Martin Luther's zither

[JH Murray]

Martin Luther is famous for starting the Protestant Reformation in 1517. He also wrote a number of hymns. He encouraged people to sing them at home. He played a zither, which was a kind of cittern, with four courses. It became so popular it was known as a Lutherzither. Today's waldzither and citterns and bouzoukis and octave mandolins share a number of similarities with this instrument. I'm doing some research on Luther's music and I have a few questions. Would he have been primarily melody or chords as he accompanied his singing? Can you point me in the direction of some examples of how songs would have been accompanied back then? I am wanting to put together a presentation and want to show how the hymns would have sounded back then. Thanks!

[Martin Jonas]

Martin Luther is famous for starting the Protestant Reformation in 1517. He also wrote a number of hymns. He encouraged people to sing them at home. He played a zither, which was a kind of cittern, with four courses. It became so popular it was known as a Lutherzither.

I'm afraid the "Lutherzither" is a late-19th century invention by Ferdinand Roese, a school teacher who designed and named this particular variant of the waldzither with an unsupported claim that Luther was a master musician on just such an instrument. Details are at the wonderful website of the Musical Instrument Museum at the University of Leipzig (Link).

The text is in German, unfortunately, but the gist is that instruments sold as "Lutherzither" were simplified version of the waldzither, with four double courses tuned either in GBDG or GCEG. In the 20th century, the name "Lutherzither" increasingly became used as simply a synonym for waldzithers of any type.

There was rather a lot of this sort of pseudo-historical reinvention going on in late 19th-century Germany -- the country was in effect reinventing itself from scratch after unification in 1871 and was desparate for deeper routes than that.

Martin

[JH Murray]

Is there any evidence that Luther played a musical instrument at all?

[Martin Jonas]

Is there any evidence that Luther played a musical instrument at all?

Yes, the lute and the transverse flute and he was also a trained singer. According to this teaching fact sheet on Luther's music, he composed the airs for his hymns on the flute. There are also quotes from him here that he preferred soft plucked strings to the penetrating tone of organ and bowed strings for church music.

Here is a nice (but non-authentic -- late 19th century again) painting of Luther playing the lute:



Martin

[JH Murray]

Thanks Martin. Well I think I can get away with using my octave mandolin as the stand in for the lute. Should be fun. Cheers!

[zedmando]

Either way--should be interesting--give us an update of how it went...