Bandura
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| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 321.321-5 |
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A bandura (Ukrainian: банду́ра) is a Ukrainian, plucked string, folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings and similar to the lute. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings (1926), 56 strings (1954) and up to 68 strings on modern chromaticism 'concert' instruments.
Musicians who play the bandura are referred to as bandurists. In the 19th – early 20th century traditional bandura players, often blind, were referred to as kobzars.
The earliest mention of the term bandura dates back to a Polish chronicle of 1441, which states that the Polish King Sigismund III had a court bandurist known as Taraszko who was of Ruthenian (Ukrainian) ethnicity and was also the king's companion in chess. A number of other court bandurists of Ukrainian ethnicity have also been recorded in medieval Polish documents.
The term bandura is generally thought to have entered the Ukrainian language via Polish, either from Latin or from the Greek pandora or pandura, although some scholars feel that the term was introduced into Ukraine directly from the Greek language.
The term kobza was often used as a synonym for bandura and the terms were used interchangeably until the mid-20th century.
The use of the term kobza pre-dates the first known use of the term bandura. Kobza was first mentioned in a Polish chronicle in 1313, having been introduced into the Ukrainian language sometime in the 12–13th century. It is thought to have Turkic pedigree. The less used term kobza-bandura refers to the dual origins of the instrument. However, it is cumbersome and is rarely used in spoken language.
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