dolceola
Illustration — Dolceola (at far right) • Illustration — Andy Cohen playing a dolceola A dolceola is a musical instrument resembling a miniature piano, but which is in fact a distinct type of zither with a keyboard. It has an unusual, angelic, music-box sound. Dolceolas were made by the Toledo Symphony Company from 1903 to 1907.
Also recorded as piano-harp
dolceola
Tashaila Nichole Meyers User:Argon233 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Field
- zither
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Illustration — Dolceola (at far right) • Illustration — Andy Cohen playing a dolceola A dolceola is a musical instrument resembling a miniature piano, but which is in fact a distinct type of zither with a keyboard. It has an unusual, angelic, music-box sound. Dolceolas were made by the Toledo Symphony Company from 1903 to 1907.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for dolceola. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q5288901 · wikipedia · Dolceola
In this article
Performers
Paul Mason Howard accompanied Lead Belly on dolceola on some of his 1944 Capitol Records sides. A listen to those recordings, collected under the title Grasshoppers In My Pillow, reveals the characteristic clatter of the dolceola's three-level keyboard action. The gospel and gospel blues musician Washington Phillips (18801954) has been said to have played a dolceola on his recordings, but his instrument was in fact called a "dulceola", and was a home-made fingered fretless zither. Alex Turner of English band Arctic Monkeys plays the dolceola on the band's 2018 album Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino. Jim Dickinson plays the dolceola in Ry Cooder’s Crossroads.
Andy Cohen playing a Dolceola. Photo taken at the North Water Street Gallery in Kent, Ohio, United States, at a concert given by Cohen for the Folk Alley 'Round Town night of the 42nd Kent State Folk Festival.
Badagnani at English Wikipedia
Fretless Zithers Garry - Harrison Collection - Guitar zithers, Keyed zithers (Dolceola, Marxophone), Autoharp, etc - Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix
Flickr: jowcol61 · Flickr: DSCF0556
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5288901: dolceola
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Dolceola”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Collectables
20,755 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Doki-Doki UniverseWork
- DokuroWork
- DōkyūseiWork
- Dōkyūsei 2Work
- DollarOrganisation
- Dollar DashWork
- dolluTerminology
- DolmenWork
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own an object connected with dolceola?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.