Album Notes

Leonard Zapf born in Bavaria,Germany started playing zither at age 10,taught by his father.Emigrated to the USA to work in his Godfathers music store in 1938.Learned the music business and became a musical instrument repairman.Son Lenny playing the bass joined with his father to form a duo,playing for various german functions and also hoping to introduce people to the beautiful sounds of the zither who have never heard the instrument.
The zither,or more accurately the concert zither,is a relatively modern instrument having only reached its full development in the latter half of the nineteenth century.There were instruments called zithers that existed in the 18th century,but they bear onlt a minimal resemblance to the modern zither.Some trace the origin of the zither to the Greek kithara which was played 2,000 years ago,but such a relationship is only etymological.The same kithara also became guitarra in Spanish,that is our modern guitar.
The zither is an instrument that was played when the herdsmen and the herdgirls drove the cattle to pasture in the Alps.It was also played when the Alpine men and women sang thier yodels,which is a type of singing popular in that region.It then found its way into the larger cities where its unique tone made it an ideal instrument for romantic music.
The concert zither is an instrument that consists of a fingerboard containing five strings a.a.d.g.c-(the same strings found on a viola)-and thirty-six strings beyond the fingerboard which serve primarily as accompaniment.The melody is produced by the fingers of the left hand pressing down on the strings in the spaces between the frets of the fingerboard while the thumb of of the right hand,which is fitted with a metal pick,strickes the string.In fact,in German you can say that a person "schlaegt die Zither"(strikes the Zither),which is the same as "spielt die Zither" (plays the Zither).The remaining fingers of the right hand produce the accompaniment as they pluck the so-called "acompaniment" strings.