santoor player Vinay Desai, who is American. They\u2019re virtuosos on an instrument the Western mainstream still rarely recognizes. \u201cIt’s really a toe dip, to test this model and this idea,\u201d he says, \u201cbut also to present some pretty high calibre artists who are Canadian. We just did a show with Labyrinth Ensemble on Sunday. It was just incredible. To think that all these artists are Canadian,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe spend a lot of time ignoring people who are in our own midst.\u201d<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

\u201cI didn’t like the word dulcimer, because for me, the dulcimer is an American instrument,\u201d Alibhai says. It reminded him of Appalachia and folk music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized how, it’s kind of fascinating that it’s essentially the same instrument, but it’s played so differently because of the tradition that it evokes.\u201d He mentions Persian classical an Indian raga music. \u201cThese are classical musical traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival coincided with the Museum\u2019s larger objectives. \u201cThat’s something we’re always trying to demonstrate is this connection across cultures,\u201d he says. \u201cIn music we see it very clearly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vinay Desai presents Raag Bairagi Bhairav with Ishaan Ghosh on Tabla in 2025:<\/p>\n