Scheitholt: German musical instrument

The scheitholt is a traditional German stringed musical instrument and an ancestor of the modern zither. The instrument is in the family of drone zithers.

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The musical instrument may have derived from the old Greek musical instrument for theoretical education in physic and music, the monochord as so called. The name of the musical instrument referred to a firewood that is cut into logs. Since the 16^th century, the musical instrument came to be known by the name, assumingly because it has an analogous shape or size. The best recorded description of this musical instrument in by Michael in the year 1619. A number of regional name for the musical instrument exist. In the northern part of Germany, the musical instrument is always called ‘hummel’. In the Bavarian/Austrian region, the musical instrument can be traced back to the 14^th century. Analogous musical instruments are seen in some other parts of the Northern Europe; in America, the musical instrument assumingly was brought to Pennsylvania by the German settlers and spread into the Appalachian mountain province, where the instrument is now called Appalachian dulcimer. The original scheitholt often is made up of a wooden sound box about 50 cm long and 5 cm wide. The musical instrument has a simple peg head and two or three strings. Rather than brass, the strings of the musical instrument were often produced of simple materials like the hairs of animal, the gut or waxed linen. In the usual sense, a fingerboard was missing from the instrument, but wires were set in the wood under the strings as the frets. Starting in the 16^th century and the 17^th century, the scheitholt had three to four strings. In the further development of the instrument, the size of the sound box was increased, and an independent fingerboard was gummed on.

The scheitholt was performed in an analogous way with the zither. The instrument was placed horizontally on a table or the thighs, the left hand of the player pressed the strings of the musical instrument with a wooden stick while the thumb and the index finger of the player plucked the strings directly or with a horn or wooden plectrum. Some strings of the instrument functioned as the drone. The musical instrument was played well into the 19^th century in the alpine provinces, in the southern part of Germany, in northern part of the country, in the Oberlausitz and in the Erz Mountain.