Orpharion Music in the Sixteenth Century 

• Works for the Orpharion

• Composers for the Orpharion

The orpharion was a smaller version of the wire-strung bandora, tuned similar to a lute, invented around the last decade of the sixteenth century. Unlike most other string instruments, the orpharion had slanted bridges and frets, so that the string length increased progressively from treble to bass.

French Orpharion Tablature

The sole example of sixteenth-century orpharion music (Barley 1596) is in French tablature, similar to tablature for the seven-course lute.

g'= _________________________________
d = _________________________________
a = ____________b____________________
F = _________________________________
C = _________________________________
G = ___________________c_____________
C'=                          d