The zither is a musical string instrument, mainly used in folk music. Like many other string 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, the fretted ("concert") zithers and fretless zithers. A musician that plays them is called zitherist or zither player. (For much more on fretless zithers, see the external link below.)
The name zither may be derived from the arabic word kithara (قيثارة), an instrument from classical times used in Ancient Greece and later throughout the Roman Empire.
In entertainment, the zither is perhaps most famous for its role in providing the soundtrack of the classic film noir The Third Man. It is also used by multi-instrumentalist Laraaji on the third release of Brian Eno's Ambient series, Ambient 3: Day of Radiance. In more popular music, Shirley Abicair, the well known Australian born singer, popularised the zither when she used it widely as accompaniment in her popular TV shows, live performances and recordings in Britain in the 1950's and 1960's. Today, Jerusalem-based multi-instrumentalist Bradley Fish has the most widely distributed musical loops of various zithers in a multitude of styles on Sony Digital Pictures.
The word zither is also used to describe a large family of stringed instruments in which the strings do not extend beyond the sounding box. This family includes the hammered dulcimer, the psalteries, and the Appalachian dulcimer.
See also
Sources
- Zither from the University of Michigan School of Information's CHICO project
External links
- "Fretless Zithers" (history, family tree, photos, and more)