Zither: Equatorial Guinea musical instrument
The zither is a stringed musical instrument that is most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, northwestern Croatia, the southern ...
https://worldhitz4u.blogspot.com/2013/12/zither-equatorial-guinea-musical.html
The zither is a stringed musical
instrument that is most commonly found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary,
northwestern Croatia, the southern region of Germany, alpine Europe and the
East Asian cultures with china included. The term ‘cithare’, ‘sitar; or
‘cithar’ is also used more widely to explain the entire family of stringed
musical instruments in which the strings do not extend past the sounding box ,
including the hammered dulcimer, psaltery, Appalachian dulcimer, guqin,
guzheng, koto, gusli, kantele, gayageum and others. The musical instrument
could be divided into two classes, which are fretted and fretless and they are
played by strumming or plucking the strings like a guitar with a plectrum.
source: orgs.usd.edu
The word ‘citara’ is derived from the
Greek letters ‘kithara’ that is an instrument from classical times used in
Ancient Greece and later all through the roman empire and in the Arab world.
The term zither is mentioned in
Daniel during the Jewish exile of the 606 BC, meanwhile, the earliest known
instrument of the zither class is a Chinese guqin that was discovered in the
tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng dating from the 433 BC. The instrument has a famous
solo in one of the Johann Strauss II’s most prominent waltzes named, “Tales
from the Vienna Woods”. At the end of the 19th century in Slovenia,
the instruments were used in small towns or villages for concerts. The musical
instrument went through two periods of high popularity in the United States.
The first of these was in the later part of the 19th century when it
was highly in vogue as a parlor musical instrument in so many homes. By that
period, a good number of United State based instrument manufacturers were
manufacturing the concert instrument. By the 1920s, the musical instrument’s
popularity had begun to reduce while other instruments increased in popularity
also there was a renewal of interest in the 1950s and it contributed to the
success of the instrument in 1949. British movie titled “The Third Man”, the
soundtrack of which prominently showed the concert zither. This new fame that
was given to the instrument lasted for years until the 1960s.
In modern entertainment, the zither
is approximately the most popular instrument because of its role in the sound
track of the classic film “The Third Man”. The music for the film was performed
by Anton Karas, his “The Third Man Theme” was released as a single track in
1940/50 and the track became the best-seller in the United Kingdom. Going by
the release, the track lasted for 11 week in the United States Billboard and
the best seller in stores lasted from 29 April to 8 July. The exposure of this
single track made Anton Karas an international star and the trailer for the
film opined that “the famous musical score made by Karas”would have the
audience “in dither with Karas zither”. Shirley Abicair, a born Australian
singer popularized this musical instrument when she used it greatly as
accompaniment in her Television Shows, live shows and recordings in Britain in
the 1950s and the 1960s. Recently the zither is used by multi-instrumentalist
Laraaji on the third drop of Brian Eno’s surrounding area music series, Ambient
3: Day of Radiance.
There are three types of this musical
instrument; the ‘fretless zither’ which can also be called the ‘guitar zither’
the ‘concert zither’ and the ‘alpine zither’. The concert zither, the alpine
zither and the fretless zither like any other stringed musical instruments
whether acoustic or electric form, the strings are stretched across the length
of the soundbox and none of the version has a neck
The concert zither may have from
about 29 to 35 strings with 34 or 35 being much typical. These are arranged as
such; 5 fretted melody strings that are placed above the fret board, 12
unfretted accompaniment strings and accompanied by 12 unfretted bass strings
and also a differing number of contrabass strings with 5 or 6 being the best
common number. The Alpine zither is made up of 42 strings, and they varies from
the concert zither primarily in having much more contrabasses that needs the
addition of a harp like post at the top of the zither to stabilize the tuner
for these added strings. These to zithers are tuned alike with the
accompaniment and the bass strings each giving it a full set of 12 chromatic
pitches designed in a circle of fifths and also the contrabass strings are
arranged in go down chromatic scale. There are two main famous tunings for the
fretted tune strings; the Munich and the Vienna. The fretless guitar zither could have from
about 12 to 50 strings; depending on the design of the instrument. There are no
finger boards or frets and all the strings are played open in the pattern of a
harp. The strings on the left part of the instrument are arranged in groups of
three or four that form various chord; strings to the right of the instrument
are single tune strings. The tuning of the instrument can differ very much from
producer to producer as well as from model to model of the zither, but the
tuning is always shown on the instrument’s body in the form of a painted chart
that is glued under the strings.
The person that plays the musical
instrument is called the “zither player” or a “zitherist” and the instrument is
played by plucking the strings with the fingers and a plectrum while it lies on
a table on the lap. On the concert and the alpine zither, the tune strings are
pressed to the fingerboard with the finger of the left hand and plucked with a
plectrum on the right hand. The first and second fingers of the right hand
pluck the accompaniment and the bass strings and the third finger of the left
will do the work of plucking the contrabass strings. The fretless guitar zither
is performed in a similar manner as the concert and the alpine, except that
there is no work for the left hand since there is no fret board.