Joseph Moskowitz

Born in Romania in 1879, Joseph Moskowitz was a child prodigy who mastered the cymbalom as a boy and began playing it on Danubian riverboats at the age of 11. The cimbalom, cymbalom, or cymbalum, known in the U.S. as a hammered dulcimer, is believed to have descended from the Persian santur and to share this ancestry with the harpsichord. Played with "beaters," the large concert cimbalom (often fitted with a damping pedal) was developed in Europe during the 19th century and is known in Romania as the "tambal mare" or "great cymbalum." Moskowitz first played the instrument on U...