A partly fretted zither or bûche, related to the scheitholt, langspil, langeleik, Hommel and Appalachian dulcimer. Though probably not specifically French in origin, it was called after the French mountain region where it survived. In characteristic form, it consisted of a shallow box slightly tapered in width and with one heart-shaped and one roseate soundhole; along this five metal strings were stretched from a pegbox at the narrower left-hand end to metal pins at the wider end (see illustration). 13 to 17 metal frets in diatonic sequence were set directly in the belly under the two strings nearest the player; these were tuned in unison, approximately g', the open strings generally being tuned to combinations of Gs and Cs in the same octave or that below. The two fretted strings were stopped in unison with a small rod held in the left hand and slid from one fret to another, or in 3rds with the left-hand thumb on the nearest string, and index and middle finger together on the second. A goose quill or other flexible plectrum held in the right hand sounded all five strings with backward and forward strokes. Since the 1950s hybrid instruments incorporating features from other partly fretted zithers have also been called épinette de Vosges.
See also Low Countries, §II, 3.
C. Marcel-Dubois: ‘The Type and Nature of French Instrumental Ensembles’, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis II: Stockholm 1969, 173–83
F.J. de Hen: ‘Folk Instruments of Belgium, Part One’, GSJ, xxv (1972), 87–132, esp. 112
G. Jacques: Luthiers et grandes dames de l’epinette ajolaise (Val d’Ajol, 1983)
JOAN RIMMER