Deriashnyj bandura

Peter and his wife Nila. Peter is playing a Deriashnyj bandura while Nila holds a Lvivianka.

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Hall in Newcastle c.1969. Left: Peter with a bandura built by Fedir with a curved obechayka. Center: Lida with the first prototype of a bandura with a straight obechayka, built about 1968-69. Right: Fedir with a third bandura he made. All of these banduras were built using Australian native timbers.

The Deriashnyj bandura design refers to the Kharkiv-style bandura developed by Fedir Deriashnyj and his son Peter. The most prominent feature of these banduras is the straight обечайка. In Peter's words:

I played on the curved obichayka of the bandura I'm playing in this photo for about 4-5 years and when I had to make octave jumps with the left hand, I would miss the string by fractions because towards the end of the curved obichayka the strings are further apart. On the straight obichayka the strings are the same distance apart over its entire length. Accuracy improved immediately when I changed banduras.^[1]

Peter's Designs

From a February 2022 email from Peter:

Here are some of my design drawings. I say design since I started with no idea of what to do other than knowing I have to finish with a BANDURA. These drawings are for a child's bandura - 3/4 the size of a full adult's bandura. For someone to copy this design I have to make a drawing with some dimensions on it - this is on the agenda.

Peter's Construction Photos

The bandura frame is built up in small sections of 20-25mm thick pieces to finally the stage where you can glue a whole piece on the back to finish it off.^[2]