The zither is a stringed musical instrument, or rather, a family of instruments, with strings stretched over a flat shallow box.  Unlike the harp, the strings were not free-standing; and unlike the lyre, the zither had no yoke.  It differed from the psaltery in that the strings’ notes were determined, not by their length, but by frets, bridges, or finger pressure; it could be played by strumming, plucking with a plectrum, or striking with hammers.  Though a period instrument, we’ve found no examples of the zither in medieval heraldry.

One form of zither (in a sense, the generic zither) is a long slender soundbox with three or four strings; it’s found in a fresco in the church of Rynkeby, Denmark, c.1560 [Grove 27:858].  This form evolved into the Swiss “scheitholt”, described in Praetorius’ Syntagma Musica, 1619, and the more ornate “epinette des Vosges” of France, post-period – and eventually to the modern “Appalachian dulcimer”, so-called though not actually a dulcimer.  The modern forms are no longer registerable, pending documentation.

The “dulcimer”, in its true sense, is a specific form of zither, a broad box with many strings.  It’s a period instrument, shown in a Flemish painting Mary Queen of Heaven c.1485 [Remnant 117].  In period, the dulcimer was always played by hammering; in modern parlance, it’s best to blazon it fully as a “hammered dulcimer”.

All zithers are shown with the strings facing the viewer by default; when blazoned “proper”, they are of brown wood.  No heraldic difference is granted between the various kinds of medieval zither.

Miriel d’Estoile bears:  Per bend argent and azure, a compass star azure and in bend a feather argent and a fretted zither Or.

Cadwan Galwiddoe of Redmarch bears:  Gules, on a bend between two mullets of eight points argent, a ram’s-headed scheitholt sable, detailed gules.

Dulcinea Margarita Teresa Velasquez de Ribera bears as a badge:  A hammered dulcimer Or.

A lyre is a stringed musical instrument of the zither family, played by the ancient Greeks.  It had a sound box, with two projecting arms joined by a yoke; strings were stretched from the sound box to the yoke.  The use of the lyre was revived in the Renaissance, as a symbol of the classical arts; it was then drawn in a stylized manner (as in the illustration), unlike the actual artifact.  The lyre was a period charge, granted as a crest to the Worshipful Company of Musicians in 1604 [Bromley & Child 180].

Similar to the lyre are the “cithara”, a larger and more solidly built variant, with five to eleven strings; and the “crwth” (plural “crythau”), a Welsh instrument of similar construction.  The lyre, cithara and crwth all have the same default orientation:  strings palewise, facing the viewer, and the soundbox to base.  For related charges, see harp.

The East Kingdom Musician’s Guild bears:  Azure, in fess a panpipe argent and a cithara Or within a bordure argent.

Boadicia Artemisia bears:  Argent, a Greek lyre sable.

Fiore Pescara bears:  Gules, three lyres Or.

Rhonwen Y Clermont o’r Mwntduog bears:  Per fess indented argent and sable, five crythau three and two counterchanged gules and argent.