Zither

Zither (/ˈzɪðər, ˈzɪθ-/; German: [ˈtsɪtɐ], from the Greek κιθάρα, cithara) is a class of stringed instruments, and the term also refers to a specific subset of instruments of the zither class, most usually the concert or Alpine zithers. The modern instrument has many strings stretched across a thin, flat body.

Zithers are typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers or a plectrum. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, the term refers to a larger family of similarly shaped instruments that also includes the hammered dulcimer family and piano and a few rare bowed instruments like the bowed psaltery, bowed dulcimer, and streichmelodion. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber (sound box), but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty.

In modern usage the term "zither" usually refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither (German: Konzert‌zither), its variant the Alpine zither (each of which uses a fretted fingerboard), and the chord zither (more recently described as a fretless zither or "guitar zither").

Concert and Alpine zithers are traditionally found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia, the southern regions of Germany, Alpine Europe, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Emigration from these areas during the 19th century introduced the concert and Alpine zither to North and South America. Chord zithers similar to the instrument in the photograph also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern.

The word "zither" is derived from Latin cythara, which was used in this form for the title covers on many 16th- and 17th-century German-printed manuscript books originally for the 'cittern' – from the Greek word kithara, an instrument used in Ancient Greece.

The German scholar Michael Praetorius mentions an Englishman who came to Germany with a small cittern, einem kleinen Citterlein, in his treatise Syntagma Musicum, published during the early 17th century. It is not fully understood how "zitter" or "zither" came to be applied to the instruments in this article as well as German varieties of the cittern.

Other types of zither also existed in Germany, mostly drone zithers like the scheitholt (which was mentioned by Praetorius) or hummel, but these generally have their own individual regional names and may have been in use before the introduction into the lexicon of 'cythara' and its German derivative cognate.

The Hornbostel–Sachs system, an academic instrument classification method, also uses the term zither to classify all stringed instruments in which the strings do not extend beyond the sounding box. Categories include Bar zithers (made up of musical bows and stick zithers), tube zithers, raft zithers, board zithers (includes box zithers, ground zithers and harp zithers), trough zithers and frame zithers.