Unbeknownst to a good number of people in the village, Bluffton actually has a “Dulcimer Musical Group.” The Rainbow Dulcimers (originally started in a home on Bluffton’s “Rainbow Dr.”) practice every Tuesday afternoon at either the Bluffton Library, or the Bluffton Senior Center.
What’s more, besides the practice sessions, they play what band member Cheri Slotter labels as “low key gigs.” That is, the group also does concerts at both the latter venues, at Maple Crest, and they played this year, for instance, at the Allen County Museum’s Christmas Tree Festival.
Some of their selections included the old German carol “Sweeter the Bells.” They also played “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem,” and “Christmas is a Coming.”
And, as practically everyone already knows (except me, of course), the word “dulcimer” originally referred to a trapezoidal zither, similar to a psaltery, whose many strings are struck by handheld “hammers.” Whatever all that means.
