The term ‘Dulcem’, if I am not mistaken is a Latin word (and several Latin-ophiles in the band will enjoy correcting me if I am) meaning ’soft’ or ‘gentle’. ‘Sweet’, is another possible substitution. Clearly a versatile adjective. We chose it for the title as a tribute for our favorite minstrel-era composer, Stephen Foster, who (obviously) composed a song of the same name, and was fond of the word, using it in a few other ditties. BTW, the proper pronunciation of the word is: Dul-sum. The ‘c’ is soft, not hard, thus subtly adding by its sibilance to its literal meaning .

‘Wellumscope?’ Why, old hoss, dat would be’s a fieldhand’s (read slave’s) attempt at pronouncing the word ‘telescope’. At least that was the certainly less than culturally sensitive contemporary white minstrel performer’s concept of what a slave might call such an instrument. One can only wonder what damage a minstrel-man, finding himself in the midst of ‘darkest’ (as it used to be called) Africa, might inflict on the local dialect’s pronunciation of say, the African word for ‘elephant’, or ‘rhinocerous’.

In any case, George, there it is. Late, but better, as they say, than never. Of course, you are certainly to be forgiven if you have long since given up and gone home…

We’ll try to do better in future.