Dolceola
A dolceola is a musical instrument resembling a miniature piano, but which is in fact a zither with a keyboard. It is used in traditional holy blues and has an unusual, angelic, music-box sound. Dolceolas were made by the Toledo Symphony Company from 1903 to 1907.
Performers
Paul Mason Howard accompanied Lead Belly on dolceola on some of his 1944 Capitol Records sides. A listen to those recordings, collected under the title Grasshoppers In My Pillow, reveals the characteristic clatter of the dolceola's three-level keyboard action.
Although the gospel musician Washington Phillips was thought to have played the dolceola on several of his recordings, he was actually playing a compound instrument he fashioned out of two East Boston Phonoharp Company celestaphones.
References
- The Dolceola: a piano? A zither? Or what?. Miner Music
- A New Musical Instrument. Dunn's Review, Vol. 11, 1908