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Pandura

The pandura (Ancient Greek: πανδοῦρα, pandoura) or pandore, an ancient string instrument, belonged in the broad class of the lute and guitar instruments. Akkadians played similar instruments from the 3rd millennium BC. Ancient Greek artwork depicts such lutes from the 3rd or 4th century BC onward It shows Iranian influences, Pandora is rooted in the Persian word.[1]

Classification

Ancient Greece[edit]

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 (three-stringed) (τρίχορδον, McKinnon 1984:10). Its descendants still survive as the Kartvelian panduri, the Greek tambouras and bouzouki,[2][3] 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,[4] since the fourth century BC.


Renato Meucci (1996) suggests that the some Italian Renaissance descendants of pandura type were called chitarra italiana, mandore or mandola.

Roman[edit]

Information about Roman pandura-type instruments comes mainly from ancient Roman artwork. 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.[5] The word pandura was rare in classical Latin writers.[6]

Mesopotamia[edit]

Lute-class instruments were present in Mesopotamia since the Akkadian era, or the third millennium BC.[7]

Terracotta figure of a woman playing a pandoura, ca. 300 BC, Cyprus (British Museum)

Terracotta figure of a woman playing a pandoura, ca. 300 BC, Cyprus (British Museum)

Ancient Greek Tanagra figurine, 200 BC.

Ancient Greek Tanagra figurine, 200 BC.

Short lute-family instrument on a Hellenistic-style plaster sculpture made in Hadda, Afghanistan and now at the Guimet Museum in Paris. Estimated date 1st-2nd century AD.

Short lute-family instrument on a Hellenistic-style plaster sculpture made in Hadda, Afghanistan and now at the Guimet Museum in Paris. Estimated date 1st-2nd century AD.

Memorial stele for a 16-year-old Roman woman, shown playing a pandurium, 2nd century AD, from Emerita Augusta, Hispania (Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida, Spain)[8][9][10]

Memorial stele for a 16-year-old Roman woman, shown playing a pandurium, 2nd century AD, from Emerita Augusta, Hispania (Museo Nacional de Arte Romano, Mérida, Spain)[8][9][10]

Detail of a pandura-type instrument from a Roman sarcophagus relief, 3rd century AD (British Museum)[11]

Detail of a pandura-type instrument from a Roman sarcophagus relief, 3rd century AD (British Museum)[11]

Roman or Byzantine pandoura from a 6th-century A.D. mosaic in the Great Palace of Constantinople. The instrument has three strings.[12]

Roman or Byzantine pandoura from a 6th-century A.D. mosaic in the Great Palace of Constantinople. The instrument has three strings.[12]

Phandar

Tambouras

Panduri

Baglamas

Bandura

Tanbur

Mandolin

McKinnon, J. W. (1984). "Pandoura". In Sadie, S. (ed.). . Vol. 3. London: Macmillan Press. p. 10.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

Citations


Bibliography

Picture of a pandura, originally published 1947 in the book The Great Palace of the Byzantine Emperors by David Talbot Rice. Henry George Farmer calls the instrument "a three-stringed pandoura" in his 1949 article An Early Greek Pandore.

Website that has a history of Pandura with some good photos.