The torban or teorban is an Eastern European musical instrument that combined features of the Baroque lute with those of the psaltery. It was invented ca. 1700, probably influenced by the central European theorbo which Cossack mercenaries would have encountered in the Thirty Years War, although there is a possibility that a paulite monk Tuliglowski was its inventor. The Torban was used until ca. 1920. It was manufactured and used mainly in Ukraine, but also in Poland and Russia. There are about two dozen torbans in museums around the world. The surviving printed musical literature for torban is extremely limited, notwithstanding widespread use of the instrument in Eastern Europe. It was an integral part of urban oral culture in Ukraine. The term "torban" was also eventually commonly applied in Western Ukraine to any instrument of a Baroque Lute type. Image File history File links Tor-bor2. ... A musical instrument is a device constructed or modified with the purpose of making music. ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint In the arts, Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the artistic style that dominated it. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ... A psaltery is a stringed musical instrument of the harp or the zither family. ... A theorbo is a type of long-necked lute developed during the late-sixteenth century, inspired by the spirited discussions of the Florentine Camerata and new musical works such as Giulio Caccinis Le Nuove Musiche. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with History of the Cossacks. ... The victory of Gustavus Adolphus at the Battle of Breitenfeld (1631) The Thirty Years War was a conflict fought between the years 1618 and 1648, principally in the central European territory of the Holy Roman Empire, but also involving most of the major continental powers. ...

The gut-strung, expensive to manufacture, and technically-difficult fretted torban was considered an instrument of Ukrainian gentry, although most of its practitioners were Jews and Ukrainians of low birth, with a few aristocratic exceptions (Padura, Rzevucki). The kobza (also known as bandura) was the instrument of the common folk. It differed from the torban by the absence of the bass strings, and was closely related to central European Mandora and Pandora (see Lute). The early kobza-bandura (lute-family) is not to be confused with the unfretted, metal-strung starosvitska bandura (known after 1800) and its descendant the concert bandura, instruments from the family of harps, psalteries and zithers. Banduras were often manufactured (in Lviv) to imitate the look of torbans, leading to some misidentification. Kobza (кобза) is a traditional Ukrainian stringed musical instrument, similar to a lute. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with kobza. ... The cittern is a stringed instrument dating from the Renaissance, having evolved considerably since that time. ... The lute is a plucked string instrument with a fretted neck and a deep round back. ... Kobza (кобза) is a traditional Ukrainian stringed musical instrument, similar to a lute. ...

External links

• Torban, exhaustive article on torban history, by Roman Turovsky