A term having two main senses in modern organology. The first denotes (in both English and German) a large category of string instruments also known as ‘simple chordophone’ (defined in §1 below); the second, more limited and perhaps more familiar sense refers to a small group of Alpine folk and popular instruments. From the late 15th century the term ‘zither’ was used exclusively to denote chordophones with necks, of the cittern type. It was only from the early 19th century that the name began to be used for descendants of the north European Scheitholt type of instrument (see §§2 and 3 below), which had no neck and frets placed directly on the box. From the Scheitholt evolved the modern Alpine instrument still known as the zither (Fr. cithare; Ger. Zither; It. cetra da tavola); other types of fretted zither are found elsewhere in Europe.
MARK LINDLEY (1), ANDREAS MICHEL (2–3), ALAN R. THRASHER (4)
According to the classification system of Hornbostel and Sachs (1914; see Chordophone), a zither is a ‘simple chordophone’, consisting solely of a string bearer (and its string or strings) or of a string bearer with a resonator that can be detached without destroying the sound-producing apparatus. Zithers are thus distinguished from ‘composite chordophones’, such as harps and lutes, in which the string bearer and a resonator are organically united and cannot be separated without destroying the instrument. Whereas the strings of a lute or lyre extend past the face of the instrument along a neck or out to a yoke, and those of a harp extend away from the soundboard, the strings of a zither do not go beyond or away from the body of the instrument. The variety of musical instruments that fit this description can be seen in fig.1.
The present form of the south German and Austrian instruments that are generally known simply as zithers dates from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Structurally they have the same elements as other fretted zithers (a box, fretted melody strings and open strings), but their playing technique is distinct. The five chromatically fretted metal melody strings, which are usually tuned by machine screws, are individually finger-stopped with the left hand and plucked with a plectrum attached to the right thumb; the remaining fingers of the right hand select individual notes or chords from the open gut or nylon strings (numbering perhaps 30 or more and tuned by metal wrest-pins).
The early forms of the modern zither, known as Kratzzithern, were played in the same way as the Scheitholt (see §3 below), although they have differently shaped bodies. The crucial innovation was that the frets were no longer anchored directly to the box but placed on a fingerboard stuck to it (fig.3) These early zithers derived their names from the manner of playing, which was to ‘scratch’ (kratzen) or strum with a horn plectrum, a quill or the like. One Kratzzither type, the Raffelzither (‘grater zither’), had a fingerboard but no accompanying strings; another had a curved body and octave strings with shorter scalings fitted to a wrest plank of their own, the Oktävchen or Trompeterl.
The Schlagzither (struck zither; fig.4) differed from the Scheitholt and Kratzzither types in the abandonment of bourdon tuning and in the technique of striking the strings separately with the fingers and a plectrum on the thumb. The fingerboards of both the Kratzzither and the Schlagzither have partly diatonic fret patterns, usually producing a major scale beginning with the lower fourth. To increase the musical possibilities open to the Kratzzither, some were made with two or three differently scaled fingerboards on the same body (fig.5). Sections tuned a 4th or 5th from each other allowed a change to another register. Such double zithers are still used in Switzerland, known as Schwyzer Zither.
The body shape of some modern zithers is analogous to that of guitars or citterns (the ‘Mittenwald’ form); others imitate the structure of keyboard instruments with transverse stringing (such as the spinet and clavichord), with the rounded projection on the side furthest from the player (the ‘Salzburg’, ‘Hallein’ or ‘Pinzgau’ form). The ‘Salzburg’ has become the more usual. There were many attempts to improve the zither’s acoustics and structure. The Luftresonanzzither (‘air resonance zither’), attributed to Johann Jobst of Graz around 1890, had a second soundhole located above the wrest plank; the special structure of the wrest plank and fingerboard was intended to reduce their vibration-damping effects. The Harfenzither (‘harp zither’) had a pillar (the Baronstange) between the wrest plank and the middle of the body.
In the modern zither the accompanying strings are tuned in 4ths and 5ths. Initially, many different tunings existed; a few standard tunings were established in the late 19th century (Table 1). Various efforts were made to devise an arrangement that would be both physiologically practicable for the right hand and based on functional harmony. Nikolaus Weigel (Theoretischpraktische Zitherschule, 2/1844) was the first to call for a 28-string zither having a complete chromatic fingerboard, and for the accompanying strings to be tuned in 4ths and 5ths on the basis of the circle of 5ths. Different regional tunings of the melody strings subsequently came into use. ‘Stuttgart tuning’ (e''–e''–a'–d'–g–c), probably developed by the Stuttgart instrument maker Lorenze Kriner, was in use until the early 20th century. For ‘Munich tuning’ (a'–a'–d'–g–c), the accompanying strings are notated up an octave in the treble clef; both this system and ‘Vienna tuning’ (a'–d'–g'–g–c) are still used. Normal modern tuning for the 40–42 string zither is shown in Table 1. The tuning of the ‘Perfekta’ zither (fig.7) superimposes the third circle of 5ths on the second, thus better accommodating the span of the hand. In the ‘Reform’ zither (see fig.6) the first five strings of the fifth circle of 5ths are placed under the strings of the second circle, passing over a bridge about 2 to 3 mm lower. In the ‘Ideal-Reform’ zither there are additional strings in the first and second circle of 5ths passing over a second lower bridge. These modifications decreased the distance between the outer strings of the third circle of 5ths and the fingerboard. The transformation of the zither into a concert instrument and the construction of an entire zither family began in the mid-19th century, only a few years after the introduction of the new tuning system. Concert zithers differ from their predecessors in having a fully chromatic fingerboard with 29 frets, and in the enlarged scaling of the fingerboard strings (while the stringing remains unchanged). The modern zither family, whose earliest member is the Altzither (1851), is described in Table 2.
While iconographical evidence suggests that unfretted box zithers were used in Europe from at least the 12th century (see Psaltery), zithers with one or more fretted strings have been used extensively in some form or other in most of Europe except the British Isles, Italy and the Iberian and Balkan peninsulas. They appear to be of north-west European development, and have not been traced back much further than the 16th century. Since zithers with one or more stopped strings and several bourdons existed previously in eastern Asia, the idea may have been brought to Europe after European merchants had visited the East in the 16th century. The large number of regional variants in Europe and the circumstances in which they have developed provide a striking example of non-evolutionary history. Although a rectangular instrument with few strings seems to have been the earliest, there has been no universal change towards larger and more complex forms. Rather, different forms seem attributable to different situations. Chronology cannot be consistently established, and terminology can be variable, even within small areas.
Among 31 angel musicians in a fresco from 1560 in the church of Rynkeby in Denmark, there is one playing a long, narrow, rectangular zither, stopping one of its strings with two left-hand fingers and striking with the right-hand fingers (see fig.8). The instrument is much longer than the brass-strung Scheitholt (‘wooden log’) depicted in Praetorius’s De organographia (1618) and called by him a disreputable (lumpen) instrument. This had one melody string with 18 frets beneath it, set directly into the box, and two or three bourdon strings – one tuned to the same pitch as the melody string, another hooked down at a third of its length (thus giving a 5th higher), and an optional one an octave above the first. All were tuned by laterally set, hand-turned wooden pegs. The melody string was stopped against the frets by a small rod held in the left hand, and the right-hand thumb struck across all the strings. A Danish schoolmaster, Hans Mikkelsen Ravn, mentioned in his Heptachordum danicum (1646) an instrument called ‘langeleg’, somewhat like a monochord and played by peasants. In Norway in the 17th century, an instrument called ‘langspil’ was referred to by Anders Arrebo, who described it as being between a crwth and a Hackbrett and used for ballad tunes. In 1699 the Friesian organist-pedagogue Claas Douwes described the noardske Balke as an instrument of some 60 to 90 cm, with three or four strings and diatonic frets under the melody string, the rest being unison-tuned bourdons; some players used a rod for stopping and a plectrum for striking, others stopped with the left-hand thumb and sounded the strings with a bow. The earliest known use of this name is in 1660; in Reynvaan’s Muzikalwordenboek (1795) it was synonymous with hommel (‘drone’). In Iceland in 1772, a Swedish traveller, Uno van Trojel, noted a bowed langspil with six brass strings; presumably these were in three double courses. In 1809 W.J. Hooker was more specific about technique and use:
… Danish and Icelandic songs … which she accompanied with tunes upon the Lang-spil … It is usually played with a bow of horsehair … but the Etatstroed’s daughter frequently made use only of her fingers, as with a guitar … she pressed the end of her thumb upon the wires, moving it up and down to produce the different modifications of sound.
Apart from some instruments of conservative styling, such as the Epinette de Vosges, most modern fretted zithers have elements of structure and technique derived from sources other than these three- or four-string instruments. In the Norwegian langeleik and the Appalachian dulcimer, strings are still generally tuned by lateral wooden pegs. The langeleik, however, has up to ten bourdons, three of the short ones sometimes being set in a second pegbox at the opposite end from the main one, and pyramid-shaped individual bridges (see Norway, II, 3, fig.2). Its playing technique includes the use of three fingers on the melody string, enabling the player to produce the elaborate characteristic Norwegian gracing, and stylized rhythmic striking patterns executed with a flexible plectrum. Virtually all other fretted zithers have strings fixed to sagittal iron wrest pins tuned with a key; on some instruments melody strings are tuned by machine heads.
Like the langeleik, the kisfejes citera (the characteristic Hungarian instrument) has some bourdons set in separate pegboxes, but they are always at the same end as the main pegbox; both rod and finger-stopping are used and plectra range from quills or wood to flexible plastic. Those zoomorphic- or anthropomorphic-headed instruments with many courses are the most spectacular of European zithers (see fig.9). Rectangular instruments resembling the Scheitholt are considered by some scholars to be fairly new to Hungary; it is this type that is now sometimes electronically amplified. Terminology in central Europe is shifting: in the Hungarian plains the kisfejes citera was often called ‘tambura’, a term that could also denote a small ‘zitherized’ lute, while in Czechoslovakia the zither name is ‘kobza’, which in Romania denotes a true lute.
Not all zithers are plucked. Bowing has been an occasional alternative sounding method for fretted zithers that were generally plucked or struck. A few true bowed zithers have also been known in Europe. The Streichmelodion and Schossgeige were four-string instruments invented in the late 19th century in south German and Austrian regions, where they are still used to a small extent; they might well be described as zitherized fiddles and guitars. Baltic fretted monochords are also classified as a kind of zither. They consisted of a single string over a long, tapering box with 28 or 30 chromatic frets, generally with the note names painted in. Such an instrument was known as Psalmodikon in Sweden, versikannel in Karel'skaya ASSR, mollpill in Estonia and diga in Latvia; it was popular in the 19th century as an aid in teaching singing and for playing regional and religious songs. Unfretted bowed zithers have included the Trumscheit and the Icelandic fidhla (see Iceland, fig.1), both now extinct. A two-string bowed zither was formerly played by some of the indigenous peoples of Mexico: this may have been imported in the early Colonial period for teaching purposes.
See also Iceland, §II, 1, and Norway, §3. For unfretted zithers, see Harp zither.
It is clear from Chinese archaeological finds and historic citations that zithers were already major instrument types in China by the mid-Zhou dynasty (c7th–5th centuries bce). That they were known many centuries earlier is apparent from the pictographic character of about the 12th century bce for yue (meaning ‘music’), a graph depicting silk strings over wood. Other string instrument types were not known in China until later periods. There are several early zither types still in use, all of which have been found in Zhou burial sites and cited in texts from the ancient Shijing onward. Of these, the bridgeless Qin (pronounced ‘chin’) is unquestionably the most highly venerated. Having emerged from earlier (generally smaller) models, the qin of today, with a soundbox of irregular shape (c120 cm in length) and seven silk strings, was in recognizable form by about the 3rd century ce. Perhaps because of its close association with Confucian ideology and the values of the literati class, the qin was not widely known outside of China.
The zither se is a generally larger instrument, with rectangular soundbox, 25 strings and a bridge under each string. Early se zithers found in Zhou and Han sites are short (c100–20 cm) and broad (c40 cm), their length increasing to nearly double this (c200 cm) by the 18th century. The primary function of the se throughout history has been mostly restricted to the ritual tradition of the imperial courts.
Third among the major Chinese zithers is the Zheng, an instrument shorter and thinner than the present-day se, with variable string numbers (12 or 13 during the 8th century) and a bridge under each string. The early 20th-century Chaozhou style of zheng (south China) is close in size to the qin (c110–20 cm), though with highly arched soundboard and 16 metal strings; the late 20th-century style is considerably longer (c160 cm), with more gently arched soundboard and 18 or 21 metal strings. The zheng is a ‘popular’ (i.e. non-ritual) instrument, with a large solo and chamber repertory. Its influence upon other East Asian zither traditions has been considerable. Less significant of the Chinese zithers are the ancient five-string zhu (for which specimens have been found in Zhou sites) and the medieval multi-string bowed yazheng (still marginally preserved in Hebei province).
Numerous related zithers subsequently emerged among other Asian cultures, most being adaptations of Chinese types. The Japanese koto and Korean kayagum were among the earliest, both appearing by the 8th century ce, possibly earlier. The 13-string Koto (c180 cm) with movable bridge under each string is a clear adaptation of the 13-string Tang-style zheng. While the word koto is Japanese, it is written with the same Chinese graph for zheng, and it shares significant repertory characteristics as well. The Korean 12-string Kayagŭm is shorter (c145 cm for the sanjo kayagŭm), with tall wooden bridges and stylized carvings of ‘ram's horns’ at the lower end of the instrument. Distantly related to the koto is the Japanese Wagon (c190 cm), a six-string zither with movable bridges. The wagon is documented from the 2nd century ce onwards and is believed by scholars to be indigenous to Japan. Two other Korean zithers, the komun'go and ajaeng, are more idiosyncratic. The six-string komun'go (c150–60 cm) has 16 broad, fixed frets glued to the soundboard, and three movable bridges. Appearing in 7th-century-ce tomb paintings, it was possibly derived from the Chinese ‘horizontal’ konghou (which was a zither in appearance if not in name). The seven-string ajaeng (c160 cm) with movable bridges is unusual in that it is bowed with a rosined stick (rather than plucked). Appearing between the 10th and 14th centuries, the ajaeng was clearly derived from the Chinese yazheng.
In cultures to the north and to the south of China, other related zither traditions emerged from about the 14th century onwards. Among Mongolian people the yatga zither (c160 cm), with between ten and 13 strings, has been in use since this period. In Thailand the three-string, fretted čhakhē (literally ‘crocodile’, c130 cm), used in the traditional mahōrī ensemble, appears to reflect both Indian and Chinese influences. The 16-string Vietnamese Dàn tranh (90–110 cm), however, is identical in all essential features to the Chaozhou-style zheng of south China, from where it was introduced.
There are yet other Asian zithers which are less clearly related to the above types. The most ancient are probably the various tube zithers marginally preserved among peoples of the Pacific islands. Constructed from tubular sections of stout bamboo, their multiple strings are usually raised up from the bamboo surface itself (i.e. idiochordal) and plucked with the fingers of both hands or struck with a stick. Examples include the kolitong (or kulibit and known by many other names) in the Philippines (c60 cm), the rare celempung bambu in West Java (c80 cm) and the zharong (Chinese: zhuqin, ‘bamboo qin’) among the Yao and other tribal peoples of south-west China. Zither types very possibly similar to these were reported in the 2nd-century-ce Chinese dictionary Shuowen jiezi as being constructed from a bamboo tube and possessing five strings.
Finally, among the tribal peoples of South-east Asia there are very unusual single-string zithers. The Thai phīn is a short stick zither (c80 cm) with one or two metal strings and an attached half-gourd resonator. It bears close similarities to Indian zithers, notably the early bin (or vina) from which its name derives. Another is the Dàn bau (c100 cm) of minority peoples of northern Vietnam and south-west China, a box zither with a single metal string attached to a flexible stem (for pitch control), and performed on the harmonic series.
MGG1 (J.H. van der Meer; also ‘Zithermusik’, J. Bandlmeier)
SachsH
C. Douwes: Grondig ondersoek van de toonen der musijk (Franeker, 1699/R, 1970 with introduction, notes and bibliography by P. Williams)
J.E. Bennert: Illustrierte Geschichte der Zither (Luxembourg, 1881)
R. Baczinski: Für Freunde der Zither (Tölz, 1884)
H. Kennedy: Die Zither in der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart und Zukunft (Tölz, 1896)
J. Christ: Darstellung der Zither in ihrem Wesen und ihrer Geschichte (Trier, c1900)
H. Thauer: Katechismus des modernen Zitherspiels (Leipzig, 1902)
A. Forrer: Zitherschule für die glarner Zither (St Gallen, 1905)
P.N. Hasluck, ed.: Violins and Other Stringed Instruments: How to Make them (London, 1906)
B. Thorsteinnson: Í slezk thjódhlög [Icelandic ballads] (Copenhagen, 1906–9) [with notes on music]
C. Maclean: ‘The Zither (Bavarian Highlands)’, ZIMG, x (1908–9), 341–9
A.C. Moule: ‘A List of the Musical and Other Sound-Producing Instruments of the Chinese’, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, North China Branch, xxxix (1908), 1–160, esp. 106–12; repr. separately (Buren, 1989)
A. Hammerich: Das musikhistorische Museum zu Kopenhagen: beschreibender Katalog (Copenhagen and Leipzig, 1911)
G. Kinsky: Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Cöln: Katalog, ii (Cologne, 1912)
E.M. Hornbostel and C. Sachs: ‘Systematik der Musikinstrumente’, Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, xlvi (1914), 553–90; Eng. trans. in GSJ, xiv (1961), 3–29
H. Panum: Middelalderens strengeinstrumenter (Copenhagen, 1915–31; Eng. trans., rev., c1940/R)
H. Panum: Langelegen som dansk folkeinstrument (Copenhagen, 1918)
G. Montandon: La généalogie des instruments de musique et les cycles de civilisation (Geneva, 1919)
L. Edlmann: Die Wahrheit über die Zither (Vienna, 1923)
M.W. Shoemaker: The Music and Musical Instruments of the Pennsylvania Mountaineers (Altoona, PA, 1923)
F. Fiedler: Illustriertes Lexikon der deutschen Zitherschaft (Munich, 1924)
A.V. Nikl: Die Zither: ihre historische Entwicklung bis zur Gegenwart (Vienna, 1927)
C. Sachs: Geist und Werden der Musikinstrumente (Berlin, 1929/R)
K.G. Izikowitz: ‘Les instruments de musique des indiens Uro-Chipaya’, Revista del Instituto de etnología de la Universidad Nacional de Tucumán, ii (1931–2), 263–91
T. Norlind, ed.: Systematik der Saiteninstrumente, i: Geschichte der Zither (Stockholm, 1936)
H. In der Gand: ‘Volkstümliche Musikinstrumente der Schweiz’, Schweizer Archiv für Volkskunde, xxxvi (1937–8), 73–120
J.L. de Jong: De noardske balke (Assen, 1942)
M.H. Chehab: ‘Les terres cuites de Kharayeb’, Bulletin du Musée de Beyrouth, x (1951–2), esp.38, 99–100, 148; xi (1953–4) [whole vols.]
A. Edelman: ‘Die Toggenburger Halszither’, Internationale Zeitschrift für Literatur, bildende Kunst, Musik und Wissenschaft, ii (1952)
S. Martí: Instrumentos musicales precortesianos (Mexico City, 1955, 2/1968)
T. Alexandru: Instrumentele muzicale ale poporului romîn (Bucharest, 1956) [incl. Fr. and Russ. summary]
K.M. Klier: Volkstümliche Musikinstrumente in den Alpen (Kassel, 1956)
J. Grossier: ‘L'épinette dans la vallée des lacs’, Au pays des lacs: arts et traditions des Hautes-Vosges (Gérardmer, 1960)
J.F. Putnam: The Plucked Dulcimer and How to Play it (Berea, KY, 1961, 2/1964)
K. Hayashi: Dongya yueqi kao [Study of East Asian musical instruments] (Beijing, 1962/R), 131–209
J. Brandlmeier: Handbuch der Zither (Munich, 1963)
P.P. Hornof: Volkstümliche Raffele Schule (Innsbruck, 1963)
K. Vertkov, G. Blagodatov and E. Yazovitskaya: Atlas muzïkal'nïkh instrumentov narodov SSSR [Atlas of the musical instruments of the peoples of the USSR] (Moscow, 1963, 2/1975 with 4 discs and Eng. summary)
L. Picken: ‘Early Chinese Friction-Chordophones’, Galpin Society Journal, xviii (1965), 82–9
A. Baines: European and American Musical Instruments (London, 1966/R)
F. Stradner: ‘Eine alte Scheitholz-Zither’, ÖMz, xxi (1966), 454–9
K. Hayashi and others: Shōsōin no gakki [Musical instruments in the Shōsōin] (Tokyo, 1967)
B. Sárosi: Die Volksmusikinstrumente Ungarns (Leipzig, 1967)
J. Manga: Magyar népdalok, népi hangszerek (Budapest, 1969; Eng. trans., rev., 1969, 3/1988)
F. Stradner: ‘Vom Scheitholz zur Kratz-Zither’, Jb des österreichischen Volksliedwerkes, xviii (1969), 66–80
K. Vertkov: ‘Beiträge zur Geschichte der russischen Guslitypen’, Studia instrumentorum musicae popularis, I: Brno 1967, 134–41
F.J. de Hen: ‘Folk Instruments of Belgium, Part One’, GSJ, xxv (1972), 87–132, esp. 112
J. Hickerson, ed.: A Bibliography of Hammered and Plucked (Appalachian or Mountain) Dulcimers and Related Instruments (Washington DC, 1973)
B. Geiser: ‘Die Zithern der Schweiz’, Glareana: Nachrichten der Gesellschaft der Freunde alter Musikinstrumente, xxiii/4 (1974), 42–87
L. Kunz: Die Volksmusikinstrumente der Tschechoslowakei, i: Die tschechischen Volksmusikinstrumente (Leipzig, 1974)
H. Boone: ‘De hommel in de Lage Landen’, Brussels Museum of Musical Instruments Bulletin, v (1975), 9–151 [incl. important bibliography]
S. Marcuse: A Survey of Musical Instruments (Newton Abbot and New York, 1975)
D. Kettlewell: ‘Dulcimers, Zithers and Psalteries on Record’, Folk Review, v/12 (1976), 7 only
L. Kunz: ‘Scheitholt – Kobza: ein Beitrag zur Kenntnis der volkstümlichen Zitherinstrumente in den böhmischen Ländern’, Casopis moravsleho muzea, lxiii (1978), 227–55
R. Mok: ‘Ancient Musical Instruments Unearthed in 1972 from the Number One Han Tomb at Ma Wang Tui, Changsha: Translation and Commentary of Chinese Reports’, AsM, x/1 (1978), 39–91
Y. Mitani: A Study of Long-zithers and their Music in the far East (Tokyo, 1980)
B. Bachmann-Geiser: Die Volksmusikinstrumente der Schweiz (Leipzig, 1981)
O. Elschek: Die Volksmusikinstrumente der Tschechoslowakei, ii: Die slowakischen Volksmusikinstrumente (Leipzig, 1983)
Tong Kin-woon: Shang Musical Instruments (diss., Wesleyan U., IL, 1983); repr. in AsM, xiv/2 (1982–3), 17–182; xv (1983–4), no.1, pp.103–84; no.2, pp.67–143
Yuan Bingchang and Mao Jizeng, eds.: Zhongguo shaoshu minzu yueqi zhi [Dictionary of musical instruments of the Chinese minorities] (Beijing, 1986), 193–5, 249–60
K. Junger: ‘Die Zither: Entwicklung eines Instruments und seiner Besaitung’, Das Musikinstrument, xxxvi (1987), 68–75
Liu Dongsheng and others, eds.: Zhongguo yueqi tuzhi [Pictorial record of Chinese musical instruments] (Beijing, 1987)
Liu Dongsheng and Yuan Quanyou, eds.: Zhongguo yinyue shi tujian [Pictorial guide to the history of Chinese music] (Beijing, 1988)
M. Baltrnien and R. Apanavičius: Lietuviu liaudies muzikos instrumentai (Vilnius, 1991)
W. Breckle: ‘Die Entwicklung der Zither als Volksinstrument’, Gut Klang: 100 Jahre Zitherklub Dachau, ed. W. Breckle, H. Müller and H. Heres (Dachau, 1991)
Liu Dongsheng, ed.: Zhongguo yueqi tujian [Pictorial guide to Chinese instruments] (Ji'nan, 1992), 180–209, 262–5
L. Mühlemann: Die Grosse Familie der Zithern (Oberthal, 1993)
J. Folprecht: Citera maj Nastroj: Citera v Cechách, na Morave a ve Sleszku (Brno, 1995)
V.D. Laturell, ed.: ‘Die Zither is a Zauberin …’: Zwei Jahrhunderte Zither in München (Munich, 1995)
A. Michel: Zithern: Musikinstrumente zwischen Volkskultur und Bürgerlichkeit: Katalog: Musikinstrumenten-Museum der Universität Leipzig (Leipzig, 1995)
B. Wackernagel: Europäische Zupf- und Streichinstrumente, Hackbretter und Äolsharfen: Deutsches Museum München, Musikinstrumentensammlung Katalog (Frankfurt, 1997)
A. Thrasher: Chinese Musical Instruments (Hong Kong, 2000)