The zither is an instrument in which strings are stretched over a flat wooden resonator box along its entire length, without a neck. Some strings (melodic) are pressed against frets, while the rest sound as open accompaniment chords. It is played by plucking with the fingers and a special ring plectrum.
The zither is especially widespread in the folk music of the Alps — Austria, Bavaria, Switzerland — where it accompanies songs and dances. World fame came to it through the solo in the soundtrack of the film The Third Man (1949). The zither belongs to the great family of “board” string instruments that includes the Ukrainian tsymbaly, the husli, the Hungarian cimbalom, and the Persian santur. Its transparent, ringing timbre makes it an indispensable colour of European traditional music.
