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Dolceola

Dolceolas were made from 1903 to 1907 and were sold for $25 by traveling salesmen. This short-lived curiosity looks sort of like a tiny piano but is from a family of early 20th-Century instruments called fretless zithers. It has a small piano-like keyboard with hammers that strike one string per note on the right side. The left keys trigger bass strings and prearranged chord strings. The number of playable survivors is said to be fewer than 50.

Dolceolas were made from 1903 to 1907 and were sold for $25 by traveling salesmen. This short-lived curiosity looks sort of like a tiny piano but is from a family of early 20th-Century instruments called fretless zithers. It has a small piano-like keyboard with hammers that strike one string per note on the right side. The left keys trigger bass strings and prearranged chord strings. The number of playable survivors is said to be fewer than 50. The first commercial recording of the Dolceola was made in 1944 for Capitol Records' Southern Folklife Collection on which Paul Howard used one to accompany blues guitarist, Lead Belly. T-Bone Burnett has used one with Bonnie Raitt and Nashville musician Andy Cohen is one of the few virtuoso Dolceolists, today.