"A bandura (Ukrainian: банду́ра) is a Ukrainian, plucked string, folk instrument. It combines elements of the zither and lute and, up until the 1940s, was also often referred to by the term kobza. Early instruments (c. 1700) had 5 to 12 strings and similar to the lute. In the 20th century, the number of strings increased initially to 31 strings (1926), 56 strings - 68 strings on modern ´concert´ instruments (1954).
Musicians who play the bandura are referred to as bandurists. In the 19th – early 20th century traditional bandura players, often blind, were referred to as kobzars. It is suggested that the instrument developed as a hybrid of gusli (Eastern-European psaltery) and kobza (Eastern-European lute) and although the term bandura can date itself to Polish chronicles from 1441, this hybridization occurred in the late 18th or early 19th centuries." - (en.wikipedia.org 20.09.2019)
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