to the Psaltery with modulators...

Some monasteries quickly understood this link between zither and liturgy at the time of the liturgical reform, in the 1960s, and it was Brother Patrice, a monk from En Calcat, who invented modulators (levers allowing one to go from major to minor ) and transforms the folklore zither into a liturgical instrument. He added five chords and the twelve-chord psaltery was born and it’s still going strong, thank you! With these 24 classic chords, it can accompany all the tones of psalms and antiphons.

In a sense, the zither in the service of the liturgy rediscovers its original reason for being. But can’t we say the same about every musical instrument – and everything related to art and beauty? Like other instruments, but with its own charisma, the zither tells us something about God and can bere the vector by which God tells us something and by which we also address him, in joy or in tears. For what ?

Sully Prud'homme confessed him

in his poth « The agony»

You who will help me in my agony,
Don't tell me anything;
Let me hear a little harmony,
And I will die well.

Music soothes, enchants and loosens
Things from below:
Rock my pain; I beg you,
Don't talk to him.

I'm tired of words, I'm tired of hearing
Which can lie;
I like sounds better than understanding
I only have to feel;

A melody where the soul immerses itself
And who, without effort,
Will take me from delirium to dream,
From dream to death.

You who will help me in my agony,
Don't tell me anything.
To lighten up a little harmony
Will do me a lot of good.

The word is released: harmony.

This word is both a word of everyday life and a technical term designating what is called in the restricted sense the “science of chords” and more broadly everything that is the arrangement of a musical piece.

And it is very true that when we have found the right chords, and the instrument is well tuned, what we play

truly puts us in harmony internally.

It is not for nothing that the newsletter of the emerging association of friends of the zither under the leadership of Maguy was called: “

Zither and harmony

So, shall we get started?