Doug Berch

Music, the word we use in our everyday language, is nothing less than the picture of our Beloved. It is because music is the picture of our Beloved that we love music. But the question is what is our Beloved and where is our Beloved? Our Beloved is that which is our source and our [...]

The dulcimer album is almost done and the hammered dulcimer album is in the home stretch. Mastering should begin in a few weeks.
I’ve been recording with Glenn Brown at Glenn Brown Productions in East Lansing. The sound is wonderful, true audiophile quality.

Somehow I ended up with mp3s of an album of Khmer dance music, probably a download I found somewhere online. This is amazing, high spirited music.
The instrumentation features some type of hammered dulcimer, zither, bowed instruments and percussion.
I did a web search recently to learn more about this music and learned that the recordings [...]

Yes, the Jewsaphone. This is the coolest though not the most musically useful Jew’s harp I own. I had to have one though I don’t play it often.
Perhaps the most positive aspect of owning a Jewsaphone is that it slowed down my habit of acquiring any old Jew’s harp I could get my hands [...]

As a musician who is getting back to solo performing after a long break I have found myself putting off writing copy for two brochures. One brochure is what I will send when booking concerts, the other for things like weddings, events, etc.
I have put off writing these brochures because it is always a [...]

Yesterday I recorded an instrumental version of the ballad “Reynardine” on hammered dulcimer. It is now on my “Listen” page but you can also listen to it here:
Reynardine - Hammered Dulcimer

The new album is coming along. I’ve upped a rough mix of my arrangement of a traditional North American tune called “Texas” to the “Listen” page. It features dulcimer, harmonium, Jew’s harp, tinwhistle and ankle bells. I hope you enjoy it.
As long as I’m here I may as well link to the tune directly:
Texas

The new album is coming along. I recently posted a rough mix of “The Seven Yellow Gypsies” for all to hear.
My original idea was to record arrangements that are identical to what I do when performing live; no overdubs, no guest musicians, etc.
On listening to some of the tracks I’ve recorded I’ve come [...]

I go back into the studio in a week or so to record more tracks for the album I’m working on.

I have a question. Do you prefer purchasing music on CD or by downloading? Let me know!
My plan is to make the album and each individual track available as a very high quality MP3. [...]

Athanasius Kircher wrote Musurgia Universalis in 1650. It presents his knowledge of instruments, acoustics and music theory.
There is a reproduction of the manuscript available on line in two volumes:
Musurgia Universalis Volume 1
Musurgia Universalis Volume 2