Main board: Mein Harpfen ist mir zerbrochen - My harp is broken

The song "My harp is broken" appears in collections of Swiss Anabaptist songs towards the end of the 17th century. The broken harp, a symbol of mourning, appears in several songs from that time.

Walter Laedrach makes it sound in the tower of Trachselwald in his novel Passion in Bern:

My harp is broken
When I want to sing.
The gloom has fallen on me
That it will not sound.
But to whom shall I complain
Then to my dear God,
He makes me not despair,
He helps me out of all distress.

^{Caption: Ein Geistliches Lieder-Büchlein,gedruckt in diesem Jahr (printed “this year” (private collection).}