Music: Zither Congress

Rochester, N. Y.. city of cameras and music, is the hotbed of U. S. zither playing. There last week the United Zither Players of America gathered for its Tenth National Congress and, proudly led by the Rochester Zither Club, climaxed a three-day meeting with a grand plinkety-plink concert. There are 100 zither players in Rochester, all of Teutonic origin.

The zither, a German-Austrian-Swiss folk instrument, is sometimes called “the mountain piano.” A really good zither is a shallow box with 41 wire strings. Laid on the lap or a table, it is played by fingering with the left hand, plinking with a thumb pick and fingers of the right hand.

The first American Zither Congress was held in 1912 in Washington, Mo., home of the Franz Schwarzer Zither Co., largest U. S. zither makers. Young folk are apt to think the homely zither “corny.” President Leonard Zapf, Philadelphia music dealer and teacher, taught his son Karl Tom to play, heard him acclaimed a genius at the 1926 Congress. But Karl Tom deserted the zither, took to music teaching.

President Zapf and wife, a plain, smiling German couple, went to last week’s Rochester Congress by bus, took charge of various receptions, joined the rehearsals under Rochester Dirigent Hubert Stiens. The orchestra contained 50 zithers gathered from all over the U. S., three violins, one ‘cello, seven mandolins, eight guitars, one flute, one bass viol. A spat nearly spoiled a rehearsal when Soloist Maximillian Veith, a lithographic demonstrator with a Hitler mustache, became piqued at Dirigent Stiens, commanded the orchestra: “When I am in your city I play as I wish. Now you must follow me. If you do not like it, take your instruments and scram.”

On the final day, 2,000 zither-loving Teutons crowded into the Rochester Masonic Auditorium for the concert. Feature of the program was four favorite zither compositions by late Zither Composer Henry Wormsbacher. Though not up to the standard of world’s No. 1 Zitherist Ferdinand Kollmaneck of Leipzig, Maximillian Veith plinked excellently, got a big hand.