Talk about groundbreaking. “The Third Man” became one of the first film scores to move into popular music territory. Composer Karas played the entire thing on the zither. His “The Third Man Theme” was ...

For most of British history, Englishmen have been able to take zither music—or leave it to the Tyrolese. Last week, nonetheless, the humble, lap-sized stringed instrument was the musical rage of ...

Minding his own business and his own zither at a wine bistro and then hauled back to America to write the score that reshaped the entertainment industry, the work of Anton Karas preserves the legacy ...