Pandura
 Modern lithograph of a bas relief from Mantineia (4th century BC), exhibited at National Archaeological Museum of Athens. The image shows a muse playing a pandoura, and the original is the oldest image of a pandoura currently known. | |
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The pandura[1] (Ancient Greek: πανδοῦρα, pandoura) is an ancient Greek string instrument from the Mediterranean basin.
Lutes have been present in ancient Greece.[2] They were also present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BCE.[3]
The ancient Greek pandoura was a medium or long-necked lute with a small resonating chamber. It commonly had three strings: such an instrument was also known as the trichordon (McKinnon 1984:10). Its descendants still survive as the Greek tambouras and bouzouki, the North African kuitra, the Eastern Mediterranean saz and the Balkan tamburica. Renato Meucci (1996) suggests that the some Italian Renaissance descendants of Pandura type were called chitarra italiana, mandore or mandola. In the 18th century the pandurina (mandore) was often referred to as mandolino napoletano.
Regional variations
Tanbur
A wide variety of similar instruments, often by the name tanbur, are found in areas ranging from Central Asia to Egypt.
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan the pandura is called a dambura or dunbura, and is a popular folk instrument particularly among the Hazara people. Among the famous Afghan danbura players is Safdar Tawakoli.
Caucasus
A similar instrument is found in Chechnya and Ingushetia, where it is known as Vainakhs Phondar.
In Georgia the panduri is a three-string fretted instrument widely spread in all regions of Eastern Georgia: such as Pshavkhevsureti, Tusheti, Kakheti and Kartli. A similar Georgian instrument is the chonguri.
See also
Notes
- ↑ Not to be confused with pandora, pandore, bandura, a queer-shaped guitar of the 17th century; see: Willi Apel, Harvard Dictionary of Music, Taylor & Francis, 1970, p. 551.
- ↑ Pandura, the first appearance in Greece.
- ↑ Scheherezade Qassim Hassan, R. Conway Morris, John Baily, Jean During. "Tanbūr", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001), xxv, pp. 61-62.
References
- J.W. McKinnon "Pandoura" in New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol 3 p 10 ed S. Sadie (Macmillan Press, London 1984).
- Gill, Donald 1984. [title missing]
External links
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Pandura. |
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