A bandura is a traditional Ukrainian stringed folk instrument played by plucking the strings. It combines features of a zither and a lute. Before the 1940s, it was also called a kobza. Early banduras, made around 1700, had between 5 and 12 strings and looked similar to lutes. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased first to 31 (in 1926), then to 56–68 strings on modern "concert" banduras (in 1954).

People who play the bandura are called bandurists. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, traditional bandura players, often blind, were called kobzars. The instrument is believed to have developed from a mix of two other instruments: the gusli (a type of Eastern European psaltery) and the kobza (a type of Eastern European lute). Some sources also describe the kobza as a type of instrument similar to the bandura. The word "bandura" appears in Polish records from 1441. However, the blending of features from these instruments likely happened in the late 18th or early 19th centuries.

Etymology and terminology

Banduras were first written about in a Polish record from 1441. This record said that Sigismund III, the king of Poland, hired a musician named Taraszko from Ruthenia to play the bandura and play chess with him. Other medieval Polish writings mentioned other bandurists at the court who had Ukrainian ancestry.

The word "bandura" is believed to have come into the Ukrainian language through Polish. It may have come from Latin or from the Greek words "pandora" or "pandura." Some experts think the word was borrowed directly from Greek.

The term "bandore" (or "bandora") comes from a mistaken idea by a Russian music expert named A. Famintsyn. He believed the word was borrowed from England, but this idea is no longer accepted. The word "bandura" appeared in early 20th-century Soviet Ukrainian-English and Russian-English dictionaries. Some Eastern European string instruments, like the hurdy-gurdy, are sometimes called banduras, and the five-string guitar is sometimes called a bandurka.

History

The use of lute-like stringed instruments by Ukrainians began in 591. Byzantine Greek records from that year describe Bulgar warriors who carried lute-like instruments called kitharas. In the 11th century, frescoes in Saint Sophia's Cathedral, the capital of Kievan Rus', show pictures of lute-like instruments. It is not known what specific name was used for these instruments in early times, though some believe they were called "husli," a medieval Slavic word for string instruments.

Until the mid-18th century, the bandura had frets and was played like a lute or guitar. It was similar to the German bandore, with five single strings along the neck. In the mid-18th century, extra strings called "prystrunky" were added. By the middle of the 19th century, the zither-like bandura replaced the lute-like version.

An instrument combining parts of a lute and a psaltery is sometimes credited to Francesco Landini, an Italian musician from the 14th century. Filippo Villani wrote that Landini created an instrument called the "serena serenarum," which made a beautiful sound when struck. Artists like Alessandro Magnasco showed that these instruments were still used in Italy around 1700.

In left-bank Ukraine, the bandura changed greatly with the rise of blind traveling musicians called kobzars. The first school for teaching bandura playing was established in 1738 in Hlukhiv, where students learned to play the bandura and violin from sheet music. This was the first music school in Eastern Europe and trained musicians for the Tsarist Court in St. Petersburg.

The bandura was adapted to support singing. By the mid-18th century, it had four to six stoppable strings (with or without frets) and up to sixteen treble strings called prystrunky, arranged in a diatonic scale on the soundboard. This form of the bandura remained largely unchanged until the early 20th century.

Until the 20th century, bandura music was passed down orally, including folk songs, chants, psalms, and epics called dumy. Some folk dance tunes were also played on the bandura.

The bandura became popular among nobility in Eastern Europe. Records mention Ukrainian bandurists in Russia and Poland. Empress Elisabeth of Russia, daughter of Peter the Great, had a long relationship with her Ukrainian bandurist, Olexii Rozumovsky.

In 1908, the Mykola Lysenko Institute in Kyiv began teaching bandura playing, led by kobzar Ivan Kuchuhura Kucherenko. Classes were briefly offered until 1911, but attempts to reopen them in 1912 failed due to the deaths of Mykola Lysenko and Hnat Khotkevych. Khotkevych published the first bandura primer in 1909. Other primers followed, written by Mykhailo Domontovych, Vasyl Shevchenko, and Vasyl Ovchynnikov between 1913 and 1914.

In 1910, Khotkevych published the first bandura composition, a dance called "Odarochka" in the Kharkiv style. A book of pieces was prepared in 1912 but was not printed due to the publisher’s arrest. Despite many compositions written in the 1920s and 1930s, few were published in Ukraine. Primers by Domontovych, Shevchenko, and Ovchynnikov, published between 1913 and 1914, included Ukrainian folk songs with bandura accompaniment.

In 1876, the Russian government banned stage performances by kobzars and bandurists through the Ems Ukaz. This law targeted Ukrainian music and culture, forcing blind musicians to beg on the streets. They were often arrested, and their instruments were destroyed. These restrictions ended in 1902 after a special delegation from the Imperial Archaeological Society addressed the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The Ems Ukaz also banned the use of the bandura in concerts because its music was sung in Ukrainian. Bandurists and kobzars were persecuted due to the instrument’s ties to Ukrainian history and the religious songs in their repertoire. Much of the kobzar music celebrated the legacy of the Cossacks and included chants and psalms performed outside churches.

In 1902, the XIIth Archaeological Conference in Kharkiv discussed the decline of kobzars. It was believed the last kobzar, Ostap Veresai, had died in 1890, but six living kobzars were found to perform at the conference. This led to a renewed interest in the bandura, especially among students and intellectuals. Metal strings replaced gut strings after 1902, and the instrument grew larger to support stage performances and new songs.

The bandura fell out of favor among nobility with the rise of Western music but remained popular among Cossacks in the Hetmanate. After the destruction of the Zaporozhian Sich, blind musicians called kobzars in Right-bank Ukraine continued to play the instrument. As bandura ensembles gained recognition, technology for playing the bandura advanced. By the early 20th century, the bandura had about 20 strings with wooden pegs (four basses and 16 prystrunky), but its sound was too quiet for concerts.

Construction

The back of a traditional bandura is usually made from a single piece of wood, such as willow, poplar, cherry, or maple. Since the 1960s, some banduras have been made with glued backs. More recently, some banduras use fiberglass for the back. The soundboard is typically made from spruce. The wrest planks and bridge are made from hard woods like birch.

The bandura was originally a diatonic instrument, meaning it used a scale with seven notes per octave. Even after chromatic strings (which allow for more notes) were added in the 1920s, many musicians still play it as a diatonic instrument. Modern concert banduras often include a mechanism that allows them to be quickly retuned for different musical keys. These mechanisms were first added to concert banduras in the late 1950s. Many people have contributed to the development of modern bandura designs, including Khotkevych, Leonid Haydamaka, Peter Honcharenko, Skliar, Herasymenko, and William Vetzal.

Today, there are four main types of bandura, which differ in how they are built, held, played, the music they are used for, and the sound they make.

The Starosvitska bandura, also called the traditional or folk bandura, was common from the late 18th century. These instruments usually have 12 to 23 strings, tuned diatonically (with 4–6 bass strings and 16–18 treble strings). They are handmade by local violin makers, and no two instruments are exactly the same. The back is usually carved from a single piece of wood, often willow. The strings are tuned to a diatonic scale (major, minor, or modal), with bass strings matching the I, IV, and V degrees of the scale.

The bandura was mainly played by blind traveling singers in Ukraine called kobzari. These instruments originally had gut strings, but after 1891, steel strings became popular because they were easier to make. By the early 1900s, steel strings were widely used.

In the 1980s, interest in the traditional folk bandura grew again, led by students of Heorhy Tkachenko, including Mykola Budnyk, Volodymyr Kushpet, Mykola Tovkailo, and Victor Mishalow. This movement continued through their students, who formed groups like those led by Mikhailo Khai, Kost Cheremsky, and Jurij Fedynskyj. Formal lessons and written guides for the bandura were created. Today, notable makers include Budnyk, Tovkailo, Rusalim Kozlenko, Vasyl Boyanivsky, Fedynskyj, and Bill Vetzal. A category for traditional bandura playing is now part of the Hnat Khotkevych International Folk Instruments competition in Kharkiv, held every three years.

A close-up of a Kyiv-style bandura shows tuning pins. The strings wrap around these pins and rest on pegs. Longer bass strings are wound and attached to the neck. A decorative rose is often near the sound hole. Chromatic and diatonic strings are stretched over pegs in two levels, like the black and white keys on a piano.

The Kyiv-style or academic bandura is the most common type in Ukraine today. These instruments have 55–65 metal strings (12–17 bass strings and 50 treble strings) tuned chromatically over five octaves, with or without retuning mechanisms. They are called Kyiv-style because they were designed for a playing style developed by the Kyiv Bandurist Capella. This style was inspired by techniques used by kobzars from Chernihiv, so the instrument is sometimes called the Chernihiv-style bandura.

Concert banduras are mostly made by the Chernihiv Musical Instrument Factory or the Trembita Musical Instrument Factory in Lviv. Fewer are made by the Melnytso-Podilsk and Kyiv workshops. These instruments come in two types: 'Standard Prima' and 'concert' models. 'Concert' models have a retuning mechanism in the upper wrest plank.

'Concert' Kyiv-style banduras were first made in Kyiv by Ivan Skliar between 1948 and 1954, and later by the Chernihiv factory from 1952. The Chernihiv factory stopped making banduras in 1991. Another line was developed by Vasyl Herasymenko and continues at the Trembita factory in Lviv. Fewer instruments exist from the now-closed Melnytso-Podilsk workshop.

In 2014–2015, a special tool for carving bandura bodies from the Chernihiv factory was restored by a local metalworking company. The tool was used to start a new production line called the Chernihiv Bandura Center Pleyada. This center uses the term "Chernihiv-style" instead of "Kyiv-style." In 2018, five new Chernihiv-style banduras were made and tested in schools. In 2020, the center began producing two types: 'Legend' (classic academic banduras) and 'Kalyna' (smaller, lighter banduras for children). In 2022, these instruments were shown in Latvia. In 2024, the center started making 'Perl' banduras with retuning mechanisms for professionals. In 2025, the center received a grant to buy a CNC machine for mass-producing affordable banduras for Ukrainian schools. These instruments are also used to restore old or damaged banduras.

Most banduras are made by craftsmen outside Ukraine, but they are now very popular in Ukraine. They are strung either diatonically (with 34–36 strings) or chromatically (with 61–68 strings).

The standard Kharkiv bandura was first created by Khotkevych and Haydamaka in the 1920s. A semi-chromatic version was made by the Honcharenko brothers in the late 1940s. Herasymenko made some in the 1980s. The Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble in Australia was the only Western group to use Kharkiv-style banduras.

Today, Canadian maker Bill Vetzal has made Kharkiv-style banduras successfully. His

Ensembles

The main group that started performing the bandura in the West is the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus. Other important groups that have helped develop the bandura are the Canadian Bandurist Capella and the Hnat Khotkevych Ukrainian Bandurist Ensemble. Many similar groups have also become popular in Ukrainian communities, with some small groups gaining great popularity.