Bandura (instrument)

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The Ukrainian street musician Ostap Kindraczuk with a bandura in Poznan, Poland

Bandura , bandoura , "Ukrainian lute zither", is a plucked lute instrument in the Ukraine , in which a number of other strings are attached next to the fingerboard like a zither , which run parallel over the sound box and are not shortened. The total number of strings is up to 65. The bandura is played with both hands and combines the playing style of both plucked instruments .

origin

A lute is mentioned in a Greek chronicle from the 6th century about warriors from the area of ​​today's Ukraine who played lute-like instruments. These lutes, called kobsa , were much smaller, rounder, and had fewer strings than the modern bandura. Over time, more strings were added which were then attached to the side of the abdomen instead of the neck. In the Middle Ages , the bandura became just as famous in the royal courts of Eastern Europe as the lute in Western Europe. It was mainly used to accompany dances and songs. It was also very popular among the Ukrainian Cossacks , who developed a unique repertoire for the instrument. A new form of Ukrainian professional musician has emerged from their ranks, similar to the troubadours from France . They were called banduristi or kobsari (singular kobsar ).

At the beginning of the 20th century, interest in the bandura increased again and it became very popular among the urban population. As the popularity of bandura music groups increased, so did the demand for new instruments. At this time there was considerable innovation and experimentation with the playing technique and structure of the bandura. Banduras were mass-produced. They had more strings and were tuned chromatically instead of diatonic . Levers have been added to make tuning faster. There were classes and composers were commissioned to write pieces of music especially for the Bandura. The heyday of the bandura was accompanied by the awakening of Ukrainian patriotism and the blossoming of the arts.

But this phase did not last long. The Soviet government fought all traces of the Ukrainian national consciousness and with it the emerging Ukrainian culture. In 1935, Kobsari from all regions of Ukraine were invited to Kharkiv on the pretext of an ethnographic conference , where supposedly their songs and stories would be collected. Instead, they were all executed. Persecution, arrest and exile became commonplace for countless Ukrainian artists and bandura players. Many emigrated to the USA and Canada , where they could continue to practice their art.

Design and style of play

Although the bandura is quite suitable for sonatas and concerts, it is particularly suitable for accompanying singers. That is why the combination of bandura groups and choral singers emerged as a synthesis of the two most popular forms of Ukrainian music. But nowadays it also appears more and more in the area of ​​folk / pagan metal.

Today there are three main types of banduras in concert use:

  • the classic bandura , tuned diatonic, with about 20 strings
  • the Kharkiv bandura , tuned diatonic or chromatic, with a single string mechanism and 34 to 65 strings
  • the Kiewbandura with 55 to 64 strings, tuned chromatically

While the Kiewbandura is mass-produced in two regions of Ukraine, the Kharkivbandura has practically disappeared in Ukraine.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bandura  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d www.bandura.org: History ( Memento from February 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive )