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Zither, , is the name of both a class of stringed instruments, and of certain particular instruments within that class. The word ''zither'' is a German rendering of the Latin word ''cithara'', from which the modern word ''guitar'' is also derived. Historically it has been used to describe any instrument of the cittern family, or an instrument consisting of many strings stretched across a thin, flat body – similar to a psaltery. This article describes the second variety. Zithers are played by strumming or plucking the strings, either with the fingers (sometimes using an accessory called a plectrum or ''pick''), sounding the strings with a bow, or, with varieties of the instrument like the santur or cimbalom, sounded by beating the strings with specially shaped hammers. Like a guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber (sound box), but unlike guitars and lutes a zither lacks distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty. In modern common usage the term "zither" refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither (German: Konzertzither), its variant the Alpine zither (both using a fretted fingerboard), and the chord zither (more recently described as a fretless zither). Concert and Alpine zithers are traditionally found in Slovenia, Austria, Hungary, France, north-western Croatia, the southern regions of Germany and alpine Europe. Emigration from these areas during the 19th centuries 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 century. These variants all use metal strings, similar to the cittern. ==Terminology== The word zither is derived through 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 described a small English cittern as a ''Klein Englisch Zitterlein'' in his treatise ''Syntagma Musicum'' published during the early 17th century, recording the language consonant shift. 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 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 of 'cythara' and its German derivative cognate into the lexicon. The term 'zither' is also used by the Hornbostel-Sachs system of describing musical instruments to classify the entire family of stringed instruments in which the strings do not extend beyond the sounding box. These include examples like the hammered dulcimer, psaltery, Appalachian dulcimer, guqin, guzheng , tromba marina, koto, gusli, kantele, valiha, gayageum, đàn tranh, kanun, autoharp, santoor, yangqin, santur, swarmandal, and others. Pedal steel guitars, lap guitars (where the neck serves no separate function other than to extend the string length), and keyboard instruments like the clavichord, harpsichord and piano may be considered to be within this broader categorical use. The word has also been used in conjunction with brand varieties of other string instruments, for example the zither banjo. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zither」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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