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PANDURA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 676 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PANDURA (tanboura, tanbur, tambora, mandore, pandore, bandora, bandoer, &c.), an See also:

ancient See also:oriental stringed See also:instrument, a member of the See also:lute See also:family, having a See also:long See also:neck, a highly- vaulted back, and originally two or three strings plucked by the fingers. There were in antiquity at least two distinct varieties of pandura, or tanbur. (I) The more or less See also:pear- shaped type used in See also:Assyria and See also:Persia and introduced by way of See also:Asia See also:Minor into Gree,:e, whence it passed to the See also:Roman See also:Empire. In this type the See also:body, when the graceful inward curves which led up gradually from See also:base to neck were replaced by a more sloping outline, approximated to an elongated triangle with the corners rounded off- (2) The See also:oval type, a favourite instrument of the Egyptians, also found in ancient Persia and among the See also:Arabs of See also:North See also:Africa, who introduced it into See also:Spain. Our definite knowledge of the pandura is derived from the See also:treatise on See also:music by See also:Farabi,' the Arab See also:scholar who flourished See See also:Michael See also:Casiri, Bibl. Arab. Hisp., i.347. in the loth See also:century. He mentions two kinds of tanburs, devoting to each a See also:chapter, i.e. the tanbur of See also:Khorasan, the See also:Persian type, and the tanbur of See also:Bagdad, the See also:Assyrian variety; these differ in See also:form, in length, and in the arrangement of the frets. Unfortunately, Farabi does not describe the shape of the body, being more concerned with the musical See also:scale and See also:compass of the instrument; but means of See also:identification are supplied by ancient monuments. There is a tanbur on an Assyrian bas-See also:relief of the reign of See also:Assur-nasir-See also:pal, c. 88o B.C.

(See also:

British Museum), on a slab illustrating See also:camp See also:life; the musician is playing on a pear-shaped tanbur with a very long slender neck, which would have served for two strings at the most, while two men, disguised in the skins of See also:wild beasts, are dancing in front of him. There were in Farabi's See also:day five frets at least, whereas on the tanbur of Khorasan there were no fewer than eighteen, which extended for See also:half the length of the instrument. Five of these frets were fixed or invariable in position, the thirteen others being interpolated between them. The fixed frets, counting from the See also:nut, gave an See also:interval of one See also:tone to the first, of a See also:fourth to the second, of a fifth to the third, of an See also:octave to the fourth, and of a See also:major ninth to the fifth, thus providing a See also:succession of fourths and fifths. The additional frets were placed between these, so that the octaves generally contained seventeen intervals of one-third tone each. The two See also:principal accordances for the tanbur of Khorasan were the See also:marriage' when the strings. were in unison, and the lute or accordance in fourths. Farabi mentions a tail-piece or zobalba, to which the strings, generally two in number but sometimes three, were attached; they rested on a See also:bridge provided with as many notches as there were strings. In the tanbur of Khorasan they were See also:wound See also:round pegs placed opposite each other in the two sides of the See also:head, as in the See also:modern See also:violin. See also:Pollux' states that the pandura was invented by the Assyrians or Egyptians, and had three strings. See also:Theodore See also:Reinach 2 is of See also:opinion that pandura was a generic See also:term for See also:instruments of the lute type during the Roman and Alexandrine periods. This may be the See also:case, but from the modern standpoint we cannot in our See also:classification afford to disregard the invariable characteristics observed in the modern, no less than in the ancient and See also:medieval, tanburs or panduras. To be able to identify the pandura it is as well to See also:bear in mind the distinctive features of other instruments with which it might be confounded.

The tanbur had a long neck resembling a See also:

section of a See also:cylinder and a highly vaulted back, and its strings were plucked. In the rehab the neck was wanting or at best rudimentary, consisting of the See also:gradual narrowing of the body towards the head, and during the See also:middle ages in See also:Europe, as See also:rebec, it was always a bowed instrument. The See also:early lutes had larger bodies than tanburs, the neck was See also:short compared to the length of the body, the head was generally See also:bent back at right angles, and the See also:convex was not so deeply vaulted as that of the tanbur. The See also:barbiton or See also:bass lute had a long neck also, but wider, to take six, seven, or even nine strings, and from the back or See also:profile view the See also:general See also:appearance was what is known as See also:boat-shaped. Under the See also:Romans the pandura had become somewhat modified: the long neck was preserved but was made wider to take four strings, and the body was either oval 3 or slightly broader at the base, but without the inward curves of the pear-shaped instruments. A striking example of the former is to be seen among the See also:marbles of the See also:Townley Collection at the British Museum on a bas-relief illustrating the marriage feast of See also:Eros and See also:Psyche, a Roman See also:sculpture assigned to c. 15o Inc. This example is of See also:great value to the See also:archaeology of music, for the instrument can be studied in full and in profile. The arrangement of the four pegs in the back of the head is Oriental. The Persians had a six-stringed tanbur,4 which they distinguished i Onomasticon, iv. 6o. 2 See Daremberg and Saglio, See also:Diet. See also:des antiquites grecques et romaines, See also:article " See also:Lyre," p.

145o; also Revue des etudes grecques, viii. 371, &c., with illustrations, some of which the See also:

present writer would prefer to classify as early lutes, owing to the See also:absence of the characteristic long neck of the tanburs. 3 This instrument resembles the oval tanburs represented in the miniatures of musicians in the Cantigas di See also:Santa Maria (13th century) having two strings, and on each See also:side a See also:group of three very small, round See also:sound-holes, probably of Moorish origin. The MS. is numberea J. b. 2 in the See also:Escorial; the miniatures are reproduced in J. F. Riano's See also:Critical and Biogr. Notes on early See also:Spanish Music (See also:London, 1887). 4 In the miniatures-of the Cantigas there are oval tanburs withas the scheschta,s whereas a three-stringed variety was known as the schrud. The tanbur survived during the middle ages and as See also:late as the 18th century; it may be traced in the musical documents of several countries. In See also:England the name of pandura or bandoer was given to an instrument with See also:wire strings having no characteristic structural feature in See also:common with the ancient tanbur but resembling the See also:cittern (q.v.). The bandoer had a See also:flat back and sound-See also:board joined by ribs having a wavy outline.

A smaller See also:

size of the same instrument was called orphoreon, and a larger and wider penorcon; these are described and figured by See also:Praetorius,3 who suggests that this instrument, invented in England as bandoer, is probably similar to the See also:Greek iravOoOpa. This bandora, we learn from an entry in See also:Sir See also:Philip Leycester's7 See also:index to his See also:commonplace See also:book of 1575, was invented by " See also:John See also:Rose dwellinge in See also:Bridewell See also:anno 4to See also:Elizabeth, =*ho See also:left a sonne farre exceedinge himself in makinge instruments.' A 17th-century See also:French MS. (Add. 30342, fol. 144) in the British Museum, containing drawings of musical instruments, gives the tambora, not the See also:English hybrid, but a true descendant of the ancient Oriental tanbur, with nine strings, a rose sound-hole and seven frets; the French writer erroneously states that it is similar to the cistre (cittern). Filippo Bonanni3 gives an See also:illustration of the same See also:kind of instrument, with ten strings in five pairs of unisons, and calls it pandura. (K.

End of Article: PANDURA

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