Eliza May Chase Foster of Stony Brook Road, Brewster, enjoyed playing this instrument as well as a pump organ in her home.
~ Gift of Henry N. Foster
Zithers are played by strumming or plucking strings, either with the fingers or a plectrum, sounding the strings with a bow, or, with varieties of the instrument like the cimbalom, by beating the strings with specially shaped hammers. Like an acoustic guitar or lute, a zither's body serves as a resonating chamber, but, unlike guitars and lutes, a zither lacks a distinctly separate neck assembly. The number of strings varies, from one to more than fifty.
In modern usage "zither" refers to three specific instruments: the concert zither, the Alpine zither, and the chord zither. European emigration during the 19th century introduced the concert and Alpine zither to North and South America. Chord zithers also became popular in North America during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These variants all use metal strings.
