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27 albums · 1949–2021

The zither, the strings of Bavaria and Vienna

· 1 min read · by 1001 Albums

A concert zither of about 1880 in a museum case, its fretboard and open strings seen from above
A zither player in a hat playing on a street in MunichHubert Molzberger seated at a zither in a wood-panelled room
A concert zither of about 1880, in the Museum Erding. Photo: Ricardalovesmonuments, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · A zither player in Munich, 1987. Photo: Gerd Eichmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Hubert Molzberger at the zither. Photo: Molzi1, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The zither is a flat wooden box with thirty to forty strings: a few melody strings over a fretboard, plucked with a thumb pick, and the rest open for chords and bass. It is the instrument of the Stubenmusi of Bavaria and Austria, and the one Anton Karas played in The Third Man.

The list has Karas's Viennese zither, Alfons Bauer and Rudi Knabl of Munich, Christoph Schwarzer and Willi Huber, the Stubenmusi of the Inn valley, Zither Manä's blues, Werner Pirchner's zither in jazz, and new music by Martin Mallaun and Wilfried Scharf.

The list has 27 records from 1949 to 2021. Many more play it in the valleys than the catalogues know. About 20 hours of music, 3 days of a few records each.

What it sounds like

The zither solo of Johann Strauss's G'schichten aus dem WienerwaldMusopen

Recording: Musopen, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

By genre

World 59%Folk & Country 27%Classical 4%Other 10%
  • World 59%
  • Folk & Country 27%
  • Classical 4%
  • Other 10%

The genres named most: zither, folk, volksmusik, classical, blues, contemporary.

The colours of the covers

A stripe for each cover, in the colour Tidal picks from it, sorted by hue; the greys at the end.

Where the music comes from

Music from 2 countries: Germany 18, Austria 9. The deeper the colour, the more albums: one, two to four, five to nine, ten and more.

The 1940s

The 1950s

The 1960s

The 1970s

The 2000s

The 2010s

The 2020s

More lists

Lists of Instruments first, then others; all of them on the blog. The blog.

29 albums · 1976–2024

The kora of Mali, the harp-lute of the jeli

· 1 min read

The kora is the harp-lute of the jeli, the griots of Mali, Guinea, Senegal and the Gambia: 21 strings over a large calabash covered in cowhide, played with the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

World 89%Blues 3%Classical 3%Other 5%
  • World 89%
  • Blues 3%
  • Classical 3%
  • Other 5%

Read and see the list