Bandura

What it means

The bandura is a Ukrainian plucked instrument with a flat, oval body, a short neck and a large number of strings stretched across the soundboard. Alongside a few bass strings at the neck, the soundboard carries a fan of numerous shorter strings that are plucked freely — similarly to a harp and unlike instruments with a fingerboard. Modern concert banduras have several dozen strings and mechanisms for quickly retuning individual notes; older builds are smaller and have fewer strings.

Musical use

The instrument is closely bound up with the Ukrainian narrative and song tradition and was for a long time used above all to accompany the singer’s own voice. The sound is bright, pearly and rings on long, which favours a transparent accompanying pattern of broken chords. In the twentieth century bandura ensembles and choirs arose, as well as a concert repertoire of its own with arrangements and original works. In its family type the bandura stands between the lute and the psaltery: the body recalls a lute, the manner of playing with freely swinging strings a zither or harp instrument.

Performance practice

It is as a rule plucked with both hands, often with fingertips or fitted picks; the left hand operates the lower, the right the higher strings, the exact division depending on build and school. Because the strings ring freely, targeted damping is as important as plucking — plan which hand stops which sound. The instrument is held slightly tilted or set down, so that both hands reach their string areas without contortion. Keep the tuning up regularly, since many strings influence one another across the soundboard. The indications for tuning systems differ by build and school; check them on the particular instrument.

Concert instruments with retuning mechanisms call for a technique of their own: the levers are operated during playing, and their use must be planned and notated like a pedal change on the harp. When accompanying singing, the loudness stays deliberately restrained, so that the text is to the fore. Before a performance check every string singly, because individual mistunings are easily overlooked in the full sound.