Strange Musical Instruments

[Mustaine93]

I found a rather unusual stringed instrument in my schools music department, it is around 50cm wide, 20 long, and about five thick. It has a lot of strings, id say about thirty. And about eight strips of plastic with string mutes on the underside of them, such that if you pressed down on one it would mute the strings not in correspondance to that chord. Im new to this site so if it is possible for me to post a picture. Tell me and ill upload it

 

[Mustaine93]

This is a picture of said instrument. Any help appreciated

 

[Dorsetmike]

Sounds like some sort of Zither, --- can't see your pic, does this look similar?

http://www.clker.com/inc/svgedit/svg-editor.html?paramurl=/inc/clean.html?id=87364

 

[Mustaine93]

Thats exactly what it looks like! Thanks so much, do you know where it originates? Sounds eastern european

 

[teddy]

Hello and welcome to the forum. If you browse this forum you will find other people who have posed this same question

teddy

 

[Dorsetmike]

Amazing what you can find with Google

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zither

 

[Krummhorn]

It is also sometimes known as an Autoharp.

 

[methodistgirl]

There is such an instrument called a Hardanger fiddle from Sweden that
would fit that discription.

 

[Contratrombone64]

The Hardanger fiddle looks nothing like a zither!?

 

[JHC]

If I recall correctly an Aussie girl by the name of Shirley Abicare made quite a name for herself in the 50's on the Zither

 

[Contratrombone64]

Good to hear that, and thrilled to also find she's fallen from favour! LOL

 

[wljmrbill]

You see them among the mountain people when they play music around here.I remember playing one in Junior high school.. Was fun but not so interesting to me.

 

[GoneBaroque]

Does anyone remember Anton Karas playing the Zither in Carol Reeds film "The Third Man" which starred Joseph Cotton and Orson Wells?

 

[GoneBaroque]

Hardanger Fiddle

The Hardanger fiddle looks nothing like a zither!?

No it resembles more a regular fiddle and is played with a short bow. the Zither is held on the lap or table and plucked.

Grieg composed some music for the Hardanger fiddle which is named after a region in Norway. Possibly one of our Norwegian members could tell us more.

 

[teddy]

Cant imagine puting a zither under your chin

teddy