'–f'–b'–e''–a'' (i.e. a tone higher than the
mandolino). It was played with a plectrum. The bandurria is still used in Cuba
and Peru (see Bandurria).(Fr. mandoline; Ger. Mandoline; It. mandolino; Port. bandolim; Sp. bandolin, mandolina, bandola).
Any of several types of small, pear-shaped, fretted string instruments plucked with a plectrum, quill or the fingers. They descended from the medieval Gittern and the Renaissance Mandore. Two types were predominant by the mid-18th century: the older mandolino or mandola (often called the Milanese mandolin from the mid-19th century onwards) and the newly-invented four-course Neapolitan mandolin (often simply called the mandolin).
Mandolins have a history stretching back over 400 years and, although they existed on the fringes of the art music world for much of that time, they remained consistently popular for informal music-making. In the classification of Hornbostel and Sachs, mandolins are chordophones.
JAMES TYLER (1), PAUL SPARKS (2, 3)
Although in modern Italian usage the term ‘mandolino’ may mean any type of mandolin, it is used here for the earlier gut-strung instrument. Terminology is problematic from the mandolino's earliest period: ‘mandola’ is found in Italian sources beginning in the 1580s and ‘mandolino’, the diminutive of mandola, appears as early as 1634. To judge from musical and theoretical sources, both terms were used for the same instrument until well into the 18th century, with Antonio Stradivari's precisely labelled instrument patterns from the 1680s onwards among the few sources to relate terminology to instrument size; his patterns for mandolas tend to be slightly larger and imply a lower tuning than his patterns for mandolini.
In its classic 17th- and 18th-century form (see fig.1), the mandolino or mandola resembles a small lute. It has a rounded back (made of between seven and 23 ribs), a flat soundboard (usually of fir) with a decorative rosette (either carved into the same piece of wood or constructed separately and inserted into the soundhole), and a lute-style bridge (glued onto the soundboard) to which the strings are fixed. It has four, five or six courses of double (occasionally single) gut strings, which are plucked either with the fingers or with a quill, and a wide neck with eight or nine frets tied around it and sometimes several more frets (usually of wood) glued onto the soundboard. The fingerboard lies flush with the soundboard. The pegbox is usually curved or sickle-shaped, with the pegs laterally inserted. During the mid-19th century, the instrument was extensively redesigned (probably by the Monzino family of Milan). Single strings replaced the double courses, and the tension was increased; the fingerboard was slightly raised, fixed metal frets replaced tied gut, the spaces between the frets became slightly concave and the resonating chamber increased in size. This redesigned instrument has become widely known as the Milanese (or Lombardian) mandolin. The standard tuning is g–b–e'–a'–d''–g''.
Apparently there were few physical distinctions between the Italian mandola and the French Mandore in the 16th century. Both were small, specialized members of the lute family, but were not treble lutes, which had six or more courses and the same interval pattern as other 16th-century lutes. The mandore and mandola were four-course instruments and the main difference between them may have been their tuning patterns. The mandore retained its distinctive pattern of 5ths and 4ths with a variable first course (usually g'', f'' or e''), until its demise at the close of the 17th century. From the 17th century onwards the mandola/mandolino was tuned in 4ths, a pattern which it may have retained from the 16th century. These distinct tuning patterns were linked with the musical styles associated with each instrument.
The earliest definitive tuning information for the Italian instrument is found in a Florentine manuscript of c1650–70 (I-Fn Magl. xix 28), which is for a four-course mandola/mandolino tuned e'–a'–d''–g''. It cannot be discerned whether single or double courses were intended, but most surviving instruments have double courses. This was the standard tuning of the four-course instrument. For the five-course mandolino a b was added below the e', and for the six-course instrument a g was added to that.
Until the late 18th century the mandolino was plucked with the fingers of the right hand. Evidence for finger-style technique is overwhelming in the musical sources, some manuscripts even providing specific right-hand fingerings. But with the development of the metal-strung, plectrum-played Neapolitan mandolin in the mid-18th century, players of the gut-strung mandolino began to use a plectrum, perhaps in an attempt to compete with the louder sounds produced by the new instrument. The first solid evidence of plectrum playing on the mandolino is found in Giovanni Fouchetti's Méthode pour … la mandoline à 4 et à 6 cordes (Paris, 1771/R). Fouchetti's tutor is for the Neapolitan mandolin, but he applies the plectrum instructions to the six-course mandolino as well. At the end of the 18th century, plectrum playing on the mandolino became the norm; this style continued to be advocated in published tutors from the 19th and 20th centuries.
A surprisingly large number of 17th- and 18th-century mandolini survive in their original state, perhaps because their design and small dimensions rendered them unsuitable for conversion to the newer-style instrument. Many of those preserved in museums are erroneously labelled. The terms ‘pandurina’ (Praetorius's 1619 term for the mandore), ‘soprano lute’ and Mandora are often found, perhaps because many reference works (such as those by Curt Sachs from the early 20th century) incorrectly limit the definition of mandolin to the later Neapolitan model. Beneath the mistaken labelling, however, are fine instruments by such excellent makers as Antonio Stradivari, Matteo Sellas, Carlo Bergonzi, Gennaro Fabricatore, Carlo Guadagnini, Antonio Monzino and Giuseppe Presbler (see Tyler and Sparks, 1989, pp.46–7 and Morey, pp.17–79).
The earliest surviving music specifically for the mandolino/mandola is the Florentine manuscript mentioned above and another in the same hand (I-Fn Magl. xix 29). Both contain anonymous dance and popular music associated with the Medici court. There are several other anonymous manuscripts from centres such as Rome and Bologna, and they, as well as the few printed sources from the 17th century, contain similar musical material. Despite the humble nature of the surviving repertory from this period, records reveal the extensive use of the mandola/mandolino in large and small ensembles from the mid-16th century, and in chamber music, cantatas, oratorios and operas by the end of the 17th. In the 1660s mandola players such as Gasparo Cantarelli and Domenico Melani della Mandola performed under the direction of Lelio Colista at S Marcello in Rome. And in the 1670s Antonio Quintavale performed in the oratorios there. At the same church in 1695 performances of C.F. Cesarini's oratorio Ismaele employed a mandola player. Elsewhere theatrical works by G.P. Franchi included a mandola, as did Alessandro Scarlatti’s cantata A battaglia, pensieri (1699). There are many more 18th-century musical sources for the mandola/mandolino; these document its use in sonatas, partitas and concertos as well as in opera and oratorio. There are solo sonatas (usually with basso continuo accompaniment) by F.B. Conti, Carlo Arrigoni, Giuseppe Paolucci, Antonio Caldara, Giuseppe Valentini, Johann [Giovanni] Hoffmann and G.B. Sammartini, to name a few, as well as a rich selection of trios and quartets with one or two mandolini and varying combinations of string instruments by Hoffmann and Arrigoni. Concertos for solo mandolino and string ensemble include those by Cristoforo Signorelli, Hoffmann, Arrigoni, Hasse and, of course, Vivaldi (rv425), who also composed concertos for two mandolini (rv532) and for ‘molti stromenti’ (rv558), including two mandolini. A comprehensive list of repertory sources appears in Tyler and Sparks (1989, pp.54–65). The mandolino was used as an obbligato and colour instrument in operas and oratorios by F.B. Conti (Il Gioseffo, 1706; Il trionfo dell’amicizia, 1711; Galatea vendicata, 1719), Francesco Mancini (Alessandro il grande in Sidone, 1706), Vivaldi (Juditha triumphans, 1716), Fux (Diana placata, 1717), Antonio Lotti (Teofane, 1719), Francesco Gasparini (Lucio vero, 1719), Leonardo Vinci (La Contesa de’ Numi, 1729), Handel (Alexander Balus, 1748), Hasse (Achille in Sciro, 1759) and Rinaldo di Capua (La donna vendicativa, 1771).
In sharp contrast to the attention received from some of the leading composers of the 18th century, by the 1820s virtually no music was composed for the mandolino, although it continued to be popular, especially in northern Italy. Around the middle of the century it was redesigned, probably in Milan, by the firm of Monzino. The new instrument was termed ‘mandolino lombardo’ or ‘mandolino milanese’. The body was enlarged, the fingerboard raised and extended over the soundboard and the instrument provided with about 20 inlaid metal or bone frets, rather like contemporary guitars. A ‘scratch plate’ was set into the soundboard below the soundhole, since plectrum technique was then standard. Occasionally the instrument was given a guitar-like peghead with machine pegs, although viola-like pegs in a curved pegbox remained the norm. Most instruments had six single gut strings (the lower three overspun), although a few had double strings. The tuning remained the same as that of the 17th-century mandolino/mandola. There are many surviving examples of the new-style mandolino, but most are undated and little research has been done.
Journal and newspaper reviews from the second half of the 19th century indicate that the concert repertory of players of the mandolino milanese resembled that of contemporary guitarists: they played light salon music and arrangements of popular opera arias. By the 1880s, due in part to touring performers such as the outstanding mandolino player Giovanni Vailati (c1813–90), both the Neapolitan mandolin and, to a lesser extent, the mandolino milanese, were becoming increasingly popular in middle- and upper-class society. In Florence a mandolin ensemble was formed in 1881 under the patronage of Queen Margherita; this ensemble featured one of the great virtuosos of the mandolino milanese Luigi Bianchi (d c1909). Bianchi published a tutor for the instrument, and others were published by Giuseppe Branzoli, Ferdinando Francia, U. Giachi, Enrico Marucelli, G.B. Marzuttini, G.B. Pirani, O. Rosati and Agostino Pisani, most of whom were also excellent performers. The six-string mandolino milanese remained in common use until the end of World War I, when it fell into obscurity everywhere except northern Italy, having been superseded by the Neapolitan instrument. In the late 20th century it was still played by a handful of concert artists, including the Italian Ugo Orlandi (b1958) and the Englishman Hugo d’Alton (1913–94), both of whom performed and recorded on both instruments.
In the second half of the 20th century there was a revival of interest in the Baroque finger-plucked mandolino, with its characteristic sound and its fine repertory; the instrument has been played in concert and recorded performances by such players as Robin Jeffrey, Linda Sayce and James Tyler.
The 18th-century Neapolitan mandolin has a pear-shaped outline like the mandolino, but a much deeper, round-backed body, made up of between 11 and 35 sycamore or rosewood ribs. A distinctive new design feature is its bent, or ‘canted’, soundboard. Unlike the mandolino, it generally has an open soundhole and its bridge is a thin movable bar, over which run four double courses of strings, the lower three usually of brass, the upper of gut. The strings were invariably plucked with a quill (made from the stem of an ostrich or hen feather and held between the thumb and forefinger of the right hand). Wooden tuning pegs are inserted from the rear into a flat, guitar-like pegboard, and the strings are attached at the base of the instrument. The fingerboard, which lies flush with the soundboard, has ten metal frets, and several wooden frets are glued to the soundboard. In about 1835 the instrument was redesigned by Pasquale Vinaccia of Naples, who deepened the bowl for greater resonance, strengthened the body, raised and extended the fingerboard (fitting it with 17 frets), added high-tension steel strings (plucked with a tortoiseshell plectrum instead of a less robust quill) and replaced the tuning pegs with machine heads. This has remained the standard form of the mandolin, although two variants are also highly regarded: the mandolin with carved back and top, a violin-like design with a flat back (pioneered in the USA in the early 20th century by Orville H. Gibson); and the Roman mandolin, which has a curved, narrow fingerboard with 29 frets, and a scrolled head with tuning barrels (a design perfected by Luigi Embergher; see fig.4 below). These instruments all share the tuning g–d'–a'–e''.
The four-course instrument now called simply ‘mandolin’ or ‘mandoline’ was developed in Naples during the early 1740s, probably by the Vinaccia family (fig.3a). Because it was tuned in 5ths like a violin, the instrument was readily accessible to non-specialist musicians, and it soon became popular throughout Europe, its rise fuelled by the numerous Italian players (Signor Leoné [Leoni] and G.B. Gervasio being the most influential) who travelled widely between 1750 and 1810, teaching and giving concerts. In Paris the mandolin was frequently heard at the Concert Spirituel, and became fashionable among the aristocracy (Leoné, for example, was maître de mandoline to the Duc de Chartres). About 85 volumes of original mandolin music were published there during this period, including tutors by Gervasio (1767), Pietro Denis (1768–73), Leoné (1768), Giovanni Fouchetti (1771), and Michel Corrette (1772), all of which provide detailed technical information.
The mandolin was usually played in a seated position (Fouchetti recommended ‘supporting the body of the mandolin against the stomach, a little to the right with its neck raised’), but when singers used it to accompany themselves, they often adopted a standing position, in which ‘it is necessary to attach a little ribbon … to a button which is behind the underside of the neck’ to support the instrument (Corrette). Fouchetti recommended gut strings (‘the chanterelles of the pardessus de viole’) for the e'' course, brass harpsichord strings for the middle courses (plain brass for each a' string, and a pair plaited together for each d' string) and a pair of violin g strings (metal wound onto gut) for the lowest course. Alternatively, the lowest course might be strung in octaves (g and g'), Corrette observing that ‘this tuning is the most common’. A distinctive tremolo technique (rapid down and up strokes on single notes, producing a quasi-sustained melody) was commonly used by Italian street musicians, but this was employed sparingly by 18th-century classical mandolinists; Denis noted that it served primarily ‘to fill the value of the long notes which the composer demands … the tremolo must always have an unequal number of strokes, that is three, five, seven or more, according to the length of the note’.
As the instrument's popularity increased, the mandolin serenade became a regular feature in operas. Grétry's Les fausses apparances (1778), Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (1782) and Salieri’s Axur (1788) all include such arias, although the most celebrated example is undoubtedly ‘Deh, vieni alla finestra’ in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (1787). Well over 1000 mandolin duets, sonatas, trios and quartets survive from this period, as well as about 30 concertos, Hummel’s Concerto in G major (composed in 1799 for the Italian virtuoso Bartholomeo Bortolazzi) being the most substantial. The Revolution caused many foreigners to flee from France and brought the mandolin’s popularity there to an end, but it continued to be widely played in Prague (Beethoven wrote four pieces with keyboard accompaniment there in 1796) and in Vienna, where Bortolazzi lived during the early 19th century. Large collections of mandolin music from this period exist in manuscript in France (F-Pc, F-Pn), Sweden (S-Uu), Austria (A-Wgm) and Italy (I-Gl, I-Ls, I-Mc, I-MT venturi).
During the first half of the 19th century, the mandolin disappeared almost completely from the concert halls and opera houses of Europe. Pietro Vimercati (1779–1850) was the only internationally acclaimed soloist during this period, and Berlioz noted sadly in 1843 that, even at the Paris Opéra, a pizzicato violin was used for the serenade in Don Giovanni, the mandolin having been reduced to a mere stage prop. However, the instrument was still widely played in the south of Italy, above all in Naples, where street musicians habitually used mandolins (generally played tremolo-style) and guitars to accompany their songs. The bright piercing sound of steel strings, used from 1835 onwards, on the redesigned mandolin, suited tremolo-style playing particularly well. After the Reunification of Italy, this quintessentially Italian instrument became fashionable among the middle and upper classes as Queen Margherita’s fondness for it helped to rekindle enthusiasm. By the 1880s most Italian towns possessed at least one mandolin orchestra, usually consisting of skilled amateur players led by a professional. Initially, their concerts consisted mostly of operatic transcriptions, waltzes and romances, generally played tremolo-style, but a repertory of original music began to develop in the late 1880s.
In 1892, the first national mandolin competition was held in Genoa. Its success inspired many Italian players to embark on international careers; among the most celebrated were the Roman Silvio Ranieri (1882–1956; see fig.4) who settled in Brussels and the Neapolitan Laurent Fantauzzi (1870–1941) who became an influential teacher and player in Marseille. In the period preceding World War I, the mandolin became one of the most widely played instruments in northern Europe and the USA: Britain, France and Germany, for example, each had hundreds of amateur mandolin orchestras, of widely varying artistic standards. Two mandolinists were pre-eminent in Italy: Carlo Munier (1859–1911) of Florence, whose quartets, concertos and studies were fundamental in raising the instrument’s technical and artistic standards; and Raffaele Calace (1863–1934) of Naples, whose mature orchestral and solo works became the cornerstone of the modern repertory. The Calace family were also fine makers of concert mandolins, their instruments being equalled in quality only by those of the Vinaccia family, the Roman luthier Luigi Embergher (1856–1943) and Orville H. Gibson (1856–1918) in the USA.
The performances of these mandolinists (and hundreds of their contemporaries) encouraged composers to use the instrument in orchestral, operatic and chamber works. Verdi’s use of a group of mandolins in Otello (1887) was followed by Spinelli (A basso porto, 1894) and Massenet (Chérubin, 1905), while Mahler’s use of the instrument in his Seventh (1904–5) and Eighth (1906–7) symphonies and in Das Lied von der Erde (1907–9) was followed by its inclusion in works by Schoenberg, Webern, Hindemith, Krenek and Weill. Schoenberg used the instrument several times, most notably in the Serenade op.24 (1920–23) and the Variations for Orchestra op.31 (1926–8). These composers used the mandolin primarily in the Italian manner, with melodic passages generally played tremolo-style.
As the international appeal of Italian mandolin music began to decline during the 1920s and 30s, German mandolinist-composers developed a distinct school, composing in a neo-Baroque style that made little or no use of tremolo. The instrument also became popular in Japan, with players initially performing Italian music but soon blending Western and Oriental styles to produce some intriguingly unusual compositions. Morishige Takei (1890–1949) was a pioneer in this respect. By the 1940s mandolinists such as Mario De Pietro (1896–1945), Maria Scivittaro (1891–1981), Hugo d’Alton (1913–94), and Konrad Wölki (1904–83) were enjoying successful careers as performers, teachers or composers. The mandolin was also being widely employed as a folk instrument, in such diverse styles as Bluegrass in the USA, notably by Bill Monroe (1911–96), and choro music in Brazil, especially by Jacob do Bandolim (1918–69). Later it began to be used in the Irish folk music revival and jazz. It has continued to be used in chamber and orchestral music, notably in works by Karl Hartmann (Sixth Symphony, 1951–3), Stravinsky (Agon, 1957 and the revised Le Rossignol, 1962), Gerhard (Concert for Eight, 1962), Boulez (Pli selon pli, 1957–62 and Eclat, 1965), Bernd Zimmermann (Cello Concerto, 1965–6), Ligeti (Le Grand Macabre, 1978) and dozens of works by Henze. The last composition by Krenek was a suite for mandolin and guitar, op.242 (1989).
The popularity of the mandolin has generally been underestimated by scholars because most performances have taken place outside the musical mainstream. But the Japan Mandolin Union had 10,367 members in 1995, and in 1996 there were well over 500 mandolin orchestras in Germany. At the end of the 20th century the large number of contemporary works being written for the instrument as well as the rediscovery of its early repertory was encouraging musicians once again to regard the various forms of mandolin as serious and legitimate musical instruments.
Bandola. Flat-backed variant of the six-course mandolino, widely played in Colombia (see Bandola).
Bandolim. Flat-backed variant of the Neapolitan mandolin, widely played in Brazil and Portugal.
Bandurria. In 16th-century Spain, a
small gittern-like instrument. By the end of the 18th century the bandurria had
a flat back and five double courses tuned c'–f'–b'–e''–a'' (i.e. a tone higher than the
mandolino). It was played with a plectrum. The bandurria is still used in Cuba
and Peru (see Bandurria).
Cremonese mandolin [Brescian mandolin]. An instrument with four single gut strings, a fixed bridge and Neapolitan tuning (g–d'–a'–e''). It was popularized by Bortolazzi in Vienna around 1800.
Flat-backed mandolin. A general term encompassing various instruments (such as the bandola and bandolin), encountered primarily in North and South America, where (unlike Europe and Japan) the round-back Neapolitan mandolin is not the standard form. Most important are the A-series and F-series Gibson mandolins, developed in New York by Orville H. Gibson (1856–1918), and perfected by Lloyd Loar (1886–1943) at the Gibson factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan. These instruments have adapted the priniciples of violin manufacture to the mandolin (notably in the use of f-holes, a bass bar, flat carved top and back plates, and an overall body shape loosely approximating to that of a violin), and they produce a guitar-like tone, with fewer harmonics than the traditional Italian design. This instrument (and its many imitations) has become the preferred form of mandolin in the USA, especially among non-classical players.
Genoese mandolin. Six-course mandolin, tuned e–a–d'–g'–b'–e'' (an octave higher than a modern guitar). It was played during the 18th century, and Paganini composed at least three pieces for it.
Liuto [liuto moderno]. Large Neapolitan mandolin with five pairs of strings (tuned C–G–d–a–e'), 20 frets and a rich deep, powerful tone. Its design was perfected by Raffaele Calace.
Mando-bass. Very large bass mandolin with three or four strings tuned E'–A'–D–(G), usually held upright and supported on a spike. It is used occasionally in mandolin orchestras.
Mandoliola [tenor mandola]. Instrument slightly larger than a Neapolitan mandolin, tuned like a viola (c–g–d'–a').
Mandoloncello [mandocello]. A mandolin tuned like a cello, designed to play in mandolin quartets and orchestras.
Mandolone. (i) Eight-course mandolin, tuned F–G–A–d–g–b–e'–a'. It was apparently developed by Gaspar Ferrari in Rome in the mid-18th century. (ii) Four-string bass mandolin (tuned A'–D–G–c), developed in the late 19th century by the Vinaccia family.
Octave mandola. Instrument slightly larger than a Neapolitan mandolin, and tuned an octave lower. It is often simply called a ‘mandola’.
Quartini. Small Neapolitan mandolin, tuned a 4th higher than the standard instrument. It was intended for use in mandolin orchestras.
Terzini. Small Neapolitan mandolin, tuned a minor 3rd higher. It was intended for use in mandolin orchestras.
Tuscan mandolin [Florentine mandolin]. Instrument constructed like a Milanese mandolin, but with only four gut (and wound silk) strings, tuned like a Neapolitan mandolin.
Vandola. 18th-century Spanish word, derived from ‘mandola’, used for an instrument with six double courses tuned d–g–c'–e'–a'–d'' and played finger-style.
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