Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Zither

This West African raft zither, made around 1935, has ten strings. It is located in the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota. Various African raft zithers, often accompanied by voice, can be heard here.

The zither is widely played in eastern Europe: Slovenia, Hungary, Croatia, Germany and Austria. This complex concert zither played by Lotte Landl has 38 strings, of which she uses only 28. It also has two possible tunings. In this video, Ms. Landl explains the tuning options and how her instrument is played.

There are also Chinese and Korean zithers, and of course, the Indian one played by Ravi Shankar.

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