 | |
| Classification | |
|---|---|
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.321 |
| Playing range | |
 | |
| Related instruments | |
A bandura (Ukrainian: бандура) is a Ukrainian plucked-string folk-instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often called a kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings and resembled lutes. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings (1926), then to 56 strings – 68 strings on modern "concert" instruments (1954).[2]
Musicians who play the bandura are referred to as bandurists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries traditional bandura players, often blind, were called kobzars.[3] It is suggested that the instrument developed as a hybrid of gusli (Eastern-European psaltery) and kobza (Eastern-European lute).[citation needed] Some also consider the kobza as a type or an instrument resembling the bandura.[4] The term bandura occurs in Polish chronicles from 1441. The hybridization, however, occurred in the late-18th or early-19th centuries.
- ^ Крылатов, Юрий. "Взяв і я бандуру" [I also took a bandura]. pisni.org.ua. проект "Українські пісні" (project "Ukrainian songs"). Retrieved July 11, 2015.
- ^ Mizynec, V. Folk Instruments of Ukraine. Bayda Books, Melbourne, Australia, 1987, 48с.
- ^ Buckingham, James Silk; Sterling, John; Maurice, Frederick Denison; Stebbing, Henry; Dilke, Charles Wentworth; Hervey, Thomas Kibble; Dixon, William Hepworth; Maccoll, Norman; Murry, John Middleton (1874). The Athenaeum: A Journal of Literature, Science, the Fine Arts, Music, and the Drama. London: J. Francis. p. 270.
- ^ Findeizen, Nikolai (2008). History of Music in Russia from Antiquity to 1800, Vol. 1. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-02637-8.