BANDURRIA

also called Bandola, short-necked, pear-shaped, flat-backed stringed musical instrument of the lute family, native to Spain, where it is often used in outdoor music. Mentioned in the 14th century as the mandurria (the name it still bears in the Balearic Islands), it was originally both fretted and unfretted, with three to five strings. The modern bandurria has six paired courses of gut and metal-spun silk strings that are tuned gcfbea (beginning with the G below middle C) and hitched to a guitar-like (tension) bridge. There are 12 fixed metal frets on the fingerboard, and the instrument is played with a short, hard plectrum. The regular tuning in fourths throughout gives great facility and uniformity of fingering in chromatic passages.