(Fr. pandore, bandore; Ger. Bandoer, Pandora).
A plucked chordophone (classified as a lute) of bass register with metal strings and a scalloped and festooned body outline, said to have been invented in London in 1562. Besides having a considerable solo repertory, it was required to accompany some of the earliest printed English songs, and was one of the six obligatory instruments of the mixed Consort. There are many references to its use in the theatre and in court entertainments through the late 16th century and the 17th, but by the 18th it was falling into disuse.
The bandora has a flat or slightly domed back and a flat soundboard into which is set a circular ornamental ‘rose’ soundhole. It is strung with iron and brass wires, the lowest of which are twisted from two or more strands, not overspun like modern ones. Bacon (Sylva Sylvarum, 1627) writes of ‘a Wreathed String such as are in the Base Strings of Bandoraes’. The strings run in double courses from the pegbox, usually ‘viol’ type with lateral pegs, over the fingerboard and soundboard to the bridge, which is glued in position, as on a lute. The bandora has a special method of string attachment at the bridge, that is, a fret-like strip of brass and a row of hitch-pins along its bottom edge. Although the bandora has been described as a kind of bass cittern, its fixed bridge and the lute-like system of bars under its flat soundboard make it acoustically quite distinct. Whereas the cittern was normally a plectrum instrument, the bandora was played with the fingers (although Roger North reported in the late 17th century that the ‘pandora’ was ‘struck with a quill’). The only features the two instruments have in common are the metal strings and sheet brass frets, secured in tapering slots in the fingerboard by hardwood wedges.
Praetorius (2/1619) stated that the bandora was an English invention, which is confirmed in the sixth edition of John Stowe’s Annales, or a General Chronicle Of England (1631);
In the fourth yere of Queen Elizabeth John Rose, dwelling in Bridewell, devised and made an instrument with wyer strings, commonly called the Bandora, and left a son, far excelling himselfe in making Bandoraes, Voyall de Gamboes and other instruments.
The undulating outline very probably had an allegorical or symbolical meaning, perhaps connected with the scallop shell (see Wells, 1982); the shape was also used on certain viols, at least one of which is attributed to Rose. The alternative spelling, pandora, may be an allusion to the legend of Pandora’s box. There seems to be no connection with the Spanish bandurria nor with the ‘pandora’ whose invention Alessandro Piccinini claimed in 1623; this was apparently a lute with extension bass strings and additional short metal strings in the treble, perhaps akin to the English Poliphant.
The earliest illustrations of both the bandora and its close relative, the orpharion, are in William Barley’s New Booke of Tabliture (1596). This was published in parts, containing instructions and music for the lute as well as for these two wire-strung instruments. At first glance, the two illustrations look remarkably similar, though the orpharion is shown with seven pairs of strings and the bandora has only six. Furthermore, whereas the bandora has its bridge and frets placed in the normal way, at right angles to the strings (fig.1), the orpharion has them set obliquely, to give a progressive increase in length from treble to bass (see Orpharion, fig.3). This innovation was probably crucial to the subsequent development of the two instruments, and seems to have taken place only a few years before Barley’s book was printed. In a letter from Francis Derrick in Antwerp to a friend in London, dated 9 October 1594, there is a postscript:
I
am requested by Throck: to write unto you verie earnestly to buy him a bandora
or orpheryo[n] of the new fashion wch hath the bridge and the
stoppes slope and aswell the treble as the oth[er] stringes wyre. The best you
can fynde wherin you must use the help of some [who] can skill in that
instrument. and also to procure some principall les[sons] for the bandora of
Ho[l]bornes makinge or other most conninge men i[n that instru]ment And
whatsoever you lay out either for the instrument or the lessons he will repay
you wth great thankes …
(Cecil Papers 28/83)
Subsequent illustrations for the bandora, including those of Fludd (1617), Praetorius (2/1619; see fig.2), Mersenne (1636–7), Trichet (c1640) and others all show this feature, although some of the engravers have not understood the absurdity of a sloping bridge with straight frets, or vice versa. The measurements recorded by Talbot (c1695) also indicated the sloping arrangement.
Barley is the earliest source for the tunings of both bandora and orpharion, which he gives in tablature, indicating the intervals between the courses but not the nominal pitch. For a six-course bandora, starting from the bass, the intervals are 2nd, 4th, 4th, major 3rd, 4th (2–4–4–3–4). The double courses were tuned in unison; the first writer to indicate that the lower four pairs of strings were tuned in octaves was Talbot, a century later. Some of the solo pieces in Barley’s anthology of bandora music require a seven-course instrument, with the extra course a 4th below the sixth (4–2–4–4–3–4). The last part of Derrick’s first sentence above serves as a reminder that at the time (and indeed until about 1900) even the best steel wire was inferior to gut in tensile strength. It seems that, with parallel bridge and frets, the extension in range was at first only possible by using gut for the top course; the ‘new’ combination of sloping frets and bridge with ‘steel’ wire for the highest pair of strings allowed the use of metal throughout. Outside of the arrangements for consort and voices by Sir William Leighton, all of the extant parts for consort call for the six-course bandora. On the other hand, many pieces in the solo literature call for the seventh course.
The question of pitch is still unanswered. Praetorius (2/1619) states that the Bandora was tuned in ‘Chorton’, a step lower than ‘Cammerton’. However, there is reason to believe that, in the consort at least, the bandora was pitched at the higher level (Segerman, 1988). Ian Harwood (1981) has also suggested that there was a high-pitch bandora at a 4th above the larger size. Barley’s collection of music included four songs with accompaniment for six-course bandora which give clues to the nominal pitch. However, if the vocal pitch is taken at its face value, the result is somewhat confusing. In two songs the apparent bandora tuning is F–G–c–f–a–d'; in one it is a tone higher, and in another a fourth lower, C–D–G–c–e–a. These variant tunings are most probably a ‘transposition of convenience’, to avoid the singer’s having to read in key signatures that would be most improbable for the time. There are many other examples of this device in the English and continental lute-song repertory. The last of these tunings, with a as the top string, is the only acknowledged tuning for the instrument. It agrees with the nominal pitch of the bandora in the consort lessons of Morley (1599, 1611) and Rosseter (1609), as well as manuscript sources. This tuning is confirmed by writers such as Fludd (1617) and Praetorius (2/1619).
Almost from the date of its invention the bandora was associated with the theatre. In Gascoigne’s Jocasta (performed in London in 1566), it is named (as ‘bandurion’) among the instruments used for the dumb-show between the acts. In 1598, Philip Henslowe’s inventory of the properties of the Rose Theatre included a bandora among the instruments. On 18 September 1602, the Duke of Stettin-Pomerania wrote in his diary of the music in the indoor Blackfriars Playhouse: ‘For a whole hour before the play begins, one listens to a delightful instrumental consort’; he included a bandora in his list of instruments played. The actor Augustine Phillips bequeathed his bass viol, lute, cittern and bandora to two of his apprentices, and Edward Alleyn, actor, manager, and founder of Dulwich College, left a lute, bandora, cittern and six viols to the school in 1626. As Dart commented, ‘The pandora positively smells of greasepaint’ (Two Consort Lessons, London, 1957).
The bandora was by no means confined to the theatre, however. It enjoyed a great vogue in courtly circles, particularly as a member of the mixed consort. The ‘consorte of broken musicke’ seems to have been first heard at Kenilworth in 1575, during the lavish entertainment given for Queen Elizabeth by the Earl of Leicester; it was later called on to perform at almost every entertainment devised for her famous ‘progresses’. During the visit of the queen to Elvetham in Hampshire in 1591 there was a performance by ‘an exquisite consort; wherein was the lute, pandora, base violl, citterne, treble viol and flute’, the same instruments used in the ‘consort lessons’ published by Morley and Rosseter. In such music as this, the cittern and bandora play the upper and lower halves of what amounts to a plucked ‘continuo’ part. However, the bandora part fulfills a second role. It also serves a 16' double bass function as its lowest notes and melodies often sound and double an octave below that of the bass viol. The peculiarly ‘binding’ quality of the bandora in the mixed consort is most noticeable, and was remarked on by several writers. Trichet (c1640) stated: ‘this instrument can be of great use in consorts which are made of several kinds of instruments, for it seems that they become more harmonious by the conjunction and mixture of its sweet temperament’. Later Roger North, in his Essay, of Musical Ayre, wrote: ‘those pandoras, by way of the thro-base, had a better and more sonorous effect in the mixture, than now may be ascribed to harpsichords’.
The bandora was well known outside England. Trichet’s manuscript includes a good drawing of a seven-course example. However, there seems to have been some confusion between bandora and orpharion in continental references; Mersenne (1636–7) described and illustrated a ‘pandore’, but said that it was tuned like a lute. Other references occur in the inventories of Parisian instrument makers around 1600, including (in 1617) ‘une pandorre petite’, which may have been a bandora at high pitch or simply an orpharion. 17th-century Italian references hearken back ultimately to Mersenne.
The bandora seems to have lasted longest in Germany: the Berlin court orchestra owned one in 1667 and there is another in the frontispiece to Walther’s Lexicon (1732). It is mentioned as a possible continuo instrument in the Erster Theil allerhand Oden unnd Lieder, published by H. Krusen (Sohra, 1642, 1647, 1650, 1651, and 1664). While its North European acceptance as an accompaniment instrument is clear, it is curious that no bandora solo music has been found that distinctly derives from the continent. The sole surviving continental source, the Königsberg manuscript (Ness and Ward, 1989), contains only music of English derivation. The 2–4–4–3–4 tuning survived even longer, being used for the large German Mandore and gallichone (see Colascione). It is noteworthy that the two orpharions brought to light in the early 1980s are in German collections (see Orpharion).
Although we have the measured drawings of Praetorius and the dimensions noted by Talbot as well as several drawings, no specimens of early bandoras appear to have survived. Ian Harwood (1981) has suggested that the exquisite cymbalum decachordon (for illustration see Rose, John) made by John Rose in 1580, and belonging to the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Suffolk, is an early high-pitch bandora. Though this speculation has some merit, there has been little other evidence to support this theory. It has been thought to be an orpharion, but it does not match known measurements or string disposition of that instrument either. Several collections contain instruments having bodies with three outcurving lobes that are listed as ‘bandora’, but they are examples of the later French pandore-en-luth, ‘Lutherie’ section of Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopédie (Paris, 1751–80). One or two examples are modelled after this illustration in having no soundhole, and may perhaps be later reconstructions.
The main use of the bandora on the Continent seems to have been as a continuo instrument; its solo, consort and song repertory are found in English sources. The printed bandora partbook for Morley’s Consort Lessons (1599) survives, and there are other consort parts in a number of manuscripts. Also extant is William Leighton’s Teares or Lamentacions (1614), which includes sacred music for four voices with an accompaniment for the six instruments of the mixed consort. In total, there are 69 of these consort parts currently known. There are also six songs, most predating the publications of the lute ‘ayres’.
Although Barley published some of the best known music for the instrument, the greatest share of the bandora repertory is found in manuscripts of lute music, where it is often identifiable only by its different tuning. There are 93 known solo pieces, which include nearly every form of the late 16th and early 17th centuries: fantasias, dances, and settings of popular tunes and grounds. However, the bass quality of the instrument led composers to write more pavans and fantasias, where the sustaining quality of the instrument was put to greatest use. In contrast to the consort parts, which are on the whole technically undemanding, the technique required in the solo music is considerable. With a total of nineteen compositions, Antony Holborne was the most prolific composer (cf Francis Derrick’s letter quoted above); Alfonso Ferrabosco (i) composed six pieces, John Dowland five, and John Johnson (i) three. Emanuel Adriaenssen is the only continental composer found in these sources. However, this single piece seems to be an arrangement of a solo lute composition. As the music for solo bandora appears for the most part in manuscripts containing lute music, it is not surprising that there are many concordances between the two genres and it is usually difficult to ascertain whether the bandora version or the lute version is the original. With some of the music of Holborne it seems that the bandora version was the original.
After the second decade of the 17th century we find no more tablature music for this instrument. Judging by the comments of Roger North (see above) we can assume that the bandora was used as a continuo instrument well into the 17th century. However, it was probably gradually replaced in ensembles by the Theorbo, which covered the same range.
IAN HARWOOD/LYLE NORDSTROM
MersenneHU
PraetoriusSM ii
W. Barley: A New Booke of Tabliture … to play on Sundry Instruments, as the Lute, Orpharion and Bandora (London, 1596); ed. W.W. Newcomb as Lute Music of Shakespeare’s Time (Philadelphia, 1966)
R. Fludd: Ultriusque cosmi … metaphysica, physica atque technica hisotories (Opperheim, 1617–24)
P. Trichet: Traité des instruments de musique (MS, c1640, F-Psg 1070); ed. F. Lesure (Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1957/R; Eng. trans., 1973)
D. Gill: ‘An Orpharion by John Rose’, LSJ, ii (1960), 33–40
D. Gill: ‘The Orpharion and Bandora’, GSJ, xiii (1960), 14–25
D. Gill: ‘James Talbot’s Manuscript, v: Plucked Strings – the Wire-Strung Fretted Instruments and the Guitar’, GSJ, xv (1962), 60–69
D. Gill: ‘The Sources of English Solo Bandora Music’, LSJ, iv (1962), 23–7
J. Godwin: ‘Instuments in Robert Fludd’s Utriusque cosmi … historia’’, GSJ, xxvi (1973), 2–14
J. Godwin: ‘Robert Fludd on the Lute and Pandora’, LSJ, xv (1973), 11–19
D. Gill: Wire-strung Plucked Instruments Contemporary with the Lute, Lute Society Booklets, iii (London, 1977)
D. Gill: ‘Bandora, Orpharion and Guitar’, GSJ, xxxi (1978), 144 only
I. Harwood: ‘A Case of Double Standards? Instrumental Pitch in England c1600’, EMc, ix (1981), 470–81
R.H. Wells: ‘The Orpharion: Symbol of a Humanist Ideal’, EMc, x (1982), 427–40
E. Segerman: ‘On English Lute Sizes and Tunings c1600’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.51 (1988), 37–8
P. Forrester: ‘The Morley Consort Lesson and the English Cittern’, FoMRHI Quarterly, no.56 (1989), 46–50
A.J. Ness and J.M. Ward: The Königsberg Manuscript: a Facsimile of Manuscript 285-MF-LXXIX … Central Library of the Lithuanian Academy of Science, Vilnius (Columbus, OH, 1989) [with introduction, inventory and index]
L. Nordstrom: The Bandora: its Music and Sources (Warren, MI, 1992)
