Székely Zoltán (szerk.): Arrabona - Múzeumi Közlemények 48/1. Ünnepi kötet a 90 éves Barsi Ernő tiszteletére (Győr, 2010)
Tanulmányok - Brauer-Benke József: Citeratípusok Magyarországon
ARRABONA 2010.48/1. TANULMÁNYOK ZITHER TYPES IN HUNGARY Based on the etymological and iconographic data, the instrument collections of the different museums and the study of the documents of the Ethnologic Database the zither-type instruments seem to have arrived at the Hungarian language area in at least three phases. First the Kratzzither might arrive from the direction of the around the end of the 17th or the beginning of the 18th century. This trough-formed zither was named after a Medieval lutetype instrument which became almost extinct by that time. During the time of the reign of Emperor Charles III (1689-1740) a lot of German migrants came first from Baden-Würteberg and later from Hessen and to the Transdanubian area. In contrast to the general view the settlement actions of Maria Therese and Joseph II targeted mainly the Bácska and Bánság regions in. The Bavarian settlers might know and bring the Kratzzither type instruments with them. Morphologically this type is similar to the most simple structured Hungarian trough or prism zither. Although the earliest examples belong to the bellied-type zither, the trough-type might be known in the Hungarian language area already in the 18th century. It was the beginning or the middle of the 19th century that saw the second appearance of the zithers in. Base on a study of the instruments of the ethnographic collections it can be concluded that the Salzburgian or bellied-zithers of diatonic scale spread in Transdanubia and in the Great Plain from the western to the eastern direction in the 1870s at the latest and they might spread toward to Transylvania and to the Romanian language areas from there. Later the so called small-headed zither replaced the bellied zither from the Great Plain, but it remained the characteristic type of the Transdanubian area. The area of the Great Plain showed faster development and was more receptive to the novelties in the architecture, agricultural tools and other areas of the material culture than the Transdanubian area, and this fact can also be noted in the development and spread of the zither types. Finally, in the third phase the manufactured chord zithers and the genuine chromatic scaled chord zithers appeared in . Due to the Styrian or third based tuning of the latter they were called “Styrian zither” in . However, the domestic small-headed and bellied-zithers of modified scale fulfilled the musical needs of the peasants, so the use of the chromatic scaled concert zithers and chord zithers in the folk music remained very limited. József Brauer-Benke 36
