Zither
The zither, from the Latin cithăra and this from the Greek κιθάρα (transliterated, quizara or kizara) is a stringed instrument made of wood. Belonging to the family of plucked string instruments, similar to the lyre or the hand harp. In Ancient Greece, its use was associated with the cult of Apollo, as opposed to the aulós, associated with the cult of Dionysus, and therefore it was considered a more "noble" than the one associated with the god of passions and instincts.
This is also the name given to an ancient instrument with plucked metal strings, tuned in pairs (like the lute) but with a flat back like the guitar; in fact, the name guitar comes from citara. An older name is the Italian cítole, though the British poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti in his poem "The Blessed Maiden" infers that they are different instruments. Another English designation such as gittern apparently does not refer to the zither, but is an Old English name for the guitar (or another very similar instrument).
If the Aramaic word qath‧róhs is related to the Greek word kithá‧ra (stringed instrument), from which the Spanish word “citara” is derived, among several others, this is a transliteration that approximates the original expression. The qath‧róhs was one of the instruments in Nebuchadnezzar's orchestra. (Daniel 3:5, 7, 10, 15)
The zither is also a stringed instrument that is held on the knees, on a table, and is plucked. Some strings can be stepped on (as in today's guitar) and others have a fixed height and are used for accompaniment. It is a folk instrument from Central Europe. The name of this instrument should not be confused with that of the sitâr, with a long neck and a variable number of strings that belongs to a different group, that of the lutes.
Modernly it has a trapezoidal shape and the number of its strings varies from 20 to 30 and is played with a pick or plectrum. It is larger than the violin, although there are different sizes. As a curious fact, it should be noted that this instrument was made known in Venezuela by different manufacturers, only as an instrument for musical learning, receiving the trade name Arpa Viajera, a term attributed to the Venezuelan musician and composer Hugo Blanco who marketed it under that name.
Yuri Landman has created the Moodswinger, a 12-string resonant electric zither with a third bridge. On the other hand, the film theme of The Third Man, composed and performed by Anton Karas, is one of the most famous compositions originally written for zither of all time.
History and development
Although there is evidence that a kanun was found in Mycenaean Greece, dating to 1600 B.C. C., the oldest known instrument of the zither family is a Chinese guqin, a fretless instrument, found in the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng dating to 433 B.C. Similar instruments with this design were developed over the following centuries, for example the Japanese silk-stringed koto, the Indonesian gamelan siter; the qānūn (or kanun) of Greece and the Middle East; the valiha, a tube zither from Madagascar; and many others. The growing interest in 'world music' has given greater recognition to these other members of the zither family, both ancient and modern. Many of these instruments have been electronically sampled, and are available in Instrument Banks for Music Synthesizers.
In Europe and other regions further north and west, early zithers were more like the modern dulcémele, with long, usually rectangular soundboards with one or more melody strings and several fretless drone strings. Some of them employed movable bridges similar to those of the Japanese koto, used to retune the strings of the strings. The Alpine Scheitholt is an example of this type of older European zither. In the late 18th century century, two main varieties of European concert zithers were developed, known as the Salzburg zither (with one rounded side facing away from the player), and the Mittenwald zither (with both sides rounded). Both styles are still found on concert zithers today, although the Salzburg style has become by far the most common.
The zither became a popular musical instrument in Bavaria and Austria, and by the early 19th century, it was known such as Volkszither.
The Viennese zither player Johann Petzmayer (1803-1884) became one of the foremost virtuosos of 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 to the cycle of fifths, and chromatically fretting the fingerboard - effectively turning a rather crude folk instrument into the concert zither. However, his ideas did not become widely accepted until 1862, when the Munich luthier Max Amberger made a new zither based on Weigel's design. Within a relatively short time, the new design had largely replaced the old folk zither (although it still went by the same name among folk musicians) throughout central Europe, especially in the Alpine countries. Like "concert zither" it also began to attract the attention of serious composers, some of whom became virtuosos on the concerto zither. These composers, called "Altmeister", flourished between 1870 and 1910. And none other than a composer like Johann Strauss II he gave the instrument a featured 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 took place between the late 19th century and the early 20th century, when it was very fashionable as a parlor instrument in many homes. During this period, several US-based instrument manufacturers, many of them founded or staffed by European (especially German and Austrian) luthiers, produced concert zithers. String zithers were often marketed under confusing brand names, such as "guitar zither" or "mandolin zither". Recently rediscovered recordings of gospel singer Washington Phillips, who used two instruments simultaneously, have revealed the virtuoso ability of the chord zither to modern musicians seeking to revive it. By the 1920s, this popularity had begun to wane, as other stringed instruments (particularly guitars) rose in popularity along with the new craze for jazz music.
In the 1950s, interest in zithers resurfaced, largely due to the success of the 1949 British film noir The Third Man. The music for the film's soundtrack - featuring only a concert zither (no other instruments) - was performed by the Viennese musician Anton Karas. His & # 34; The Third Man Theme & # 34; it was released as a single in 1949-50 and became a UK bestseller. Upon its US release in 1950, it spent eleven weeks at number one on the US Billboard chart. Best Sellers in Stores Chart from April 29 to July 8. The exposure made Karas an international star. A trailer for the film from Time magazine claimed that "the famous musical score by Anton Karas" would have the public & # 34; in suspense with his zither & # 34;.
This newfound popularity of the zither lasted well into the 1960s, with many hit albums made during the period by players such as Karas, Ruth Welcome, and Shirley Abicair. German-American Ruth Welcome released several popular zither albums between 1958 and 1965 (for example, Romantic Zither; Zither South of the Border; Zither Goes to Hollywood). Australian-born singer Shirley Abicair popularized the chord zither when she used it as an accompaniment on her television shows, live performances, and recordings in Britain in the 1950s and 1960s. The zither music was also featured in an episode of Twilight Zone - Mr Bevis in 1960.
Although interest in the zither began to wane in the late 1960s, due to the two American vogues many used instruments can still be found, in various states of disrepair. It has become a cliché that most zithers seen today are 60 or 110 years old. Currently (2019), only a few Central European independent luthiers and makers produce new instruments.
Alpine zither
One of the earliest descriptions of a zither instrument in the Alpine region comes from the Swiss Thomas Platter (1499-1582). He reports that in his youth he laid strings on a splint, made a bridge under it, and fingered the strings. In "Syntagma musicum" (1619) by Michael Praetorius, an instrument of this type is mentioned under the term firewood or logs. An instrument by Brixen dated 1675, it is in the shape of a long rectangle with two playing and two accompaniment strings and a fingerboard with 14 frets. Only at the end of the 18th century began intensive efforts to modernize the instrument type, mainly in the Salzburg area and in Mittenwald.
Johann Petzmayer was instrumental in the success story of the instrument in the 19th century. Born in Zistersdorf in 1803 he grew up in Vienna as the son of an innkeeper and first learned to play the violin, then at the age of 16 he also learned the zither. His zither had three melodies and 15 backing strings and was the instrument of choice on his extensive concert tours. On his second tour of Germany in 1836/37, he was heard in Bavaria by the Bavarian Duke Max, who then engaged Petzmayer as a private tutor and awarded him the title of chamber virtuoso in 1838. In the same year, Nikolaus Weigel (of Giesing, near Munich) published his Theoretical-practical school of zither. In 1838 Petzmayer accompanied Duke Max on a trip through Italy and Greece to visit King Otto. In Egypt he made music at the foot of the pyramids and composed the Nilfahrt waltz on a boat trip to Aswan. The love of folklore during the Biedermeier period caused the zither to flourish in Central Europe with a development into a bourgeois parlor instrument ("The Little Man's Piano"). Finally, at the end of the 19th century, the instruments were made in large numbers and exported all over the world, while founded "zither clubs" throughout Germany, some of which still exist today.
Concert zither
In terms of instrumentation, the earlier high zither was replaced by a so-called alto zither or "elegy" by Georg Tiefenbrunner in 1851, an instrument with a longer scale and a different tuning (1 quart lower). The first concert zither of the current design with an extended scale was built in 1862 by Max Amberger in Munich. Around 1930, Adolf Meinel (1872-1953) in Markneukirchen builds a fifth zither (1 fifth higher) and a bass zither (1 octave lower), the great tradition of making zithers was continued by his son Adolf Richard Meinel (1910-2009) and then by his daughter Ulrike Meinel (* 1952).
The last major innovations in zither-making occurred in the 20th century, most notably with the development of a zither "in the form of a psaltery" by Ernst Volkmann (Ingolstadt). Volkmann incorporated his knowledge of violin making. With a stretched top for the body and the sometimes enormous lengthening of the scales, he gave his instruments a powerful and assertive sound, which is particularly advantageous for playing baroque transcriptions and contemporary music. With his changes, Ernst Volkmann reacted to the further development of playing technique, literature and the changing needs of professional players. Numerous instrument makers have taken his design and further developed it in his own way.
The concert zither family includes four instruments that differ in terms of pitch and construction. The commonly used zither is called a treble zither. The alto (a quarter lower) and the low zither (an octave lower) are derived from this. The rarer fifth zither is a fifth tuned higher than the high zither. The different types are often played together in an ensemble (as chamber music or in larger ensembles), with each instrument also being used as a solo instrument. With the exception of the high zither, the instruments are transposed: high zither in G (low), low zither in octaves in C (low), fifth zither in G (high). The entire range of pitches is transposed, the respective pitch range of the instruments varying between five and a half octaves and four and a half octaves.
Performance Techniques
The zither is played by plucking the strings while resting on a table (which acts as a resonator to amplify the sound), or it can be held on the lap.
On concert and alpine zithers, the melody strings are pressed against the fingerboard ("fretted") with the fingers of the left hand, and plucked with a pick on the right thumb. The first and second fingers of the right hand pluck the accompaniment and bass strings, and the third finger of the right hand plucks the double bass strings (there are variations on this technique).
The concept of the stringed zither is different from that of concert and alpine zithers. These instruments can have anywhere from 12 to 50 (or more) strings, depending on the design. All strings are played open, in the manner of a harp. The strings on the left are arranged in groups of three or four, which form various chords played with the left hand. The strings on the right are single strings (or pairs of strings) intended for the right hand to play the melody. The tuning can vary greatly from one manufacturer to another and even from one model to another, but it is usually indicated on the instrument itself, in the form of a painted table or glued under the strings.
Contenido relacionado
Rick Husband
Bartolome de las Casas
London