Psalterium: France musical instrument

A psalterium is a stringed musical instrument. The name of the instrument means the same thing as the one of psaltery. In particular usage, the name means a form of long psaltery that is tuned to give drone chords. The musical instrument that is sometimes called a stringed drum is often used as rhythm accompaniment with a form of tabor pipe. The musical instrument is also referred to as a tambourin de Bearn in French, and in Basque, it is known as ttun-ttun and as chicoten in Aragonese.

source of picture: gehirn-und-geist.de

The musical instrument is slung in the arm or over the shoulder of the player that uses the same hand to play the pipe, while he is striking the strings of the instrument with a stick that is covered with linen in the other hand. The six strings of the musical instrument are usually tuned octaves that match the keynote of the tabor pipe and can be performed pianissimo and as forte.

The musical instrument has spread widely in the western Pyrenees, and it displays the hallmark of the territory. Seemingly fabricated in the 15^th century, the instrument came into use in the Pyrenees, where it took hold. The musical instrument is well-known in the eastern most region of the Soule, where the instrument along with the three holed flute called xirula provides the required musical background for traditional dance performance and the carnival set performances that is known as maskarada that takes place annually in various villages of the former vis country.

After being discarded in the 20^th century in the western and central Pyrenees including Soule, Bearn and Bigorre, the playing of the three holed flute and the tambourin almost died after the World War II, except for the Ossau Valley in Bearn. Proof has been gathered as well that with different names like the salterio it was performed together with the flute in the early part of the 20^th century in small area of the High Aragon. The musical instrument was revived and has shown renewed vitality from the 1970s.

The musical instrument is a simple form of psaltery or zither box, produced of a wooden sound box, with strings spread from one extreme to another, lengthwise. The construction of the instrument is analogous to that of the Aeolian harp or Appalachian dulcimer. The Pyrenean version of the musical instrument has about 4 to 10 strings but the common arrangement is 3 set of 2.