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Concert zither, with a fretted fingerboard

Liam Finn's Electric Drum Zither

The zither is a musical string instrument, most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, northwestern Croatia, 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, gusli, 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. It is played by strumming or plucking the strings like a guitar.

Etymology and instrument family[link]

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 "qithara" as well.

History and development[link]

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

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.^[1] In modern entertainment, the zither is perhaps most famous for its role in the soundtrack, especially all along the classic noir film The Third Man. The music for the film was played by Anton Karas. It is also the preferred music of Mr. Bevis, a Twilight Zone character in 1960.

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. Australian-born singer Shirley Abicair popularised the zither when she used it widely as accompaniment in her 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.

Playing[link]

Zither player in Maribor, Slovenia

The zither is played by plucking the strings while it lies flat on a table, which acts as a resonator to amplify the sound.

The right thumb, wearing a thumb-mounted plectrum, picks out the melody on the five fretboard strings, which are stopped by the left hand like a guitar. Meanwhile, the remaining fingers of the right hand play accompanying chords on the open strings. Typically, these are grouped as follows: the first twelve strings after the fretboard are accompanying strings, then the next twelve are bass strings. All these are tuned according to the circle of fifths. After that, there may be some contrabass strings tuned chromatically. As few as two or three, or as many as thirteen, depending on the type of zither.

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

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

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Zithers

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Zither.

• "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"
• "German Wikipedia article on Zithers" (Expanded article on Concert Zithers, in German.)

Karas on a 1951 autograph card.

Anton Karas (July 7, 1906 – January 10, 1985) was a Viennese zither player, best known for his soundtrack to Carol Reed's The Third Man.^[1]

Early life[link]

Born in Vienna, of Hungarian and Czech origin, one of five children of a factory worker, Anton Karas was already keen on music as a child. He desired to become a band leader, which due to the family's financial situation was impossible. However, he was allowed to learn to play an instrument, as were his two brothers and two sisters. He later reported that his first zither was one he found in his grandmother's attic, at the age of 12.

As ordered by his father, he started an apprenticeship as a tool and die maker at the age of 14, while also taking music evening courses at a private institution. He successfully finished his apprenticeship in 1924 and worked in a car factory until being unemployed in January 1925. As he had already begun to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna in 1924, he subsequently earned his living as an entertainer in a Heuriger (a wine bar, typically with a garden, usually selling the year's new wine) and soon found himself earning more income than his father. He continued his studies until 1928.

Career[link]

In 1930, he was married, followed by the birth of his daughter three months later. From 1939–1945 he was with German Wehrmacht anti-aircraft warfare, temporarily in Russia, where he also took a zither along. He lost more than one instrument due to war action, but always managed somehow to find another one.

[edit] The Third Man

In 1948, director Carol Reed was preparing to shoot The Third Man in Vienna and decided to have Karas playing the zither for the soundtrack.^[2] Reluctant Karas was invited to London and lived with Reed while composing the score, and at that time was drawing a considerable salary of 30 GBP a week, plus 20 in pocket money, with expenses. The soundtrack was created in Korda's London Films studios, and Karas, who was homesick most of the time, worked up to 14 hours a day for twelve weeks: He had not been a composer before, but a great performer, and added improvisations to his repertoire. Later, Karas would mention that Reed almost "kept him like a slave"^{[citation needed]} when he wanted to go back to Vienna more than once.

The film, not least due to its music, turned into a gigantic success which changed Karas' life.^[3] As a result, he toured all over the world and performed for many celebrities, among them members of the British Royal family (Princess Margaret had invited him to London's fashionable Empress Club, where he played twice a week during his stay at London), Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, members of the Swedish royal family, and Pope Pius XII).^[4]

By the end of 1949, a half million copies of "The Harry Lime Theme" had been sold, an unprecedented amount for the time. The success of the score also caused a surge in zither sales.

In Austria, the film opened on March 10, 1950, in Vienna's Apollo Kino, and it initially offended some Viennese inhabitants, as it focused on the disgrace of the destroyed city. Vienna's newspaper critics hated the film, except for its music.^[5] When Karas returned to Austria after his first world tour in July 1950, he was welcomed by chancellor Leopold Figl and other members of the government. Most importantly, the public liked the film. In Brigittenau, where Karas was born, people queued for tickets which were sold out eight days in advance.

Karas, however, disliked all of the glamour: "I never was a star, and never felt like one. It is because of that film that I was pushed from one place to the other… My only desire was to be back home again."^{[citation needed]} he stated later. However, he went on tour again in 1951, travelling to Montreal and Las Vegas, followed by a number of other tours, including Japan in 1962, 1969 and 1972, where he performed for emperor Hirohito.

In 1954, he opened his own Heuriger which immediately was fashionable among Hollywood celebrities like Orson Welles, Gina Lollobrigida, Curd Jürgens, Hans Moser, Paul Hörbiger, Marika Röck and Johannes Heesters; therefore becoming a tourist attraction. However, he was still not satisfied, as he would have preferred to perform for locals who would understand him, his language and music. Because of this, he retired and retreated from the limelight in 1966, explaining "I'm not a tourist guy, and what I did there hadn't hardly anything to do with 'Vienna Heuriger'".^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

1. ^ The Third Man on YouTube [1]
2. ^ Where and how Reed and Karas met, is not sure. There are a couple of versions, and therefore most of them are legends.
3. ^ "Wherever the film is shown you can almost see the procession from cinema to gramophone shop. In its first three weeks sales have reached 100,000." (The Continental Daily Mail quoted by Ulrike Granögger, p.84.)
4. ^ Karas's biography by Peter Payer, p. 13.
5. ^ "Der Sieveringer Zithervirtuose hat den Streifen kompositorisch untermalt und ersetzt mit seinem Instrument wirkungsvoll ein Orchester. Er beherrscht die Zither mit einer Virtuosität, die aller Anerkennung würdig ist." (Die Presse, 1950-3-11) Rough translation: "The zither-virtuoso from Sievering has composed his accompaniments for the film and effectively replaces, with his instrument, a whole orchestra. He plays the zither with a virtuosity that is praiseworthy."

External links[link]

• Anton Karas page by his Grandson (english version)
• Karas with celebrities in his "Heurige"
• Biography at Allmusic
• In Search of the Third Man at Amazon.com
• Karas biography by Peter Payer from historical research, sponsored by the city of Vienna in 2005 (15 pages, in German).