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] (Template:Lang-grc, pandoura) is an ancient Greek string instrument from the Mediterranean basin.
Lutes have been present in ancient Greece since the 4th century BC.[2]
They were also present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BCE.[3]
Greek
The ancient Greek pandoura was a medium or long-necked lute with a small resonating chamber, used by the ancient Greeks. It commonly had three strings: such an instrument was also known as the trichordon (τρίχορδον, McKinnon 1984:10). Its descendants still survive as the Greek tambouras and bouzouki,[4][5] the North African kuitra, the Eastern Mediterranean saz and the Balkan tamburica and remained popular also in the near east and eastern Europe, too, usually acquiring a third string in the course of time,[6] since the fourth century BCE.
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.
Roman
Under the Romans the pandura was modified: the long neck was preserved but was made wider to take four strings, and the body was either oval or slightly broader at the base, but without the inward curves of the pear-shaped instruments.[7]
Related instruments
There were also at least two distinct varieties of pandura.[7] One type was pear-shaped, used in Assyria and Persia.[7] In this type the body had graceful inward curves which led up gradually from base to neck.[7] These curves changed at the bottom end off the instrument to a more sloping outline, an elongated triangle with the corners rounded off.[7] The oval type, a favourite instrument of the Egyptians, was also found in ancient Persia and among the Arabs of North Africa.[7]
Regional variations
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.
- ^ Alexander Lingas, "Musical instruments" in Encycolpedy of Ancient Greece p 385.
- ^ Sadie, Stanley; Tyrrell, John, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.). London: Macmillan.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help) - ^ instruments-museum, Greece
- ^ Elizabeth Jeffreys, John Haldon, Robin Cormack, The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies, Oxford University Press, 2008, p.928; confer also Nikos Maliaras, Byzantina mousika organa, EPN 1023, ISΒN 978-960-7554-44-4 and Digenis Akritas, Escorial version, vv. 826-827, ed. and transl. Elizabeth Jeffrey.
- ^ The Facts on File Dictionary of Music, Fourth edition
- ^ a b c d e f Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911, Volume 20
- ^ https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/julio-claudians/8098646683/ Flicker based photo of the museum information sign for the stele.
- ^ Jonathan Edmondson, Trinidad Nogales, Walter Trillmich, Imagen y memoria: monumentos, funarios, con retratos en la colonia Augusta
- ^ Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Merida, Spain, online page for Lutatia Lupatia stella.
References
- J.W. McKinnon "Pandoura" in New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol 3 p 10 ed S. Sadie (Macmillan Press, London 1984).
External links
