#scheitholt

Scheitholt

"historisches Saiteninstrument eine Vorstufe der Zither und ist ein Borduninstrument. Weitere Namen für das Instrument sind z.B. Hummel, Kratzzither oder Scherrzither. ... Auf der Innenseite des Instrument ist einiges vermerkt wie z.B. Das Jahr 1924 oder der Name Mariska bzw. Erika/Emika ... rund 100 Jahre alt ... Das Scheitholt hat insgesamt 17 Saiten und eine Abmessung von länge 86cm breite 12,2cm höhe 8,7cm und ein Gewicht von 1,4kg.

So let’s finish off the category of “drone zithers related to each other vaguely” this evening with the ones I haven’t gotten to yet. If you’ll recall, we have been through the epinette des Vosges, the Langeleik, and the Langspil...this is a German version called a scheitholt. The video shows it played from all sorts of angles and in different ways, and it seems a very good demonstration.

The rule with all these instruments seems to me to be that they were a peasanty sort instrument, probably quite easy to make, and not really standardized as far as size or number of strings, etc. It also makes sense to me that somebody travelling might see one and get the general idea of the thing, then take the idea back to Norway or Iceland or where-ever and make an instrument vaguely like the thing they remember seeing...hence the little variations.

#Mittelalterlicher #Country #Folk, #Duo #Dulcimus, #Blues, #Mountain #Dulcimer, #Martin #Oesterle, #Andreas #Schubert, #Kunigunde von #Klopfenstein, Ritterspiele in Pfullendorf, Turnierkämpfer zu Pferd, Vollkontakt Kämpfe, das Mittelalter in Pfullendorf, BauFachForum, Baulexikon Wilfried Berger.

Link zum Video: Duo Dulcimus in Pfullendorf bei den Ritterspielen.

Link zur Bilddatei vom BauFachForum: https://www.baufachforum.de/galerie/ritterspiele-in-pfullendorf-feuer-ritter-pferde/

Link zur Musikschule von Martin Oesterle:

www.Dulcimerschule.de,  

Link zum Musikshop von Martin Oesterle:

http://www.musik.is/Paelingin/Langspil_and_Icelandic_Fidla.pdfContinuing with zither-type instruments in the monochord family...this is a langspil from Iceland, one of its two traditional instruments (the other being a  fiðla - a sort of fiddle).  This instrument is a whole lot like the Norwegian langeleik and apparently even more like a German scheitholt. (There are a bunch of instruments all in a very similar style that seem to have spread out and become variations on that theme). Like the langeleik in Norway, the langspil can by strummed or struck with a stick/plectrum, but it can also be plucked with the fingers and also played with a short bow. Like the langeleik though, it only has one melody string and any others are drones (there is no standard size and no standard number of string, but 3 is typical). The bridge is flat so the bow plays all the strings at once (like the Welsh crwth) but the player can only fret the melody note.

The history of the langspil in Iceland reminds me of the history of the Celtic harp (and several other trad instruments I’ve read about, doing this blog) in that because of religion, politics and changing times, at one point it had nearly died out but has been reclaimed and is being made again and played by people who want to reclaim their past culture, however there is no real written music and people now have little to guide them on how it was played historically.

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I wanted to add that if you are very interested in langspils (and the fiðla) and Iceland’s musical history, here is a great page to check out:

I believe this is an archaic type of simple zither. It might be close to the German instrument called a scheitholt (another zither) which is played very similarly. 

Episode 001: Folklorist Lucy Long and luthier Ben Seymour talk about the mountain dulcimer's predecessor, the German scheitholt. Plus, Dulcimer Week in the Wallowas in Oregon.

Episode 003: We continue the exploration of the scheitholt, the predecessor of the mountain dulcimer:

What kind of music was played on the scheitholt?

Why did it fade into obscurity?

And why is there a surge of interest in the scheitholt?