The modern Alpine zither.

The present form of the south German and Austrian instruments that are generally known simply as zithers dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Structurally they have the same elements as other fretted zithers (a box, fretted melody strings and open strings), but their playing technique is distinct. The five chromatically fretted metal melody strings, which are usually tuned by machine screws, are individually finger-stopped with the left hand and plucked with a plectrum attached to the right thumb; the remaining fingers of the right hand select individual notes or chords from the open gut or nylon strings (numbering perhaps 30 or more and tuned by metal wrest-pins).

The early forms of the modern zither, known as Kratzzithern, were played in the same way as the Scheitholt (see §3 below), although they have differently shaped bodies. The crucial innovation was that the frets were no longer anchored directly to the box but placed on a fingerboard stuck to it (fig.3) These early zithers derived their names from the manner of playing, which was to ‘scratch’ (kratzen) or strum with a horn plectrum, a quill or the like. One Kratzzither type, the Raffelzither (‘grater zither’), had a fingerboard but no accompanying strings; another had a curved body and octave strings with shorter scalings fitted to a wrest plank of their own, the Oktävchen or Trompeterl.

The Schlagzither (struck zither; fig.4) differed from the Scheitholt and Kratzzither types in the abandonment of bourdon tuning and in the technique of striking the strings separately with the fingers and a plectrum on the thumb. The fingerboards of both the Kratzzither and the Schlagzither have partly diatonic fret patterns, usually producing a major scale beginning with the lower fourth. To increase the musical possibilities open to the Kratzzither, some were made with two or three differently scaled fingerboards on the same body (fig.5). Sections tuned a 4th or 5th from each other allowed a change to another register. Such double zithers are still used in Switzerland, known as Schwyzer Zither.

The body shape of some modern zithers is analogous to that of guitars or citterns (the ‘Mittenwald’ form); others imitate the structure of keyboard instruments with transverse stringing (such as the spinet and clavichord), with the rounded projection on the side furthest from the player (the ‘Salzburg’, ‘Hallein’ or ‘Pinzgau’ form). The ‘Salzburg’ has become the more usual. There were many attempts to improve the zither’s acoustics and structure. The Luftresonanzzither (‘air resonance zither’), attributed to Johann Jobst of Graz around 1890, had a second soundhole located above the wrest plank; the special structure of the wrest plank and fingerboard was intended to reduce their vibration-damping effects. The Harfenzither (‘harp zither’) had a pillar (the Baronstange) between the wrest plank and the middle of the body.

In the modern zither the accompanying strings are tuned in 4ths and 5ths. Initially, many different tunings existed; a few standard tunings were established in the late 19th century (Table 1). Various efforts were made to devise an arrangement that would be both physiologically practicable for the right hand and based on functional harmony. Nikolaus Weigel (Theoretischpraktische Zitherschule, 2/1844) was the first to call for a 28-string zither having a complete chromatic fingerboard, and for the accompanying strings to be tuned in 4ths and 5ths on the basis of the circle of 5ths. Different regional tunings of the melody strings subsequently came into use. ‘Stuttgart tuning’ (e''–e''–a'–d'–g–c), probably developed by the Stuttgart instrument maker Lorenze Kriner, was in use until the early 20th century. For ‘Munich tuning’ (a'–a'–d'–g–c), the accompanying strings are notated up an octave in the treble clef; both this system and ‘Vienna tuning’ (a'–d'–g'–g–c) are still used. Normal modern tuning for the 40–42 string zither is shown in Table 1. The tuning of the ‘Perfekta’ zither (fig.7) superimposes the third circle of 5ths on the second, thus better accommodating the span of the hand. In the ‘Reform’ zither (see fig.6) the first five strings of the fifth circle of 5ths are placed under the strings of the second circle, passing over a bridge about 2 to 3 mm lower. In the ‘Ideal-Reform’ zither there are additional strings in the first and second circle of 5ths passing over a second lower bridge. These modifications decreased the distance between the outer strings of the third circle of 5ths and the fingerboard. The transformation of the zither into a concert instrument and the construction of an entire zither family began in the mid-19th century, only a few years after the introduction of the new tuning system. Concert zithers differ from their predecessors in having a fully chromatic fingerboard with 29 frets, and in the enlarged scaling of the fingerboard strings (while the stringing remains unchanged). The modern zither family, whose earliest member is the Altzither (1851), is described in Table 2.

Zither

Other fretted zithers.

While iconographical evidence suggests that unfretted box zithers were used in Europe from at least the 12th century (see Psaltery), zithers with one or more fretted strings have been used extensively in some form or other in most of Europe except the British Isles, Italy and the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas. They appear to be of north-west European development, and have not been traced back much further than the 16th century. Since zithers with one or more stopped strings and several bourdons existed previously in eastern Asia, the idea may have been brought to Europe after European merchants had visited the East in the 16th century. The large number of regional variants in Europe and the circumstances in which they have developed provide a striking example of non-evolutionary history. Although a rectangular instrument with few strings seems to have been the earliest, there has been no universal change towards larger and more complex forms. Rather, different forms seem attributable to different situations. Chronology cannot be consistently established, and terminology can be variable, even within small areas.

Among 31 angel musicians in a fresco from 1560 in the church of Rynkeby in Denmark, there is one playing a long, narrow, rectangular zither, stopping one of its strings with two left-hand fingers and striking with the right-hand fingers (see fig.8). The instrument is much longer than the brass-strung Scheitholt (‘wooden log’) depicted in Praetorius’s De organographia (1618) and called by him a disreputable (lumpen) instrument. This had one melody string with 18 frets beneath it, set directly into the box, and two or three bourdon strings – one tuned to the same pitch as the melody string, another hooked down at a third of its length (thus giving a 5th higher), and an optional one an octave above the first. All were tuned by laterally set, hand-turned wooden pegs. The melody string was stopped against the frets by a small rod held in the left hand, and the right-hand thumb struck across all the strings. A Danish schoolmaster, Hans Mikkelsen Ravn, mentioned in his Heptachordum danicum (1646) an instrument called ‘langeleg’, somewhat like a monochord and played by peasants. In Norway in the 17th century, an instrument called ‘langspil’ was referred to by Anders Arrebo, who described it as being between a crwth and a Hackbrett and used for ballad tunes. In 1699 the Friesian organist-pedagogue Claas Douwes described the noardske Balke as an instrument of some 60 to 90 cm, with three or four strings and diatonic frets under the melody string, the rest being unison-tuned bourdons; some players used a rod for stopping and a plectrum for striking, others stopped with the left-hand thumb and sounded the strings with a bow. The earliest known use of this name is in 1660; in Reynvaan’s Muzikalwordenboek (1795) it was synonymous with hommel (‘drone’). In Iceland in 1772, a Swedish traveller, Uno van Trojel, noted a bowed langspil with six brass strings; presumably these were in three double courses. In 1809 W.J. Hooker was more specific about technique and use:

… Danish and Icelandic songs … which she accompanied with tunes upon the Lang-spil … It is usually played with a bow of horsehair … but the Etatstroed’s daughter frequently made use only of her fingers, as with a guitar … she pressed the end of her thumb upon the wires, moving it up and down to produce the different modifications of sound.

Apart from some instruments of conservative styling, such as the Epinette de Vosges, most modern fretted zithers have elements of structure and technique derived from sources other than these three- or four-string instruments. In the Norwegian langeleik and the Appalachian dulcimer, strings are still generally tuned by lateral wooden pegs. The langeleik, however, has up to ten bourdons, three of the short ones sometimes being set in a second pegbox at the opposite end from the main one, and pyramid-shaped individual bridges (see Norway, II, 3, fig.2). Its playing technique includes the use of three fingers on the melody string, enabling the player to produce the elaborate characteristic Norwegian gracing, and stylized rhythmic striking patterns executed with a flexible plectrum. Virtually all other fretted zithers have strings fixed to sagittal iron wrest pins tuned with a key; on some instruments melody strings are tuned by machine heads.

Like the langeleik, the kisfejes citera (the characteristic Hungarian instrument) has some bourdons set in separate pegboxes, but they are always at the same end as the main pegbox; both rod and finger-stopping are used and plectra range from quills or wood to flexible plastic. Those zoomorphic- or anthropomorphic-headed instruments with many courses are the most spectacular of European zithers (see fig.9). Rectangular instruments resembling the Scheitholt are considered by some scholars to be fairly new to Hungary; it is this type that is now sometimes electronically amplified. Terminology in central Europe is shifting: in the Hungarian plains the kisfejes citera was often called ‘tambura’, a term that could also denote a small ‘zitherized’ lute, while in Czechoslovakia the zither name is ‘kobza’, which in Romania denotes a true lute.

Not all zithers are plucked. Bowing has been an occasional alternative sounding method for fretted zithers that were generally plucked or struck. A few true bowed zithers have also been known in Europe. The Streichmelodion and Schossgeige were four-string instruments invented in the late 19th century in south German and Austrian regions, where they are still used to a small extent; they might well be described as zitherized fiddles and guitars. Baltic fretted monochords are also classified as a kind of zither. They consisted of a single string over a long, tapering box with 28 or 30 chromatic frets, generally with the note names painted in. Such an instrument was known as Psalmodikon in Sweden, versikannel in Karel'skaya ASSR, mollpill in Estonia and diga in Latvia; it was popular in the 19th century as an aid in teaching singing and for playing regional and religious songs. Unfretted bowed zithers have included the Trumscheit and the Icelandic fidhla (see Iceland, fig.1), both now extinct. A two-string bowed zither was formerly played by some of the indigenous peoples of Mexico: this may have been imported in the early Colonial period for teaching purposes.

See also Iceland, §II, 1, and Norway, §3. For unfretted zithers, see Harp zither.

Zither

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