The bandora or bandore is a large long-necked plucked string-instrument that can be regarded as a bass

cittern The cittern or cithren ( Fr. ''cistre'', It. ''cetra'', Ger. ''Cister,'' Sp. ''cistro, cedra, cítola'') is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance. Modern scholars debate its exact history, but it is generally accepted that it is d ...

though it does not have the

re-entrant tuning On a stringed instrument, a break in an otherwise ascending (or descending) order of string pitches is known as a re-entry. A re-entrant tuning, therefore, is a tuning where the strings (or more properly the course (music), courses) are not all ...

typical of the cittern. Probably first built by John Rose in England around 1560, it remained popular for over a century. A somewhat smaller version was the

orpharion The orpharion ( or ) or opherion is a plucked stringed instrument from the Renaissance, a member of the cittern family. Its construction is similar to the larger bandora and an ancestor of the guitar. The metal strings are tuned like a lute and ...

. The bandora is frequently one of the two bass instruments in a

broken consort In English early Baroque music, a broken consort is an ensemble featuring instruments from more than one family, for example a group featuring both string and wind instruments. A consort consisting entirely of instruments of the same family, on th ...

as associated with the works of

Thomas Morley Thomas Morley (1557 – early October 1602) was an English composer, theorist, singer and organist of the Renaissance. He was one of the foremost members of the English Madrigal School. Referring to the strong Italian influence on the Engl ...

, and it is also a solo instrument in its own right.

Anthony Holborne Anthony ''AntonyHolborne ''Holburne(c. 1545 – 29 November 1602) was a composer of music for lute, cittern, and instrumental consort during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Life An "Anthony Holburne" entered Pembroke College, Cambridge in 1562 ...

wrote many pieces for solo bandora. The multiple lute settings of Pacoloni appear both with and without optional wire-strung instruments.

Construction and type

The bandora, though built like a cittern, had six or seven ''courses'' (unison pairs) of strings tuned in a more lute-like fashion, but without the high d found on a bass lute. In fact, the barring is very close to an orpharion, and closer to contemporary lute than to cittern or guitar construction. This creates a proportion closer to present guitar tunings; typically C D G C E A, and occasionally a seventh low G string.

calls for a "Pandora" in his Consort Lessons. The term bandore and bandora were occasionally incorrectly applied to a Ukrainian folk instrument now more commonly known as the

bandura A bandura ( uk, 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 ...

, an instrument with up to 68 strings that differs considerably from the bandora. During the Renaissance there were no naming conventions and terms were used loosely. The Spanish bandurria, though this term was once also interchangeable, now applies to a treble instrument like a mandolin - a similar confusion as has occurred with mandore,

mandora File:Mandora MET DP168838.jpg, 6~9 courses lute (Calchedon, Calichon) (1726)Georg Kinsky: Musikhistorisches Museum von Wilhelm Heyer in Cöln, Bd. 2, Köln 1912, S. 98. File:Gallichon, Muzeum Instrumentów Muzycznych w Pradze.jpg, Gallichon The ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

(q.v.). All these instruments are thought to derive their names originally from the ancient Greek

pandura The pandura ( grc, πανδοῦρα, ''pandoura'') or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork d ...

(which term, once again, is found applied to a variety of stringed instruments in different regions at an early date).F. Jahnel and N. Clarke, ''The Manual of Guitar Technology'', p29, The Bold Strummer Lt

/ref>

References

Bibliography

*Masakata Kanazawa, ''(ed.)'', ''The Complete works of Anthony Holborne'', Vol. 1, ''Music for Lute and Bandora'', (Harvard University Press, 1967). *Nordstrom, Lyle, ''The Bandora: Its music and sources'', (Harmonie Park Press, Warren MI, 1992).

External links

Bandora
, CS.Dartmouth.edu {{Authority control Mandolin family instruments Early musical instruments