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Mandolins: A Brief History
The history of the mandolin
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Its origin was probably the
'oud', which can still seen in the near east
today, which after it's spread at the time of the
Moorish invasions of Europe, evolved into various forms
of lute during the middle ages. By the mid-sixteenth
century, the small, shallow-bowled, high-pitched members
of the lute family, originally
'gitterns' in England, and
'quinterns' in Germany, came to be known as
'mandora' or 'mandola', and
'mandores' in France. The smallest version was called the 'mandolina'
in Italy.
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Arabic Oud
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Oud |
Gittern, J. Bisgood
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Gittern |
Mandore |
Modern arabic buzuk
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Most had 3 or four courses of gut
strings, running over 7 to 9 frets on a flat fingerboard,
to a reclining carved peghead. The scale length was about
half that of the lute, and later strings were added in
double courses. From about 1650, the mandores with
5 or 6 courses of double strings began to die out, but the
soprano version became known as the mandolino continued to
develop, and were tuned
(gg) (bb) e'e' a'a' d"d"
g"g". This is the instrument of Vivaldi's mandolin concerto.
Milanese or baroque mandolin gradually
developed with 6 of gut strings, tuned g b e' a' d"
g". This in turn became the
Lombardic mandolin (also called mandore) with 6 gut
strings, still tuned g b e' a' d" g", from the
beginning of the 19th century. It had a rounder body,
raised fingerboard and often an oval sound hole, with no
rosette.
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Mandolino/pandurine
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Mandolino (repro- L. Faria, Brazil)
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Mandolino
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Milanese mandolino
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Lombardic mandolin
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Lombardic mandolin/mandore
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At the same time in France, a small
instrument called a mandore developed, with 6
strings tuned E A d g b e'. The
Genoses mandolin, with 12 strings and rear pegs
also made an appearance in the 18th century, but did not
last long. Another short-lived instrument was the
Cremona mandolin with 4 strings tuned g d' a'
e" .
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French mandore
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Genoevse mandolino (repro by Pandini
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Genovese mandolino
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Genovese repro
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Cremona/Brescian mandolin
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Cremonese by Cecconi
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Finally in Naples, from all these
strands, and the Turkish tanburs and
buzoks, the Neapolitan mandolin was developed in
the mid 18th century. The Neapolitan mandolin,
which became so popular during the nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries. It seems to have been made from about
1760 onwards, with 8 frets, and a fingerboard flush with
the belly. The mandolin had 4 double courses of
metal strings, tuned in the violin tuning gg' d'd' a'a'
e''e''. In the beginning, as it was difficult to get
proper metal strings, the highest string was often made of
gut. Important features were the cant in the top, to
resist increased pressure from metal strings, and a
floating bridge.
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Early mandolins/mandolinos from 1750s to 1850s
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Nickel frets and geared metal machine heads
improved the instrument from about 1850, replacing the
rear pegs with initially enclosed, but later open tuners
to the side. There was a fashion for oval sound holes and
butterfly tortoise shell scratch-plates, sometimes backed
with gold leaf, though many other scratch plate designs
were current. It was played with a plectrum.
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Salsedo 1899
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Calace 1897
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U. Ceccherini
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E. DE CRISTOFARO
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G. Lingetti 189?
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Maratea 1897
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With the development of the 'modern'
Neapolitan mandolin, it is important to remember, that all
the other styles did not immediately cease to be made.
Many of these different styles of mandolin existed side by
side; the popularity of one declining gradually as the
popularity of another rose gradually. Thus Lombardy and
Milanese mandolins were still made right up to the end of
the 19th century, as illustrated below.
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Hybrid by S.Casini Firenze 19C
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Lombardo by Cecconi
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Milanese by Carlo Albertini 1870
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Milanese by Carisch & Janichen 19C
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Milanese by Lavezzari 19C
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Lombardo-esque by P. Gavelli
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In Spain, the early lutes seem
to have evolved into the 'bandurria', a mandolin
like instrument with 6 courses of strings, and the
Portuguese 'guittara', larger than the mandolins,
but both with the characteristic
'floating bridge'. It may have been the latter
that led to the development of the flat back mandolin,
from the original 12 stringed instrument. In Germany in
contrast, the medieval lute seems to have evolved into the
cittern, which remained little changed up to the 20C
waldzither (or forest cittern) with characteristic
double courses and floating bridge.
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Jose Ramirez bandurria
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Contreras bandurria
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Portuguese guittaras
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waldzither Hamburg type
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Waldzither thuringer type
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At the end of the nineteenth century,
the mandolin moved to America with Italian immigrants, and
became hugely popular. In 1900, a company called
Lyon & Healy boasted 'At any time you can find
in our factory upwards of 10,000 mandolins in various
stages of construction'. They continued to be made in
Italy by many famous violin-making families, and
throughout the rest of Europe also. Almost all the
mandolins made before 1900 were the traditional bowl-back
design.
At the turn of the century, an
American, Orville Gibson, filed a patent that
included a carved-top and flat back. This quickly became
the industry standard in the States. The Gibson company
made two styles of mandolins, each having the violin style
of carved-tops and backs. The A-series mandolins had
symmetrical bodies (also referred to as teardrops), and
the F-series had a scroll on the bass side and two-points
on the treble side. Each of these models had either a
round or oval sound hole until the 1920s. The mandolinists
of the era who were playing ragtime and dance tunes
extolled the virtues of the Gibson mandolin, which was
bigger and more powerful, but for the most part the
classical mandolinists disliked it, because the long
fingerboard made it impossible to play the more intricate,
classical pieces. During twenties America, the banjo
became more popular, with the explosion of jazz, and the
popularity of the mandolin declined.
Lloyd Loar, a mandolin
virtuoso and an expert on the science of acoustics, joined
the Gibson Company in 1919. It is said that he was
the mind behind the F-5 mandolin and signed about 250 of
them. The top of a Style 5 instrument was braced with two
tone bars, versus one on the violin. The fingerboard
raised off the top, as in violin design, allowed the top
to vibrate more freely. The neck on the F-5 was
significantly longer, with three more frets clear of the
body than earlier Gibson models. The result was an
instrument with an extremely rich and powerful tone that
Gibson were never consistently able to reproduce after
Loar left the company in December 1924. These instruments
were, and are now, still highly prized, but the height of
mandolin popularity had passed.
It was to see a resurgence in America
in the 40s when the mandolin was beginning to be used in a
new form of country music called 'bluegrass'. The man who
coined the term, William "Bill" Monroe, played
his mandolin, a Loar F-5, very quickly, with brilliantly
fast solo passages and a blues influence.
Bluegrass and country music in America
continue to ensure a place for the mandolin, whilst new
mandolin orchestras are being formed in the style of the
early twentieth century. In Europe, the folk and Celtic
revivals have provided the same boost for the
mandolin's popularity, and it continues to be made all
over the world, in all of its various forms.
Many thanks to John Troughton, Don Lashomb,
Daniel Coolik and Mandolin Cafe, from whose articles this
brief history has been cobbled together.
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