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The citera is a fretted member of the box zither family (strings stretched
across a box - but not continuing up a neck as on a lute or guitar).
Unfretted box zithers go back at least to the 12th century in
Europe, but European merchants visiting Asia in the 16th century appear
to have brought back the idea of combining one or more stopped strings
and drone strings.
 Over
the next hundred years dozens of variants emerged across Europe, from
Norway to the Alps, from the British Isles to Romania, some plucked
with a plectrum others bowed, some fingered directly others with a rod,
some with but one melody string some with many, some with but one or
two drone strings other with many. Many were elaborate works of art.
The Hungarian version is closely related to the 17th century German
'scheitholt', the Swedish 'hommel' or 'hummel' and the Nowegian 'langeleik'
- and the hungarian name 'citera' is similar to the Lithuania and Slovenia
'citra', Latvia 'citara' and Romania 'citura' (all ultimately derived
from the ancient Greek 'kythera' meaning 'harp'). The hungarian citera
come in different sizes for playing in different keys. They have a range
of drone and melody strings tuned by machine screws and plucked or strummed
with a (usually plastic) plectrum held in (sometimes attached to) the
right hand. The melody strings are chromatically fretted and individually
stopped by the fingers of the left hand. The instrument sometimes goes
by the fuller name of 'kisfejes citera' or 'little head zither' as the
sections of the box often terminated in a little carved head.
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