<P> For The Third Man, Karas tuned the zither a semi-tone lower, giving a particularly distinctive tone to the contrabass strings . The resulting lower string tension also enabled Karas to perform an expressive vibrato on the fingerboard melody strings . Film director Carol Reed, (on whose oak kitchen table the music was performed), described the sound as "gritty and dirty", perfectly reflecting the atmospheric mood of the film . </P> <P> The Alpine zither has 42 strings, and differs from the concert zither primarily in requiring the addition of an extension to the body of the instrument to support both the longer additional contrabass strings and their tuners . </P> <P> Alpine zithers are tuned in a similar manner to the concert zither, with the accompaniment and bass strings each providing a full set of 12 chromatic pitches also arranged in a cycle of fifths . Contrabass strings are arranged in a descending chromatic scale . Late 19th and early 20th century versions of the instrument were often called' harp zithers'--so - named because the pillar extension seemed a miniature version of the harp's pillar . The extra contrabass strings ran parallel to the other strings on these earlier instruments, the diagonal arrangement illustrated developed later to assist the right hand in reaching the strings . </P> <P> There are two popular tunings for the modern zither: Munich and Viennese . The "zither tuning chart" below, gives tuning details, including pitches and octaves . Munich tuning is on top, and Vienna tuning below . Some players have used Vienna tuning only for the fretted strings, and Munich tuning for the unfretted strings . Full Viennese tuning is normally used only on instruments with 38 or fewer strings . </P>

Ancient harp like musical instrument in the zither family