An onomatopoeic name (probably derived from hommelen (Dut.): ‘to hum’ or ‘buzz’) for a partly fretted box zither used in the Low Countries and adjacent parts of Germany, and in Scandinavia (see illustration). The hommel may have been developed in the Netherlands from the smaller and less dynamically powerful Scheitholt and Epinette de Vosges, which examples from the early 17th century greatly resemble; in later instruments shape and stringing were not standardized. Hommels have been trapeziform, rectangular, and in the shape of a fiddle, viol or half bottle. Some have a superimposed fretboard or fretbox (the latter, sometimes called a second soundbox in the Low Countries, is also found in Appalachian dulcimers) and up to 12 bourdons arranged in double or triple courses and attached to metal wrest pins instead of wooden pegs. The fretted strings are stopped and all the strings sounded by the same methods as on the épinette de Vosges; there is evidence, however, of hommels having sometimes been bowed in Friesland and the province of Holland. Some forms, with local names such as vlier, blokviool, krabber and pinet, are still played in Belgium and reproductions of earlier hommels are often used in modern folk groups in the Netherlands.
See also Low Countries, §II, 3.
C. Douwes: Grondig ondersoek van toonen der musijk (Franeker, 1699/R)
S. Walin: Die schwedische Hummel (Stockholm, 1953)
F.J. de Hen: ‘Folk Instruments of Belgium, Part One’, GSJ, xxv (1972), 87–132
H. Boone: ‘De hommel in de Lage Landen’, Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments Bulletin, v (1975) [special issue, incl. Eng. and Fr. summaries]
A. Pilipczuk: ‘Die “Hummeln” in Schleswig-Holstein, Vierlanden und Niedersachsen’, Lichtwerk-Heft, no.63 (1998), 27–33
For further bibliography see Zither.
JOAN RIMMER