"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 ...
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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)
