zither

Concert zither, with a fretted fingerboard

Electric Drum Zither of Liam Finn

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, the southern regions of Germany, alpine Europe and East Asian cultures, including China. The term "citre" is also used more broadly, to describe the entire family of stringed instruments in which the strings do not extend beyond the sounding box, including the hammered dulcimer, psaltery, Appalachian dulcimer, guqin, guzheng (Chinese zither), koto, kantele, gayageum, đàn tranh, kanun, autoharp, santoor, yangqin, piano, harpsichord, santur, swarmandal, and others. Modern electric zithers exist, as well as a wide variation of experimental zithers like the Kitaras of Harry Partch, the Shruti Stick and the Moodswinger.

Etymology and instrument family

Zither player in Maribor, Slovenia

The word "citara" is derived from the Greek word kithara, an instrument from classical times used in Ancient Greece and later throughout the Roman Empire and in the Arab world (Arabic قيثارة); the word "guitar" derives from "kithara" as well.

History and development

While the term zither is mentioned in Daniel during the Jewish exile of 606 BC, the earliest known instrument of the zither family is a Chinese guqin, [a fretless instrument,] found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng dating from 433 BC, featuring tuning pegs, a bridge and goose-like feet.^[1] Although it was mentioned in literature, it seemed that its popularity faded a long time ago while other kinds of instrument increased in popularity. Recently, the instrument seems to have regained some degree of popularity. Certain pieces of written music for the guqin hves survived from ancient times. One of these pieces was played by a famous Chinese guqin player to represent Chinese music and was recorded, along with other representative musical pieces of other countries, and sent into space.

In modern entertainment, the zither is perhaps most famous for its role in the soundtrack, especially in the opening scene of the classic noir film The Third Man. The music for the film was played by Anton Karas.

The instrument has a prominent solo in one of Johann Strauss II's most famous waltzes, "Tales from the Vienna Woods" (sometimes played on a Mandolin, when a zither is not available). It is also used by multi-instrumentalist Laraaji on the third release of Brian Eno's ambient music series, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. In more popular music, Australian-born singer Shirley Abicair popularised the zither when she used it widely as accompaniment in her popular TV shows, live performances and recordings in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. More recently, Jerusalem-based multi-instrumentalist Bradley Fish has used zithers in a multitude of styles on the soundtracks of various Sony Digital Pictures films. In Slovenia, at the end of the 19th century they were used in small towns or villages and for concerts.

Like many other stringed instruments, acoustic and electric forms exist; in the acoustic version, the strings are stretched across the length of the soundbox, and neither version has a neck. They can be divided into two classes: fretted and fretless. A person who plays the zither is called a zitherist.

A fretless Musima Guitar Zither, with 45 strings (21 melody, 24 chord)

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zithers

Bibliography

• "Zither" from the University of Michigan School of Information's CHICO project

External links

• "Fretless Zithers" at MinerMusic.com (history, family tree and photos)
• FretlessZithers.com
• Zither concert video: Hungarian violin virtuoso Félix Lajkó play a zither, with singer Magdolna Rúzsa accompanying, in a folk song interpretation.
• "Zither collection of the University of Leipzig" (German)
• "Zitherist International" Zither web magazine
• "Zither US"