Zither
Zither is a class of stringed instruments, and the term also refers to a specific subset of instruments of the zither class, most usually the concert or Alpine zithers. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body.
Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, the term refers to a larger family of similarly shaped instruments that also includes the hammered dulcimer family and piano and a few rare bowed instruments like the bowed psaltery, bowed dulcimer, and streichmelodion. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber, but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty.
In modern usage the term "zither" usually refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither, its variant the Alpine zither, and the chord zither.
Concert and Alpine zithers are traditionally found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, Alpine Europe, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Emigration from these areas during the 19th century introduced the concert and Alpine zither to North and South America. Chord zithers similar to the instrument in the photograph also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern.
Etymology
The word "zither" is derived from Latin cythara, which was used in this form for the title covers on many 16th- and 17th-century German-printed manuscript books originally for the 'cittern' – from the Greek word kithara, an instrument used in Ancient Greece.The German scholar Michael Praetorius mentions an Englishman who came to Germany with a small cittern, einem kleinen Citterlein, in his treatise Syntagma Musicum, published during the early 17th century. It is not fully understood how "zitter" or "zither" came to be applied to the instruments in this article as well as German varieties of the cittern.
Other types of zither also existed in Germany, mostly drone zithers like the scheitholt or hummel, but these generally have their own individual regional names and may have been in use before the introduction into the lexicon of 'cythara' and its German derivative cognate.
Organology
The Hornbostel–Sachs system, an academic instrument classification method, also uses the term zither to classify all stringed instruments in which the strings do not extend beyond the sounding box. Categories include Bar zithers, tube zithers, raft zithers, board zithers, trough zithers and frame zithers.According to Sachs:
The strings may be open or stopped, it may be a psaltery or a dulcimer.
This includes such diverse instruments as the hammered dulcimer, psaltery, Appalachian dulcimer, guqin, guzheng, tromba marina, koto, gusli, kanun, kanklės, kantele, kannel, kokles, valiha, gayageum, geomungo, ajaeng, đàn tranh, autoharp, santoor, yangqin, santur, swarmandal, and others. Pedal steel guitars, lap guitars, and keyboard instruments like the clavichord, harpsichord and piano also fall within this broad categorical use.
The word has also been used in conjunction with brand varieties of other string instruments, for example, the zither banjo.
History and development
The earliest known surviving 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. Similar instruments along this design were developed over the following centuries, for example, the Japanese silk-strung koto; the siter of Indonesian gamelans; the qānūn of Greece and the Middle East; the valiha, a tube zither of Madagascar; and many others. Increasing interest in "world music" has brought wider recognition to these other zither family members, both ancient and modern. Many of these instruments have been sampled electronically and are available in instrument banks for music synthesizers.In Europe and other more northern and western regions, early zithers were more similar to the modern mountain dulcimer, having long, usually rectangular, sound boxes, with one or more melody strings and several unfretted drone strings. Some of these employed movable bridges similar to the Japanese koto, used for retuning the drone strings. The Alpine Scheitholt furnishes an example of this older type of European zither. By the late 18th century, two principal varieties of European concert zither had developed, known as the Salzburg zither, and the Mittenwald zither. Both styles are still found in concert zithers today, although the Salzburg style has become by far the most common.
File:009 Landleute bei Aussee in Steiermark.jpg|thumb|Zitherist before 1850 in Ausseerland, Styria, playing a Salzburg-style instrument
The zither became a popular folk music instrument in Bavaria and Austria and, at the beginning of the 19th century, was known as a Volkszither.
Viennese zitherist Johann Petzmayer became one of the outstanding virtuosi on these early instruments and is credited with making the zither a household instrument.
In 1838, Nikolaus Weigel of Munich conceived the idea of adopting fixed bridges, adding additional strings, tuning them in the cycle of fifths, and chromatically fretting the fingerboard – effectively converting a rather crude folk instrument into the concert zither. His ideas were not, however, widely accepted until 1862, when luthier Max Amberger of Munich fabricated a new zither based on Weigel's design. At this point the zither had reached something very close to its modern concert form. Within a relatively short time the new design had largely replaced the old Volkszither throughout central Europe, particularly in the Alpine countries. As the 'concert zither' it also began to attract the attention of serious composers, a number of whom, themselves, became concert zither virtuosi. These composers, called the "Altmeister", flourished between 1870 and 1910. And no less a composer than Johann Strauss II gave the instrument a prominent solo in one of his most famous waltzes, "Tales from the Vienna Woods".
The zither went through two periods of great popularity in the United States. The first of these was in the late 19th through early 20th century, when it was greatly in vogue as a parlour instrument in many homes. During that period, a number of U.S.-based instrument manufacturers, many of them founded by, or staffed with, European luthiers, were producing concert zithers. Chord zithers were often marketed under confusing brand names like 'guitar zither' or 'mandoline zither'. The recently rediscovered recordings of the gospel singer Washington Phillips, who used two instruments simultaneously, have revealed the virtuosic capability of the chord zither to modern musicians seeking to revive it. By the 1920s, this popularity had begun to wane, as other string instruments increased in popularity along with the new fashion for jazz music.
In the 1950s, interest in zithers resurfaced due in great measure to the success of the 1949 British film noir The Third Man. The soundtrack music for the film, which featured only a concert zither – was performed by the Viennese musician Anton Karas. His "The Third Man Theme" was released as a single in 1949–50 and became a best-seller in the UK. Following its release in the U.S. in 1950, it spent eleven weeks at number one on Billboard
This new popularity for the zither lasted until well into the 1960s with many successful albums during the period from performers such as Karas, Ruth Welcome, and Shirley Abicair. German-born American Ruth Welcome released a number of very popular theme-based zither albums between 1958 and 1965. Australian-born singer Shirley Abicair popularised the chord zither when she used it for accompaniment in her TV shows, live performances and recordings in Britain in the 1950s and '60s. Zither music also featured in a Twilight Zone episode – Mr Bevis in 1960.
Although interest in the zither had once more begun to wane by the late 1960s, owing to the two American vogues there are still many used instruments to be found, in various states of disrepair. It has become something of a truism that most zithers seen today are either 60 or 110 years old. Currently only a few independent luthiers and mid-European makers are producing new instruments.
Concert and Alpine zithers
A concert zither may have from 29 to 38 strings, with 34 or 35 being most typical. These are arranged as follows: four or five fretted melody strings, placed above a guitar-like fretboard; 12 unfretted "accompaniment" strings; followed by 12 unfretted "bass" strings; followed by a varying number of "contrabass" strings, with five or six being the most common number.On some older zithers, one may find "half-frets" above the 12th fret, which extend only under the first two or three strings. This results in the lower fretted strings having no pitches available above the 12th fret, while the higher fretted strings still have higher chromatic pitches available at these half-frets. Nearly all instruments made after 1960, however, have full-length frets all the way up the fretboard.
Anton Karas and Ruth Welcome used instruments of similar design to the one illustrated. After World War II, Karas performed on an instrument of larger dimensions than normal – with a 43 cm standard scale length for the fingerboard strings. He used Viennese tuning, but with an altered chromatic sequence for the fingerboard and open strings. The accompaniment strings G and F were tuned an octave higher, while contrabass strings tuned E, F, D, E, C replaced the regular cycle of fifths bass strings. This brought the contrabasses closer to the fingerboard where the player could reach them more easily.
For The Third Man, Karas tuned the zither a semi-tone lower, giving a particularly distinctive tone to the contrabass strings. The resulting lower string tension also enabled Karas to perform an expressive vibrato on the fingerboard melody strings. Film director Carol Reed,, described the sound as "gritty and dirty", perfectly reflecting the atmospheric mood of the film.
Image:MIDPTR 619a 2005 rotated contrast-enhanced.jpg|thumb|An Alpine Zither. Note the "harp post" at the top of the image.
The Alpine zither has 42 strings, and differs from the concert zither primarily in requiring the addition of an extension to the body of the instrument to support both the longer additional contrabass strings and their tuners.
Alpine zithers are tuned in a similar manner to the concert zither, with the accompaniment and bass strings each providing a full set of 12 chromatic pitches also arranged in a cycle of fifths. Contrabass strings are arranged in a descending chromatic scale. Late 19th and early 20th century versions of the instrument were often called 'harp zithers' – so-named because the pillar extension seemed a miniature version of the harp's pillar. The extra contrabass strings ran parallel to the other strings on these earlier instruments, the diagonal arrangement illustrated developed later to assist the right hand in reaching the strings.
There are two popular tunings for the modern zither: Munich and Viennese. The zither tuning chart below gives tuning details, including pitches and octaves. Munich tuning is on top, and Vienna tuning below. Some players have used Vienna tuning only for the fretted strings, and Munich tuning for the unfretted strings. Full Viennese tuning is normally used only on instruments with 38 or fewer strings. However Optima makes strings to allow for "Extended Viennese Tuning" w/ 42 strings going all the way down to C#1.